Asian red

[Funotions]

Hi all,
I am new to boro and loving playing with sculptural elements with much greater confidence then when I work with COE 104. I have, being cheap, started working with the cheapest glass I could find which is the Asian (Chises) glass. I got some of the 'red' and it came as a almost dingy clear. I guessed it was striking, but have not been able to get anything out of it. Am I not striking it right or is what I see what I get? Thanks for any help.
Chris

[AcidFly]

hi
well some of the older red stock I could never get to strike but I found some talk about the red over at melt and from what i can understand you have to work it hot "very hot" and in a oxy flame "real heavy oxy".
Then kiln it and hope it don't turn to liver color. Some one told me to kiln the min you can get away with to help it not turn liver color.
The tube seems to work better then the rod from what i have seen.

Hope this helps

AcidFly

[BellaBean]

I have Asian transparent red. It just strikes in the kiln without any extra help. Sorry I can't help. Maybe you got a bum batch??? It happens.

[gmkcpa]

I've got a pound of Asian blue, black, green, red, purple, pink, amber and white, all for
$5.00/pound during ABR sales. I've used amber on alot of beads and love it. I've used green (it is not a 'crayon' green) on beads and like that. The white cracks when encased but on other outside work it was fine, until I used it in a dot pattern on the back of a 2" marble. The heat needed to melt in all those dots caused the white to bubble and scar. The blue works good to cover the back of a marble, but some rods are 'bluer' than others-before I use a rod of Asian blue I hold it up to a light to see how blue that particular rod is. I've tried all the other Asian colors that I have and do not expect to ever buy them again. So, sometimes cheap is good, and sometimes not.
But checking first in the 'boro room' here is a good idea before you buy.

[Cornbread]

i like the asian white..but have 3 lbs that i'll prob not use ever. I don't want to put any asian colored glass in my stuff if i can avoid it. I went through 2 lbs of white learning and it was very helpful for that; so it has its place in my glass stock.

ive also heard you just can't put asian white against the mandrel. make a wrap of clear first and the white should be fine if you encase it with something else from there.

ps: im 95% off mandrel

[BellaBean]

Gerald -

I actually like the white a lot (I noticed that it's more dense than NS white and better for implosions and such) and have not had any encasing issues. One tip I learned from John Kobuki about the white is that it likes to be mixed around a bit before you use it. If you heat it and then swirl and mush it around, it gets dreamy creamy! It plays better with other glass after you do that as well.

[indyglassman]

I use asian white, black cobalt and red quite a bit. They all have worked well for me and I've not had the cracking problem with the white as noted above. I implode it in some of my floral marbles which are about 1.4" or so.

However, the question was about asian red -- My batch works very well and strikes pretty easily. However, a friend of mine (Samma Parcels) has a newer batch and she can't get it to strike with the flame or in the kiln. So, I suspect it is a batch issue. It's cheap, but also seems to vary from batch to batch.

[dragonlite]

Originally Posted by Cornbread

i like the asian white..but have 3 lbs that i'll prob not use ever. I don't want to put any asian colored glass in my stuff if i can avoid it. I went through 2 lbs of white learning and it was very helpful for that; so it has its place in my glass stock.

ive also heard you just can't put asian white against the mandrel. make a wrap of clear first and the white should be fine if you encase it with something else from there.

ps: im 95% off mandrel

If you want to unload I would be happy to take it...lol

[ABR Dave]

A great guy, and amazing artist, Jason Howard, has some great posts on The Melting Pot about the Asian Red. He has it figured out, and he always sharing he information. He is a wealth of information.