tips on working the tough colours. Help?
 

You know the colours I am talking about its the 'stiff' colours which I think you refer to as low viscosity. What I would like to do is push the boundary and put some in a deep encasement of clear.
I used some ns-nile and had some cracking.
What I am wondering is could I mix it with something to thin it out to get better results or maybe change my annealing temperature?
Maybe a more oxidizing flame?
Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

If I remember correctly, and I've never used it, but this is what I've heard, nile doesn't like to be encased.

If you haven't, go sign up over on talk glass and search for it there. I know it's been mentioned in the past.

Most Greens hate to be encased. They almost always crack
and fragment on me - either now, or later. Definitely check out
some of the hardcore boro forums and pipemaking forums.
They have some great advice on their. Do some deep
searching first before you ask questions. Most of the answers
are already there.

Tom's got it. These colors do not like to be encased. Just because it survives annealing doesnt mean it will be stable for long. Listen to what the glass is telling you.

I've had some marbles crack a year later when I've tried to use thoes sparkly colors - a waste of time - IMO

I hear you can lay a thin amount of opaque green over a clear and use that for imploded stems. Some people use a very thin layer of sparkle green over the India green from Glasstronics for stems (a la' Kobuki.) Or you can just use Mighty Moss, which has proven to be quite stable in implosions. FWIW...

Also, no reduction on the glitter greens, no long or hot garaging, and anneal the shortest time possible at no more than 1050 (in other words put them in at the end of your working day not the beginning.)

At least this is what I have heard....

NS Forest Green works fine for implosions. Original Moss works great if you can find it.

One of my favorites is to take Unobtainium and cover it with asian amber then pull it into a stringer. Makes a great sparkly forest green.

GA Amazon Night makes a pretty cool (and stable) green when encased too.

Thank you all.
Jenny I was wondering if I could get it more stabilized by mixing or thinning it out with something thanks for the tip.

Greens
 

I have had quite good luck with TAG greens, but do pay attention to which ones, as some will complain about being buried in clear.

Call Jenny at TAG and ask her to help you match the color you need with the qualities you need. TAG has lots of neat greens, and they are great with customer service.

I have also had very good luck with Momka's greens too.

The only trouble I have had so far is mixing white(china) with something like the old TAG Mighty Moss these two were incompatible when deep encased and did a neat crackling inside the center of my piece without cracking out to the surface.

I like BS blue spruce for implosions. It ends up more cyan than green but... looks good!

Deb -- Put that Nile in a BOX and DONT USE IT! Northstar doesnt make it anymore, and prices reflect that. Lucky you to still have some. :) I have a 6" sample stick and nobody is prying it from my hands! :)

It is quite beautiful LePatron do you want some I can hook you up.

I have been advised by many of my friends to always water down sparkle colors. 10% or so. NS has tips on their site for working and annealing their colors.

"water down" the sparkly colours. I don't remember reading this before and I have read a lot in the forums it could have been out there but you know how it is when your brain gets over loaded sometimes with too much info. :)
I had a great day yesterday I made two beautiful marbles with skulls in them, I used colours that I have used before because I wanted success when I opened the kiln when they were cooled they both have shattered not just cracked, shattered. So mad I think it was the china black. I have not had any problems with this black before and in the past I have used about a pound of it. Makes me want to swear. Four hours of work down the drain. I'll run a compatibility test today just to make sure.

Way back, like 15 years ago, when I started with colors, I made alot of mushroom pendants. I used green exotic and red exotic, and every one cracked. So I started mixing green exotic with clear-melt a glob of each together and twist it, turn it, fold it etc, pull a stringer and make a mushroom pendant. Then I did the same with the red exotic. 90% of the mushroom pendants made this way did not crack, and after 15 years the few that I have left (the rest were given away) still have not cracked.

Listen to what that 10% of the failed glass is telling you.