Terra on a hothead?

[mandyjw]

Has anyone gotten those gorgeous vibrant tye dye colors from terra on a hothead? Have they finally found a glass us faithful hothead users can't work with? I've tried, and tried and tried, but it ain't workin'.

[PinkLilyDesigns]

I just got my Terra today! I'm on a Hothead and actually, I got a gorgeous purple right off the bat! I've been doing some reading on LE lately, in preparation. Someone (maybe Sarah Hornik) said to heat it a lot and then cool to a no-glow state, then heat a bit again for a brownish color, then repeat to get the good colors to blossom.

Well, I'm confused, because I got no brownish color, only the most amazing purple! When I tried repeating the process, the color actually became less and less. Go figure.

On my next practice bead, I did exactly the same thing (I thought )
and it came out almost all a pale greenish color. Where'd the purple go??

On the third bead, I used a base of regular ivory and just did little swipes on it with the Terra. The color developed immediately! It was stunning until I thought I'd try to get more out of it by repeating the cooling process. It's still pretty, but lost some of the magic.

Then I did a black base with simple dots. I couldn't for the life of me get any color reaction, so I tried encasing. Then these lovely, pastel hues appeared.

Anyway, here's the thing. I tried going pretty hot, but actually, I found the lower the better! You know when the HH is so low, it seems like it's on the verge of going out? Well, I got the best color when the flame was just a little more open than that. So from 1-10, I was working at about a 3-4.

Of course, I ordered from the odds/shorts sale, so the rod I used happened to be like, a 3mm. Maybe that makes a difference somehow, since it obviously heated quicker. I'll post some pics when I get them out of the kiln.

[squid]

Originally Posted by PinkLilyDesigns

I just got my Terra today! I'm on a Hothead and actually, I got a gorgeous purple right off the bat! I've been doing some reading on LE lately, in preparation. Someone (maybe Sarah Hornik) said to heat it a lot and then cool to a no-glow state, then heat a bit again for a brownish color, then repeat to get the good colors to blossom.

Well, I'm confused, because I got no brownish color, only the most amazing purple! When I tried repeating the process, the color actually became less and less. Go figure.

On my next practice bead, I did exactly the same thing (I thought )
and it came out almost all a pale greenish color. Where'd the purple go??

On the third bead, I used a base of regular ivory and just did little swipes on it with the Terra. The color developed immediately! It was stunning until I thought I'd try to get more out of it by repeating the cooling process. It's still pretty, but lost some of the magic.

Then I did a black base with simple dots. I couldn't for the life of me get any color reaction, so I tried encasing. Then these lovely, pastel hues appeared.

Anyway, here's the thing. I tried going pretty hot, but actually, I found the lower the better! You know when the HH is so low, it seems like it's on the verge of going out? Well, I got the best color when the flame was just a little more open than that. So from 1-10, I was working at about a 3-4.

Of course, I ordered from the odds/shorts sale, so the rod I used happened to be like, a 3mm. Maybe that makes a difference somehow, since it obviously heated quicker. I'll post some pics when I get them out of the kiln.

Sounds like the second bead did not get hot enough to ever strike properly in the first place. You want to get it hot hot hot ONCE at the beginning and then let it cool until you see some amber/brown starting to develop. Waft it in and out of the flame to get the amber to spread over the whole bead.

The key to getting additional colors from Terra is the reheats need to be VERY GENTLE - low low orange at most. All of your shaping needs to be completed before striking. If you reheat it enough to shape it after you have struck color, you will lose that color and it will go pale and milky on you.

[PinkLilyDesigns]

Oh, okay. Hmm. I tried heating the second bead very hot once I knew I wasn't getting any color out of it. I didn't really "shape" it, as it was just a color practice. It eventually just went all soupy. Still not much color. I also found that (especially on the ivory one, where I only swiped the terra) it became colorful immediately upon applying it. You say not to strike until I'm done shaping, but it seemed to strike immediately and then become progressively less colorful as I heated. Does that make sense?

[squid]

Originally Posted by PinkLilyDesigns

Oh, okay. Hmm. I tried heating the second bead very hot once I knew I wasn't getting any color out of it. I didn't really "shape" it, as it was just a color practice. It eventually just went all soupy. Still not much color. I also found that (especially on the ivory one, where I only swiped the terra) it became colorful immediately upon applying it. You say not to strike until I'm done shaping, but it seemed to strike immediately and then become progressively less colorful as I heated. Does that make sense?

yes, it does Small amounts strike early for me too unless I keep the whole bead hot, which is what I try to do, with mixed results

Try making a core of clear and encase it with terra and then heat it until you can see through the terra - the clear core makes it easier to tell if you have the terra hot enough. You only need to have spots of clear - let it cool to almost no glow and it will develop the amber color - you can make it spread from a beginning spot of amber.

[chrissij]

I'm having no luck with the encasing, but I get the dark brown first, and then I blow on it, and get purple, and then I heat it until the "sheen" leaves, and then blow on it, and get blue, and then I can strike it again, and get a mauve color, and then if it goes all light on me and looks like mud, I just say a curse word, and then cool it to "yeah, it's gonna crack...cool", and then heat the snot out of it to turn it dark brown, and start all over again.

[squid]

you have to encase before you strike Encase it and get it hot as snot and then strike the same as you do unencased.

[chrissij]

I'm getting really great colors without it being encased, without the added frustration of encasing...I CANNOT IMAGINE the number of curse words I'd have to say if I was encasing!!

[squid]

It's pretty much the same process once you have it encased It just seems worse

[PinkLilyDesigns]

Crap. Well, I pulled the beads out and the few cool colors I got mostly turned into very, very muted tones. I annealed at 940, the lowest DH recommends in the little sheet they sent. I went and tried the clear base thing, but all I got were straw yellow wisps. Puke. I'm thoroughly discouraged now.

I am kinda pleased with the goddess though. I decided that even though it's not the colors I wanted, it's still got some pretty greens and blues.

The pictures actually look a bit better than the beads (go figure)

Funny, the one with the most purple is the very first one, where I wasn't really trying!

P.S- All of the raised areas on the goddess are encased in clear (including the butt heart).... didn't seem to make much difference

[lunamoonshadow]

oooh, I LIKE that goddess! she's purty!

[squid]

In general, you ahve very nice color on those beads!

[PinkLilyDesigns]

Aww, thanks, Luna!

Like I said, Squid, other than the goddess, the pics of the others are better than the actual beads. I tell ya, when I want to convey color in photographs, I never can. Now that I'm trying to convey MUTED, all I get is color.

I guess I should be happy, for my first attempts, but I've been drooling over Manuela's beads
I keep going and *visiting* them throughout the day.

Go and worship their glory! Lol.
http://www.lampworketc.com/forums/sh...ighlight=terra

[squid]

yeah, I have already drooled on them