I've been using a bunch of recycled glass - bottle glass, old broken vintage glass, etc-lately. We smash 'em, and hubby melts 'em down into big globs and pulls rods.
I've found that I can use metal foil and 96COE reduction frits with no problem. Deep blue iced tea bottles or brown beer bottles with raku frit are pretty. Vintage marigold carnival glass with a sprinkling of Iris gold, gently reduced - just beautiful.
I've also made *tiny* base beads (one round) and encased with vetro clear, seen no cracking so far, so I may try encased stringer and apply that as a surface decoration.
Besides that there are a multitude of things that can be done with a single color- raised dots and stringers, hollows, try recycled copper tubing as a core (how green is that?), sculptural stuff (everyone loves little beer goddesses), presses, and handmade shapes, hearts, cubes, etc.
Rita
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