Wow, Anoukie - beautiful!!!
I took Claudia's gentle and helpful suggestions to heart - and tried again! Funny how I can mess up a perfectly good recipe with getting too off the path! Sheesh, will I ever learn?
Anyway, this time I stuck right to what I was supposed to do - using the Transparent color between layers of the white. I was far more patient and cautious - and a bit more condensed so that I didn't end up with a HUGE gather (well, it was still purty big for my little Hot Head - pfffttt!) Also, I heated and heated and heated that gather - to be sure all the layers contacted each other and the whole thing went very smooth before the pull.
So here's my second try; used White and Transparent Brown (as instructed!!!), and for the top part, I used Hades and a few layers of Transparent Smoke Grey to break it up just a bit.
What do you think? Better? I'm actually very happy with it! The pulled rod was about 12" - yielding over 100 slices:
You're an angel Claudia!
De