stringer colour combinations
 

Would anyone like to share their favourite Moretti/Vetrefond/Effetre stringer colour combinations, transparent over opaque? Making colourful stringers for the stash is a nice restful occupation, for days when my brain is too stressed out to think about beads.

Thank you,
KMD

I like doing latachino type with a core of edp, marvered into a cone. Encased in clear, fairly thick but not too thick. then stripe on two good layers of 242 medium cobalt blue. over that I run gold stone as a stripe down the middle and run two more lines of gold stone between the two. encase again getting it into a cone shape hopefully without disturbing any of my layers and start twisting it as I pull... it creats a type of cane I love to look at and enjoy making but have never actually used any of them. they keep ending up as pretties just as they are...

Misfit,

Would you maybe have a picture of these? Also trying to figure out the cone shape. I usually have a cylinder shape when making twisties.

unfortunately my digital camera doesn't talk to my computer anymore. the cone shape is like a pointed cone with the flat bottom on your main punty. it just makes pulling easier for me. I suppose a cylinder would work, I've not tried one however.

These are my 3 favs:

Trans Cobalt over EDP makes a great purple when pulled into stringer! The only issue with this combo is that when you melt this stringer flat the ends bleed out EDP and don't behave themselves! It looks awesome when left raised though.

White with Copper Ruby frit pulled into stringer makes great pink stringer.

I like to use encased Ivory over trans Topaz stringer. When melted flat it leaves a neat outline around the stringer work.

Nothing too original, I suppose.

Candy

stringer colour combos
 

Dear Candy,
You wrote,
"I like to use encased Ivory over trans Topaz stringer. When melted flat it leaves a neat outline around the stringer work. "

More details please, it sounds interesting but my brain is tired.

KMD

<digging up picture> Ah yes, here we go!



Any stringer that's encased will show a similar effect when melted flat against a contrasting background. Well, at least all the ones I've tried so far!

Candy

Aaaaah! Lovely, thank you. I couldn't quite get the sequence straight. I have been making stringers tonight and that looks like a really pretty one to try.

KMD

Candy - is the topaz under the ivory or on top?

The topaz is on top. I make a gather of ivory, and then put it on to a thick mandrel, then I encase it with dark topaz and finally use another mandrel to pull it into stringer. Using mandrels to pull encased stringer really helps keep the size under control. What I get is very predictable!

Encasing white with any dark transparent glass is very pretty!! White/trans gold ruby and white/dark aqua are 2 of my favorites. Oh, I also like peri/trans dark purple!

Candy

Candy, those are beautiful! The stringer outline is so "crisp", or maybe there is a better word. They're just lovely! :D

Great ideas but I need help on my stringers...any suggestions when pulling stringers? Mine end up way to thin to use or if I get them the right thickness, they are too short to use...help! I want to be able to make these beautiful encased stringers.
Christy
www.firedancerjewelry.com :fireblob: :fireblob:

Hi Christy,

Perhaps you have something from this movie: Marcel is showing how he makes a twistie.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=erVIfujctvw

Thanks...I just need to sit down and practice them more. I would rather make beads so that is why I don't have the practice. Once kids are back in school from the Christmas break, I hope to get out there and play.
Christy

The trick to thicker stringers is to wait until the glow starts to go away before pulling, then pull slowly. Remember, the faster you pull, the thinner your stringer will be.

Before I start to twist, I get the entire ball of glass uniformly glowing. I make sure there are no dark lines (this means that part of the glass is not as hot as the rest). Then I pull it out of the flame, wait until a skin develops (i.e. the glow goes away), then twist toward me with one hand and away with the other, and slowly pull my hands apart as I twist.

I find that using hemostats to pull stringers helps me quite a bit and just going really slow as I start to pull and then quicker as the class cools.

Also, if you use an old mandrel as your "puller" it helps make a thicker stringer....

Candy, those beads are absolutely gorgeous!

I make a lot of striped encased stringers for my "leaves" and tree trunks...I like nile green, striped with intense black, and then encased in clear or yellow transparent. If you through a bit of aventurine in there it's all the more gorgeous!

Thanks for the hints...I played today with it and I found that I was not making a big enough blob at the end of my glass rod, thus making it very thin. I started making a bigger blob, waiting longer for it to make a skin and then pulling slower. Still need some practice but at least they are usuable now!
Christy

My absolute favorite twisty combination for vines is this: 219 copper green, 224 lt. sky blue, and 216 grass green.

To make an easier twisty, make the blob at the end of your rod into a cone shape, kind of like a Hershey's kiss at the end of the rod, the pointy side up. Then stripe on any extra colors, melt in, keep the cone shape, then attach a metal mandrel (or metal chopstick) as a punty. Make sure you get the metal rod red hot first or it won't stick to the glass. Then get the entire blob hot, wait for the glow to start to go away, and twist and pull. If it starts to get stiff before you've pulled the whole gather, then flash the fat part through the flame as you twist. I think this style is attributed to Andrea Guarino, though I learned it in my boro classes.

Ok, so I have a new stringer combo I love...EDP/Opal Yellow/Copper Green. yummy! Here's a pic of some beads I just took out of the kiln this morning...

I made these and they are drop dead gorgeous. I used the ends to make a bead jus tout of the twistie and it is gorgeous! thanks for shring the recipe!
Jen

I have a new color combo that I made yesterday. I made a test bead with it. It had a clearcore(I used the end of a clear rod), two stripes each of EDP, Periwinkle, Turquoise, Copper Green, and White.

I made this and then made beads from it. They are beautiful! Thanks for sharing this recipe.
Jen

Ones I use a lot:

EDP with rubino on top for a deep pink
Meduim gray with sage transparent for a pretty vine green
Dark Amethyst transparent over periwinkle- looks like ink blue

Surprizing and amazing favorite: 064 Black OVER 220? Periwinkle

Makes the most killer GRAPES on future beads.

Gotta love making stringer when the muse is out...

Stac