Lynda thank you for sharing yourr albums - your work is fantastic!

Thanks for taking the time to put together the album Lynda! You are the master!
Thanks for posting so much advice everyone. This is turning into a wonderful thread. I hope it helps alot of other new BE users as much as it is helping me.

And old BE users like me! (Not that I'm old or anything).

:)

Also..... think of using sheet BE! It's the best when using their 'whispy' for cool effects. We pay lots and lots of money for the "streaky freaky" rods, when it's basically the same thing, but in sheet. Sure, in sheet you will get more areas of variance, but that's the whole charm of it! One of my favorite is the clear amber with opal French vanilla. Great reactions to copper and silver foils!

Solid color sheet will also vary a shade or so from its same color name in rod form! Another reason to seeking sheet. (you can NEVER have enough colors or shades to choose from!!)

And for a third bonus to choosing sheet, is that the PRICE is awesome! It's still by weight, but you can get really great prices in sheet form:p.

very true, Ofilia!

I have some sheet BE, yet never cut it. I'll stick with the ready for action glass.

Thankyou for the great information Lynda. I have also printed it off. :)

I got some sheet glass a while back (mmm MArigold) but I totally STINK at cutting it.

They've got some new sheet colors I want badly (the new plum color, for instance), and true blue, but I'm so bad at getting the sheet into a usable form that I can't take the plunge.

I wish they would do rods of ALL of their sheet glass when they run new colors.

Hmmmm...dig the grandbaby so I don't want to let her go. Sons are too old to sell. Ahha! The DH! Anyone want to rent a guy who cooks? My BE bill is growing by the post!

Seriously, the sheet glass is a good idea. When I first started to make beads, I had some 96 sheets and I would use that on occasion. I had a HH so it was time consuming so I didn't do it often, but it was fun.

Now I really do need to contain my list. It is a bit out of control. I have to keep reminding myself that I can buy more. This is not a one time buy option.

Thanks for the tip Ofilia! I use BE sheet glass and actually have lots of the one you mentioned above. Yet I did not know one could get great reactions using it with cooper and silver foils. Now I can not wait to try it out

Be careful to keep you 96 COE well away from any 90 COE sheet you may acquire!

You can't keep me away from sheet! The colors........OMG.... Even if you buy the different thicknesses... using the thin sheet (that will double your weight cost, though:sad:) can be like a shard in application and very fun:razz:!

It does not matter if the cut is straight or not. Sometimes I have good cutting days and others.....:rolleyes::mad:. It still MELTS THE SAME:grin:!
When I cut the whispy sheet, I will sometimes deliberately cut WITH the 'grain', or AGAINST the 'grain'... all for different effect of color application.

Hey, Katherine, where are you in Chicago? I'm in Elmhurst!

Ofilia I am in Franklin Park which is very close to Elmhurst. I think we meet at Ed Hoy's garage sale last March. I think you helped me pick out some of the great rods they had for sale.

Hi. You may want to purchase a tube of assorted stringers (1mm or 2mm). It's a great way to try out some of the colors.

Linda

I played with Aurora and Dk. Aurora today and got dark blue, and nothing like these beautiful beads. Please bear with me while I ask some dumb questions.

1. Do you encase the Aurora before you strike the bead or after?
2. How long do you keep it out of the fire before reheating? I kept one out too long and it popped in my lap, but I kept waiting for it to turn light. :(
3. How long do you reheat it? Just barely? Or back to bright orange?
4. If you keep repeating the striking process, will it get lighter or darker?

Thanks for your patience, oh BE gurus! I've never been good at striking or getting anything out of silver glass, for that matter.

Kris

Oh hey:smile:!! Nice to see you again:waving: Yea, those Hoy trips can be dangerous, especially with all that lovely sheet and deals! Hope you have had fun playing with your new glass.

I love BE
 

This is what happens when you live just 3 hours away from Bullseye Glass. But it is so much fun to go shopping when they have the twice yearly sale. You dont even want to see my stash of sheet glass. I was a glass fuser first, for a few years, then i started making beads. I have taken over almost half the garage with my glass goodies. I really like the odds that come out every other month.
I keep all my glass in a big metal Craftsmen tool box on wheels. Here are my drawers of BE. You can come and play at my house!
Elaine

#1 All the transparents #2 Opaques #3 Back stock Black, White,Clear, ivory



#4 Tubes of stringers, Dicro and Lustre's #5 Back stock Blues and Blue Odds #6 Back stock more Blue and basic colors


Back stock Odds assorted

Oh, Elaine, drool. I'll be right over!

It's a good thing I live half a country away from BE. But, they just opened a "branch" in Santa Fe, which is about 8 hours away. Just regular rods, no odds.

I cleaned out some BE and I'm going to put it in the Garage tomorrow.

Sure come on over.:waving: So tell me what colors of BE are you offering up in the garage tomorrow. You never know maybe i need it... lol.

Elaine

Hi Kris. I used to have BIG problems striking silver glass so keep trying and you'll get the hang of it. To help you out a bit, here are a couple of things I learned on LE to encourage striking silver glass.

1. I don't know if you have ever read in LE about the under the table test. Once you pull your bead out of the flame, let it cool to the point where it is no longer glowing. If you carefully wave your bead under the table, where you are sitting, the orange glow is much easier to see. Once the orange glow has faded, then you know you can strike the bead in the flame. Repeat the steps again until you have reached the desired effect. Just make sure you don't burn your leg passing the hot bead back and forth under the table.

2. If you are using a press to form your silver glass bead, let the press sit on some ice so it becomes very cold. Introducing your bead right out of the flame to the cold press will rapidly cool the bead. Due to the rapid temperature change, when you reintroduce your bead back into the flame again, the silver glass should strike a little easier. Just be sure not to leave your bead in the cold press too long, or your bead will explode when you put it back in the flame. Repeat the above steps as necessary.

3. Saturate a few paper towels folded together with cold tap water(squeeze excess water out). Place the wet papertowel stack on your work desk where you can easily reach it. Once you get your bead hot, remove from the flame. Wait a few seconds so the bead is no longer soft. Once it has hardened, gently and quickly roll your hot bead across the wet pile of papertowels. At that point reintroduce the bead into the flame. Just like in step 2, the temperature contrast helps the silver glass strike a little easier. Repeat the steps until you get the desired results. Just be sure your towels are very wet, if not, you'll be putting out a fire. :shock:

It was a while ago when I made those 2 sets of aurora beads, so the specifics are a little hazy. In the morning I will make a couple of the aurora beads and let you know exactly what I did to get those colors. Until then................:biggrin:

Ofilia - I have little areas set up to accomodate my different types of glass. BE is in the process LOL! Thanks for watching out for me :) You are a peach!

Elaine - I just do not know what to say. I'm thinking holy crap, can I touch, got a spare room, wow I wish I lived closer to BE for the sale, THANK GOD I don't live closer to BE for the sale and finally, Yeah I can see that happening!

Tanya - Incredible tips! Thank you!!!!!!!!

ll

:waving:Yep the Hoy garage sale it did end up being very dangerous money wise - I bought around 40 pounds of glass that day. But it was a great mix of gorgeous BE swirly sheet glass and Moretti hand pulled rods. I am still having fun playing with it.

But I am now trying to figure out how to create the reactions using the copper and silver foil with the BE Amber and French Vanilla swirly sheet glass that you mentioned in this thread. Are you willing to share a few pointers on that?

It's super super easy! All I do is rip my pieces of silver and copper foils, and have them handy. After doing a simple gather bead, I'll pick up the pices with tweezers, and try to burnish it on to the surface so it's not all in the air, or it will evaporate away. Very random placement. Can overlap or just do patched of the two metals if you want.

I also like to use that sheet that is French vanilla, an opal orange and the aventurine opal green... sorry, don't know name BE gives this color combination, but it's super cool after striking. Initially, it looks more like an Irish flag, with the colors looking more close to primary colors, but after striking, the orange gets a nice rich coral color, and the sparlies in the green aventurine really are tantilizing:-P! You spot it with random spots of just a transparent clear, and you THEN layer the foils over it..... YUM\\:D/! Very organic, of course, but I love the colors. This opal color sheet is so rich, that adding some random spots of transparent, just illuminate those lucious striations of colors!

OMG, Elaine, do you think we possibly are twins separated at birth:-k..... A true KINDRED SPIRIT!! Oh, yea, if I lived that close to BE, I'd be in SERIOUS poverty! I'd do ANYTHING for that drawer of 'back stock odds'!!! That right hand side of colors ARE TO DIE FOR!!!!!

I headed downstairs this morning and my DH asked what I was up to. I told him I was trying to figure out how I was going to configure things to set up my new glass. He offered to come downstairs to help out and as we were heading down he commented that it couldn't be to hard. (*snicker*)

We step up to my area, he looks around, looked at me and justed laughed. He started back upstairs and wished me luck.

BE's sheet of 'French vanilla, an opal orange and the aventurine opal green' sounds yummy so I have added it to my Ed Hoy's ordering wish list. But now I have another question that I have been thinking about for a while now.

I understand why I pay more for the BE swirl sheets if I am fusing or doing stained glass but for lampworking ??? Since BE sheet glass is cheaper when one buys solid colors, especially the thinner half sheets, versus buying the beautiful swirling glass, would it be wiser to just buy thinner half sheets of BE and use small cut up squares of different solid color combos? Or does BE's swirly glass produce a better coloring:-k?

Oh Ofilia, that sounds divine! Do you have a picture?

Wow, a tool chest would be perfect for the long BE rods. Wish I had the room. In my next house.....

I am not a pricing expert, but when I look at my Hoy invoices, and see the final price next to the weight, I notice pretty much across the board, that the thin rolled is about twice in cost per weight, then the double rolled sheet. I think part if it may be to the fragility of the handling of the glass?! But to be honest, thin rolled is now not the most ideal thickness for doing a wound piece. Maybe for creating a shard effect on a surface, but not if you are trying to gather significant volume quickly.

Comparing solid color to the 'whispy', I don't know for sure comparison wise, but I would think it has more labor involved as a person would have to surface blend those colors. What I like about the marbled (whispy) glass, it it gives surprises of color shifts and intensities. This makes it instantly "odd" and "streaky", both features you pay more for when buying in rod form:-o:-s

Hi Kris, we used this marbled sheet in the class you took in MO! But we didn't use any foils in class. We were too busy with dichro:razz:LOL......

I'll have to search old photos I have in my computer as I have not been able to upload new images since I got this new computer:mad:. Grrr.....

Makes lots of sense - and I do love the "odd" and "streaky" look. Thanks much!