[glassmaker]

I just happened to stumble across this thread. As a maker of silver glass, albeit on a rather small scale, I would like to clarify a few things regarding the use of silver glass for BOC beads - or have clarified for me by Robert if any statement I make below is inaccurate.

One, silver itself is not a problem metal. Considering that silver is a very commonly used metal in jewelry, it would at least seem not to be. Yet the specific mention of it in Robert's first post makes it sound otherwise. "No metallic surface beads from reduction glass or frits. Some contain silver, some contain other metals and it's impossible at this time for our volunteer sorters to tell on from the other."

Obviously, silver glasses are the most common reduction glasses, which I believe is why he mentioned them specifically. But in this context I think statements like that confuse a lot of people. It would seem more prudent to mention a hazardous metal that is undesirable on the surface of a bead, with a statement like, "No metallic surface beads from reduction glass or frits. Some contain LEAD, some contain other metals and it's impossible at this time for our volunteer sorters to tell on from the other."

To the best of my knowledge (and I HAVE researched this) the issue with silver glasses is ONLY with beads that have a metallic surface, the so-called "silver reduction glasses". And the problem with those is the inability of BOC volunteers to determine easily what metals cause the surface iridescence - i.e., those which leave an iridescent surface solely from silver cannot easily be discerned from other glasses on which the iridescence may be partly or mostly from far less desirable metals, such as lead. Hence the blanket ban of beads with a "metallic sheen" on the surface, no matter what the glass does or doesn't contain. This makes perfect sense. The chemical composition of an iridescent surface can't be determined by naked eye, and it's extremely impractical to test every BOC bead with a reduction surface to determine what metals the surface consists of.

But this has caused ongoing confusion about whether or not ALL silver glasses are banned from BOC beads. The short answer is NO, they aren't. Even on the surface of a bead - as long as they do NOT have a reduction (iridescent metallic) surface.

I've run into this misinformation several times in the past, including a couple of times when I was going to donate some of the non-reduction silver glass I make to people making BOC beads, as well as very recently in online statements by my own (and Robert's) local beadmaking group.

Here is the exact text addressing this issue from the
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:

"We ask that you refrain from using reduction frit or glasses that give a metallic sheen on the surface due to heavy metal issues with these materials."

Nowhere in the guidelines are silver glasses specifically mentioned - because they are NOT banned. Only beads with a metallic surface sheen (reduction surface) are verboten, no matter what that iridescent surface results from.