Copper Wire, Leaf and Beads!

[redbearmountain]

Hello, Has anyone worked very much with copper leaf and copper wire in their beads? I have tried copper leaf and it did nothing but turn my bead black. Any suggestions? Where is a good place to buy copper findings? Jacque

[wendbill]

Try searching on the words copper leaf. There are a number of threads on it.

Lavender Creek also has a tutorial here:

http://www.lavendercreek.de/Tutorial-copper.html

It will turn a copper blue on some backgrounds and can turn red as well, particularly if encased.

[Jeri]

Usually copper turning black means that you haven't heated it enough, you have to get past that black sooty phase to the place where it reacts with the glass. I like to sprinkle some white enamel (or any light color) on the glass and then layer on the copper leaf. Heat it all until you can see the "boiling" enamel break through the copper. If it isn't happening everywhere, sprinkle on a little more enamel and heat some more. You should get blues....greens sort of like aged copper.

As to copper wire or foil, you can keep it copper color by keeping it away from the heat and encasing it, OR you can heat it a ton, it will look black, but will sort of brick/red/umber when it comes out of the kiln.

I hope this helps, Jeri

[JetAge Studio]

I did some shards with Op. Yellow and copper leaf...scrumptious! but it took a ton of time to get the greens to come out, so, I eventually gave up on it...I still have those shards, waiting for something to do with them!!

try burning the crap out of your foil/leaf over Eff. Opal Yellow...see what happens, don't forget to cool in between heating the crap out of it...usually you can always tell if something's working when it cools a bit! Good Luck!!

Renee Wiggins