I've been playing with bottle glass for the past year or so--the stuff is ideal for hollow beads! I've found at least 30 distinct shades so far. I've also found that broken glassware from Pier 1 (if they are willing to sneak you treasure from their breakage bin on the sly) is a great source of material, and stained glass scrap is great fun. You can also get great results from aquarium gems--yes, those little glass pellets used to make your fishtank less boring until the algae devours them all. The glass used for the gems is very soft most of the time, even softer than 104 in some cases, but the colors are great and there is an enormous range of them. Beware of the oranges and reds, though: Those are all striking red at different stages of the striking process, and they tend to go opaque if overworked. Similarly, that sort of misty white/seashell pink transparent strikes white if you look at it cross-eyed and practically has to be worked over a votive candle.
|