Hello LynieG, I think I can shed some light on your problems with those colors, NS Blue, Blue Moon, Alaska Thunder. Thru the years I have settled on certain colors for floral compressions, some work well, some do not work so well for this purpose. It's not really you or the torch, those colors NS Blue, Blue Moon, Alaska Thunder do not work well for me either. If I want blue I like to use non silver colors. I make floral canes from colors like indian purple, hyacinth, colors like that. The trick to a pretty blue is to start with a base opaque color and coat it with turbo cobalt and pull it out for your floral cane. Almost all my floral canes are 2 or 3 glass colors layered and pulled out. Try hyacinth and coat it with turbo cobalt pull it out and see how you like that. For lighter blue I like chinese white that has been premixed well, coated with the turbo cobalt. The blue colors can be so dark that they don't show up well, ( too dark) for florals, so you need to back them with something that brings them out. And then there are other issues (refer to post 199 in this thread) about crystal growth that can occur.
There are few colors that I can use alone - as is - for a petal cane. Carmel is one of them, love carmel for petals. In you pictures the green on some of the flowers has compatibility problems, that's why you are seeing that effect around the edges. There are a few greens that don't do that, indian green is the one I use mainly. If I want it darker, I coat it with turbo cobalt. Hope this helps.
Here is a nice blue for petals, it's aqua with turbo cobalt over. The green is shamrock & indian green.
