"momkas Glass Testers - September 2006"

[IF-Designs]

I only have Lusterous blue, carribean something, a purple thing I cant remember the name right now..., and a few sample rods that were gifted to me to work with.....

[swanseafarm]

Originally Posted by hotflashwanda

Wow, Paula, you know I was thinking these colors would be great for off-mandrel pendants, especially implosions--and you've sure come up with some beauties! I especially like the effect of the Gypsy Queen used for a backer on the Magic Mirror implosion, very cool!!
Bonnie, those leaf beads are awesome!!! The striped ones just blew me away!
Sure is fun seeing everyone's creations.
Anita
www.fireflybeads.com

Thank you, Anita.

It was a real challenge to just use Momka glass since all I have are the new test colors. Working with the Gypsy Queen rod was like working a bunch of different rods all rolled into one!

[HardwoodTrailGlass]

Ok, here we go
First off, thank you Momka's and Sabina, for putting this together and for letting me participate! Also, thank you to Kathy, of eplanet glass for the frit donation!
I am working on a Phantom, Tanked O2, Propane.
I used mostly neutral to oxidizing flame.

The colors are smooth and easy to melt. The Brown Glitter and Dragon Green are a little dark for me, so I wanted to lighten them up. Gypsy Queen is not my favorite, I rarely work w/ those canes.

I want to say, that I did have a hard time getting started w/ these colors, as I am a 'reactive' girl. I also had the benefit, or not, of seeing what others had already done, so I tried to avoid repeating their 'tests'. I had to get out of my comfort zone w/ what I would've chosen to work w/. I discovered some other Momka's colors that I'd forgotten about, eek, and now I have a better understanding of what some of them can do

So..........I did a few single beads, and tried different combos and twisty's, sp? I also felt, if I was putting the colors into twisty's that I should be able to 'see' the color, not just as a blend, and in most it worked out.

Shoo, that was a lot to type. I hope y'all aren't bored to tears.
Anyways, now I will make a set w/ my favorites and come back and post.

[Venbead]

ooh pretty carrie. I especially like the first bead in the second set. It looks like stone.
Here are last night's experiments. annealed at 1050 for 45 minutes

The set was made with an almond nugget base (thinned out with 8mm clear rod) and brown glitter frit and encased. these really sparkle

the tab focal was made on a base of lustrous blue thinned out with 8mm of clear and gypsy queen frit and encased.

the green bead was made with a base of sunshine yellow with green dragon thinned out with 8mm of clear over that and encased.

[CarolinaDreamDesigns]

Originally Posted by jwelsh

hi guys played again with the testing glass today and used the color only and clear..
first i did 2 sea horses both with the gypsy queen rod, one i encased in clear and the other i smeared on back of a clear blank and pulled my sea horse out. then i made a sea horse out of the green dragon rod and a sea horse made out of the brown glitter only. Then finally i made a lil marble with gypsy queen rod and encased with clear.. here's the pics!!

I WANT TO PLAY!!!!!

::: whine whine pout pout :::

Like I'd know what to dow tih them.

Hey Jeff - you going to put these up for sale? Are you going to be a vendor at Hampton Bay Days possibly?

thanks -

Martha

[Karen Hardy]

Okay, here's my first test post to see how these photos look
(I'm playing with my lighting/camera setup - did anyone ever mention
that photographing boro is a nightmare?).
Just some basic beads - round ones, made with just the glass and
clear.

1st group of beads in each row (the smallest ones) are straight rod color topped off with clear,
2nd group of beads in each row is rod color swiped onto a clear 10mm rod and
pulled into a cane (diluted color - which absolutely killed the vibrant shades in
Gypsy Queen)
3rd group of beads in each row is pulled cane with a ribbon swirl encase (which completely washed out the GQ - can't dilute that one for sure). I did notice that the Brown glitter got some neat striping - but otherwise these colors (Brown Glitter and Dragon green) don't lend themselves to much manipulation since they don't change color at all (which is a good thing, if the application requires that).

Brown Glitter


Green Dragon


Gypsy Queen

[Karen Hardy]

Some more niftys made with Gypsy Queen.
Great stuff - I started out hating it but then we had a little
talk and it started behaving the right way.

[Karen Hardy]

Some more Bead Porn...
Sorry the pics are so darn out of focus - working on that...

Inspired by JC - Magic Mirror/Brown glitter and Carribean Coral accents



Magic Mirror and Brown Glitter


Just Gypsy Queen and a few random drops of clear frit before encasing


Some almond, a touch of Green Dragon and some random drops of Purple Thunder

[hotflashwanda]

Carrie and Karen, thank you for all your experimentation! You both came up with some really cool effects by doing different things with each bead.
Carrie, that second set is really calling to me, loudly!! They are beautiful organics.
Karen, I love your heart bead (the Purple Thunder dots are the perfect accentfor the Green Dragon) and those Gypsy Queen twisty disks are wonderful!
Paula, that set with Almond Nugget and Brown Glitter frit are so cool! I like how deep and rich the color is in them--did you have the small powdery frit or the medium size?
Great fun seeing everyone's results.
Anita
www.fireflybeads.com

[suzanne]

I am kind of getting worried here.... my glass has not shown up and I am supposed to show my work within two weeks...but what if my glass does not show up in time, that would be my first strike right?

I did play with some of the colors because I happened to have those particular colors here, so I will post pictures of the beads later.



Suzanne

[Venbead]

Ok I'm pretty happy with this focal. I used my favorite red glass cinnabar. (ok I really like american beauty too) It makes the best implosions. The base of the bead is a thinned out green dragon. The implosions are cinnabar and then the gypsy queen rod is pulled out to a stringer and melted in between the implosions and encased. I LOVE it and will definately be making more.

hotflashwanda thanks, I got the powdery brown glitter frit.

[hotflashwanda]

Paula, the implosion bead is beautiful! The Gypsy Queen stringer is the perfect accent for the Cinnabar flowers. You're awesome, girl!
Suzanne, you have a couple of weeks after you get your glass to post your pictures, I'm sure they realize it will take a while for you to get your glass! Don't worry. Besides, I know they are looking at these threads and have read your post.
Anita
www.fireflybeads.com

[e. mort]

Here are my last pictures with the Momka test glass.

The two flower implosion pendants are Magic Mirror with a Green Dragon backing. (From the rod, not the frit)

I broke the rules on the Love pendant. I pulled the gypsy queen into a stringer and used it for the letters, and then backed the pendant with NS Butterscotch frit. I had planned to use the brown glitter frit, but after the Letters imploded I decided that they would get lost against the brown glitter.

[suzanne]

Eric those flower implosions are beautifull, the colors look surreal!

I did not receive my testglass yet but I did have a rod of green dragon so I made a couple of simple beads.

I am on a baracudda , propane and two concentrators. I used a neutral and sometimes slightly oxidizing flame




from the left to the right:

1 twistie from a green dragon base with two stripes of solara, encased.
2 clear base bead, twistie as mentioned above, encased
3 green dragon base bead, goldfumed, encased ( this one is my favorite)
4 green dragon base bead, clear dots, silver fumed and encased
5 same as the second bead
6 green dragon base bead, encased with solara, encased.

This particular color doesn;t do a whole lot for me exept for the gold fumed one, it sure has potential when fumed. The rod did melt easily, no bubbles at all.

Suzanne

[Over the Moon]

Once again - fabulous work everybody! Suzanne I still haven't received my glass either...hey Ben, you're up here in Canada too...didya get yours?

[boroburner]

Yup=)
Just picked it up.
Im lookin at what everyone else has made so far an wondering what to make?
Im thinking jar.....will post pics in the morn.
hope ur stuff come soon.
B

[e. mort]

I am still not thrilled with the Gypsy Queen, but I just read on Momka's site that it is supposed to have three striking colors in it. Maybe I am not striking it right? I am thinking about tossing the hearts back into the kiln at 1100 for 30 minutes to see what happens. Does anybody know what colors are supposed to strike in it? I think maybe I am also burning the color out of the red stripe since mine looks a lot more muted than the one on their website.

Opinions?

[hotflashwanda]

Eric, your flower implosions are very cool! I agree with you on your theory that it's possible to burn some of the colors out of the Gypsy Queen--I noticed with overheating I got darkened red, orange, and yellow. Probably depends on what is being made--if it's a small to medium mandrel bead, not as much heat compared to making one of your hearts or a marble.
I'm not sure what striking colors are in the GQ rod, but I believe they are silver-based as I get some nice metallic gold/ivory, and purple as well as the WYSIWYG colors in there.
Anita
www.fireflybeads.com

[LAG]

I only have been playing with the Glitter Brown. Wow. That has a beautiful sparkle in it. Melts like butter and a great fall color to work with other colors. Here is what I did this AM.

Almond Nugget with captured air My favorite.. it glitters a lot in the brown.
Almond Nugget swirled and tube pressed. fun bead..
Autumn Swirl with Brown Glitter. Great leaf colors...
Brown Glitter with Gypsy Queen frit. My husband's fav..
And Guacolmole, Sunset Orange and Brown Glitter Zig Zag. Another great fall combo...

[LAG]

oh and one more fun bead...
a blend of Yellow, Orange and Brown Glitter then tube pressed...

[suzanne]

@Eric, there is definetly some silver action going on in the gypsie queen, I pulled a discbead out of the kiln the other day made with a regular twistie and there was some bluisih purple haze between the wysiwyg colors. The orange was kinda muted, the red was pretty red, the yellow was muted too , but I did get the haze between. I annealed it for half an hour at 1150 and half an hour at 1050 .

I am playing with my annealingschedule a lot these days, I made some pink beads again and they turned out really dark almost blackcherryred with magenta haze on it, pretty but not the look I was going for, so I figured I'd cut back on the 1150 and try 1100 instead today.


Suzanne

[Cosmo]

Originally Posted by e. mort

I am still not thrilled with the Gypsy Queen, but I just read on Momka's site that it is supposed to have three striking colors in it. Maybe I am not striking it right? I am thinking about tossing the hearts back into the kiln at 1100 for 30 minutes to see what happens. Does anybody know what colors are supposed to strike in it? I think maybe I am also burning the color out of the red stripe since mine looks a lot more muted than the one on their website.

Opinions?

Yeah. I noticed something similar myself. I used some more of it last night, so when I open the kiln later I'll see if I have any better results.

[suzanne]

I made an error in my previous posting, I don't anneal at 1050 and 1150 but kilnstrike at that temp...my bad

[HardwoodTrailGlass]

It is so cool to come in here and see all the different experiments from everyone! I love it. Thank you to all for sharing what you've done.

Paula, Karen, Eric, Suzanne, & Kay: fabulous beads/pendants/implosions! So many combinations, it's endless

[Karen Hardy]

Okay - here's my "take on the ways these colors work:

Green Dragon - Kind of a wysiwyg color. You can dilute it a little, but basically what you lay down is what it is. I adore the pearlescent effect it has, very pretty, but it will not (repeat NOT) show up in photos no matter how hard I try.
I had one bead that's just clear and GD thats my fave, but in pictures it just looks blah. Definitely one to sell "in person" rather that ebay.

Brown Glitter - This one kind of comes out like a "mink" color. It's very smooth, and I was kind of hoping it would be the boro equivalent of a goldstone stringer. It adds a bit of sparkle to your work, and when you dilute it you can get these cool "ribbed" effects with it. Again, a hard one to photograph - as pictures don't pick up the sparkles.

Gypsy Queen - As many of you said, I was both in love with and disappointed with this rod. I almost wish that they would come out with a crayon version of these colors - since I was really hoping for some rainbow beads, and the rod seems to suggest that. My first beads with this rod came out kind of dull. I figured out that by working it farther out in a cooler flame, I could retain a lot of the colors, but the reactive shades tended to wash with the heat.
I was able to get some cool ghosting effects (see the "gypsy queen with clear" bead) by adding some clear frit after I lay the basic shape down in a cooler flame. The colors tended to wash out to more "autumn shades" (see the necklace with disk beads pictured). This one has to be treated pretty delicately AND should not be diluted - as that tends to completely kill off the colors. I pulled a thin stringer from it and got a "fall leaves" kind of flower look . This is not a great scroll/detail/dots stringer, but it does make a great flower petal stringer (for raised flowers a-la-Kim Osibin - not melted in ones).

[flamewerks]

Man, there's some great work posted in this thread. These colors are not part of my preferred palette, but I like the workability. I'll post our pics tonight after I get home from work. We saw some issues with Gypsy Queen and Glitter Brown that I haven't seen addressed here. However, those could just be working differences.

-Mona

[flamewerks]

As promised:

Configuration:
oxygen generator
propane
bobcat
red max (minor part)

This glass is great to work, smooth and buttery.

First the issues with Gypsy Queen:
This is a top made by Mr Flamewerks (Thom) The top is ~1" diameter. You can see bubbling on the shimmery teal color and on the lime green next to it. Bubbling was not evident before the piece went into the kiln.



Next, same problem with the GQ but also some major bubbling on the Glitter Brown. I think this must be because they are extremely encased in this marble. I made this marble, which is ~1.5" across. Bubbling was not evident before the piece went into the kiln. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Did we work it too hot? Anneal too hot? Not hold our tongues in the right position?



Now when we used GQ and GB in beads, we could still see some of the bubbling, but not near so bad as in the marble and top above. The shimmer in the GB and Green Dragon is nearly impossible to photograph.

Left to right:

Clear with Green Dragon frit, clear dot on each frit, gold fume, burned off the fume on the clear dots.
GQ on clear
GQ on black
GQ frit on Almond Nugget, encased
GQ on clear
GD on clear, encased
GD and GB on aqua



Glitter brown in various uses:
L to R
plain, lightly encased, on clear and encased, lightly encased, plain

Beautiful minky shimmer is not evident in the photo. Really lovely.



GQ frit marble


GQ on black


GQ on clear


Everything + Almond Nugget on clear


GD and GB frit on Almond Nugget


Apologies for the big post.

-Mona

[hotflashwanda]

Wow, Mona, the top and marble are very cool and a shame about the bubbles--what it looks like to me is that there was some kind of crystal growth in the green and sparkle colors. Maybe like lots of other boro greens and sparkles out there, these colors don't like to be worked too long when encased.
Thank goodness your lovely beads are all intact!
Anita
www.fireflybeads.com

[flamewerks]

Originally Posted by hotflashwanda

Wow, Mona, the top and marble are very cool and a shame about the bubbles--what it looks like to me is that there was some kind of crystal growth in the green and sparkle colors. Maybe like lots of other boro greens and sparkles out there, these colors don't like to be worked too long when encased.

After reading around on other fora, I found a statement that they need to be worked cooler. So, I'm guessing they just got too hot. I figured it was a user problem rather than a glass problem.

-Mona

[Karen Hardy]

I dunno..I kinda dig the bubbles you got there. Looks like the underside of
a wave....

As we used to say in the computer software world...it's not a "bug"...it's a "feature"...