Gorgeous beads, Karin! Now I want to expand my glass collection!
Thanks for sharing the tips and the photo!

Hi Dawn. I posted this somewhere else, but I know I am repeating it in this thread. I was revealing my horrible experience with Raku. I heated and heated my bead till I saw the bright white flame and some smoke on top of that. But then, the mandrel melted about 1/4" from the bead and the whole thing came down onto my desk top. Luckily it missed my lap. What a fiasco!! I was using Effetre black with dense black/Raku twisty design. My mandrel was 1/8". So I know I overheated it. It's going to take me a while before I learn the correct color of the flame. Also when you heat it that hot , you lose the shape of the bead and it's not easy to reestablish the nice ends. So I think the lesson for me is to back off a lot with heat. The color of the fallen bead looked just uggggg.... Back to square one for me!! Sachiko

Oh my goodness! I've never heard of melting a mandrel! That was one hot little bead! I'm so glad you didn't get hurt.

Maybe I should rephrase what to look for. When you start heating your bead to melt in the frit or stringer, first you will see the bead glow orange, continue heating just a few seconds longer and the orange glow of the bead starts to turn a bright white orange. You can also see the raku frit or stringer start to spread out on the surface. At that point, take it out of the flame and let it cool just a tad and then gently marver it to chill the surface.

Don't give up on the raku though. Once you see those gorgeous colors, you'll be hooked!

Hi Dawn,

Thanks for posting all the great advice and continued support on this thread!
Your shells on your site are really cool too! I have just recently had some success with raku frit. Keep up the creative vibes...
Here is a Fish just hangin' at our pool....

Thanks Mike!
That is one very cool fish!

Wow Dawn, what a great thread! Thanks so much for all the info. I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised at how giving and helpful lampworkers are compared to a lot of people who work with polymer clay. More often than not, if you ask one of them to tell you a technique, not only will they not do it but some of them have been known to threaten a lawsuit if you do your own version of it! I haven't seen anything like that here. It's so refreshing. I'm looking forward to finding my own style, once I learn to make a decent looking bead at all!!!

Cheryl

Great tips, Dawn! I do about the same thing as you to coax out the colors, however, I do an extra step.

For my Sparkling Raku beads, I use a full rod of raku to make a very small barrel. I then heat the barrell until it's almost white-hot and then gently marver it back into a barrel shape (like you said...the raku is black at this point, which is good). Then, I super heat one side of the barrel until it's white-hot and quickly marver it on a brass tool that's been soaking in water. I repeat the same step for the other side of the barrel, at which point, I start to see some color peeking out of the raku. I then flash the barrel in the flame (which coaxes out some more color) before encasing in clear. Heating the raku barrel on one side and then the other brings out some awesome, colorful striations in the glass that look amazing under the clear.

Here are some pics:

http://www.studiosolana.com/images/c...kling_raku.jpg

http://www.studiosolana.com/images/g...aku_barrel.jpg

http://www.studiosolana.com/images/g...ku_squeeze.jpg

Oh, before I forget....great beads, Dawn! I especially LOVE your raku dot tabs!!!

Karlar

Dear Dawn. I have to report this to you to make you very happy. I stopped by my basement studio today to pick up something. While there I decided to empty my kiln from yesterday. I actually put all the junky looking Raku beads in the kiln yesterday, including the one that fell off the mandrel. I almost threw them into the water jar, but for some unknown reason I popped them into the kiln. Lo behold, they all turned out gorgeous! So many different beautiful colors!! I could not believe it. They really were scummy looking yesterday. So thank you for your information and guys, don't give up!! Sachiko

Thanks Cheryl! I firmly believe that what goes around, comes around. I would be nowhere without tutorials from other generous artists, and I'm so glad when I have a chance to give something back!

Thanks Karla! I just adore those beads! The scrollwork really does make them sparkle! I've made a few like that, that went into a set of mixed beads, but to see a whole set of them together.....WOW!

Would you mind if I asked what clear you use to encase your solid raku with? I tried a few beads encased in Lauscha and ran into compatibility problems.

That is just AWESOME news!!! =D> That's why I mentioned in an earlier post, that it was so hard for me to put what looked like almost black beads into the kiln. I just had to learn to trust that they wouldn't look like that when they came out!

Can you still get those fabulous colors out of Raku if you batch anneal? All I've got is the khaki/tan/browny biege....and I thought that was neat....now I see it wasn't even the beginning of what can REALLY happen....
This thread has been wonderful, btw.

Karla,

Those may be my most favoritest beads in the whole wide world! I must touch them! I could make to St. Loius in about a day. So don't be suprised when some crazed lampworker shows up at your doorstep asking to touch your beads. I'm not "dirty", I just have a thing for glass. I think you might understand. Again, those are unbelievable!!!!!

Hi Dawn! I encase my solid Raku with Kugler clear. I love that stuff!

Awww....thank you for the wonderful compliment! You can come touch my beads whenever you'd like! ;) In fact, if you're not doing anything next weekend, you should come to our bead retreat in the middle of Missouri! :) There's a thread about it in the Backyard.

Thanks Karla! I'll have to get some!
After those beads cracked, I resorted to just rolling my base bead a few times in raku powder and encasing with the Lauscha. That worked well since it was just a thin layer of raku, and not the whole base of the bead. And it produced *almost* the same effect as the solid raku encased beads.

Hi Julie,
Yes, I think you can get the same effects even when you batch anneal. The reason I say this is because I often make a little "test" bead before I do a whole set. Because I want to see how it looks right away, I just stick it in my bucket full of vermiculite that holds my mandrels so it will cool down quickly. All the colors are there! Of course, I always throw away any beads I haven't annealed, and most of them crack anyway, but this way I can see the color results before I make a whole set.

I don't think the colors would change when you batch anneal them later. I think it would take a lot more heat than what's needed for batch annealing to shift the colors again.

Thank you so much for the info....and also the tip on pulling stringer from frit...one of the other girls asked. I too wondered how that was done, now I know!

..

I'm waiting for my first order of raku to arrive, so I should have asked this question BEFORE I ordered it....

Does Raku work with Moretti/Lauscha/Vetrafond, etal? #-o I have no clue.

I've used Raku on Bullseye, Lauscha, Moretti,etc all without any problems. In small amounts its pretty well compatible with anything.
Good luck
Carol

Okay I was told by someone and I cant remember who - that you cannot encase Raku successfully without some crackage......yet I see alot of encased raku beads. Sir Watsons are TDF by the way !!!

Is there a clear that works better for encasing or is the cracking thing a farse. ????

Yes, all the beads I posted pictures of at the very beginning of this thread were Moretti or Vetrofond encased in Lauscha clear. They were all decorated with raku frit or stringer. But if you want to encase a bead made of pure raku, you should use a clear with a compatible coe. As Karla mentioned, she uses Kugler Clear.

I only seem to be getting blue out of my raku. Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong?

thanks!
wizzie

Hi Wizzie,
Do you have a picture of your beads that you can post?
Getting blue from your raku is a good thing! But if you want a wider range of colors to show up, maybe you need to vary your techniques. It all depends on what you're looking for. Are you using frit or stringer? Are you encasing with clear? Maybe once you get the "blue" you could spot heat and chill parts of the bead to coax out additional colors. I could probably give you a much better answer if I could see your beads. :grin:

Okay, I'm still not getting it. Arrgh! I will try again tomorrow. I'm bumping this thread up so I can find it easy before I torch tomorrow. :waving:

.

Zip up top to thread tools and you can subscribe to the thread and then you get an email everytime someone posts...very cool!

I am notting getting it right either.....just poop and maybe a fraction of blue coming through. I am ready to throw in the towel.
Help please.
Carmen

Hi Adeline & Carmen,

Don't give up on the raku just yet! Do either of you have pictures you can post. It will answer a lot of questions I would have to ask you in order to give you some advise on what to do to get better colors.
Are you using frit? What size? Are you using stringer? Are you encasing in clear?

Also, what kind of torch are you on? Because I understand that you may not be able to get the full range of colors if you're on a HotHead.

Show me some pictures and give me some info. I'd love to help if I can!

I managed to get some colours yesterday. I used stringer pulled from a rod and heated and touched with a cold tool, so I am very excited. I am still having trouble with the frit. When I press I seem to get a brown mark on the bead and can't get rid of it no matter what I do.
Thanks for all your help.
Carmen

Sorry I have to try again to see who can answer this. I see so many encased raku beads but have been told they will crack over time. Kinda like how people say you cannot encase coral and have the bead succesfully LAST. It will eventually crack - even annealled.

So I was just wondering if this is true...or does it have more to do with the clear glass you use for encasing. Kuglar, vetro, lauscha etc....

Dawn - I just went back to the begining of this thread - forgot how absolutely beautiful you beads are. Man oh man are they pretty, and so perfect. Wowzers !!