confused about striking!

[Princess Pink]

ok i'm generally a reduction glass kinda girl but luna 2 second were so cheap on DH that i bought a whole pound! only problem is i don't know how to use it! i tried today and all i got was poop! beige poop at that. a hint of colour on one but mainly beige.

i think the problem is i have no idea how to strike! Can someone please tell me the method?

I saw steph's post in the se5 exchange about luna 2 and i'm confused as to why you encase it in clear before you strike it? and can you strike it without encasing it??

Thanks everyone!

Shahlaa xx

[jamie lynne]

You strike after encasement because the first strike is the most vibrant. And you certainly can go with out encasement, the colors will look a little different, clear seems to amp colors up for some reason.

So you heat luna to clear
encase
melt in the encasement, taking the luna back to clear as well
then cool till glow is gone
strike in the back of the flame.

or for unencased

heat luna to clear
cool till all red glow is gone
reheat in way back of the flame.

Easy-peasy. Once you get it, it will become second nature.

[Princess Pink]

so in the first step of heating luna to clear, do i let it cool before i encase it? my encasing leaves a lot to be desired me thinks! It's always so thick! how do you get thinner encasing? xx

[Princess Pink]

p.s. thanks for you advice!!!

[jamie lynne]

Yep, let it cool and encase. Then while encasing your color will somewhat strike, just ignore it. Heat it all back up to clear and continue on. getting a nice thinner layer for encasement comes from practice. I use 7mm rods. I push on the cooled bead while encasing to thin it out.

[Princess Pink]

cool i will have a play tomorrow and let you know what i get! thanks so much!

[theglasszone]

Awesome instructions Jamie Lynne!

If I may take a sideways step, though, and just explain "striking" and "reduction" from an alternative perspective, it may be helpful to understand the difference in the two, and particularly the differences in how to evoke the two, especially for new-to-glass folks who don't necessarily understand the differentiation.

"STRIKING":

Striking a glass results in evoking color by bringing the glass up to a very high heat. The "struck" glass can be encased as well, and often a struck glass that is encased yields a different (often more "opaque") result in color than a struck glass that is left un-encased. Because "striking" a glass to evoke color requires a substantial amount of heat, lesser single-fuel torches such as the "Fireworks" Torch as well as the "Hot Heat" cannot necessarily achieve the sustained temperature to properly strike a glass. Exceptions to this rule, of course, exist. Because a high intake of oxygen is necessary to bring up your torch flame to this type of heat, oxygen-fuel mix torches (surface or internal mix) work best for striking as the amount of oxygen given to the flame can be controlled, and thus increased. It is impossible to safely increase the amount of oxygen taken in by a Hot Head torch!!! Dangerous suggestions to "pipe" your oxygen to the intakes on your Hot Head Torch - either through tanked oxygen or using an oxygen concentrator - have been thrown out there on a few occasions for discussion. This is an extremely volatile concept and one that presents an outrageous amount of danger! DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, TRY AND PIPE IN OR UP THE AMOUNT OF OXYGEN YOUR HOT HEAD NATURALLY USES THROUGH THE INTAKE HOLES OR AMBIENT ATMOSPHERE!!!!

Working with a striking glass on a single fuel torch is a trial-and-error crap shoot if you are going to give it a go. It's best to know the difficulty in achieving a proper strike in glass if you're using a Hot Head or Fireworks Torch BEFORE you purchase a large quantity of strike-requiring glass, but of course, it always fun to try!

"REDUCTION":

The reduction effect - most often resulting in bringing the metals contained within the glass to the surface and causing a metallic surface sheen - is achieved by "reducing" the amount of oxygen in the flame. This effect can be left as a surface decoration (although it's important to note this surface effect can wear away over time), or the reduction can be encased with clear. When encased, "reduced" glass (much like struck glass) will most likely loose it's metallic sheen effect, resulting in an interesting translucent/semi-opaque effect which is different in appearance that the glass in rod form as well as the surface reduced effect.

Because a very fuel rich flame is required to "reduce" glass, this effect can be achieved on just about all types of torches made, include the Hot Head Torch. I have written a Tutorial available here for free on LE explaining how to evoke the metallic, surface reduction effect on reduction glass by "choking" the oxygen intakes, and it can be found here: http://www.lampworketc.com/forums/sh...ight=reduction Although this tutorial specifically spotlights "Black Nebula Reduction Glass", this effect - as you can see from further postings in that thread - can be accomplished using various different "Reduction" glasses.

Be sure to follow all safety instructions I include there if you are going to do "Reduction" on a Hot Head; evoking a reduction flame on an oxy/fuel torch, though, simply requires turning down the oxygen flow to the flame or turning up the fuel flow on the flame, right at your torch.

In addition, some glasses are both "Reducing" and "Striking"! A great reference on which glasses do what can be found in this awesome thread posted here on LE by Hayley: http://www.lampworketc.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=77479 Many other threads discussing the behavior of specific Silver Glass colors can be found with a simple Search using the name of the glass you're looking for.

Hope this helps!


De

[Hayley]

With striking silver glass, you can strike it without encasement, strike it (only first strike) and then encase while it's dark, OR strike it AFTER encasing as Jamie Lynne posted.

Steph and I did a Luna 2 tutorial that's on my blog if you are interested. Under silver glass 101 (label on the right column), you will find other info on working with silver glass.

Hope this helps.

http://envisionsf.blogspot.com/search/label/Luna%202

[asimeral]

Are you winding on your encasing or swiping it on (horizontal striping)? When I wind the encasement glass it's always thicker than when I swipe it. I think when I swipe it I press harder on the hot glass and it spreads out more.

Originally Posted by Princess Pink

how do you get thinner encasing? xx

[Princess Pink]

wow thanks for all the tips! i didn;t get to make any luna beads today but i will on the weekend!

I'm on a dual fuel set up btw, oxycon & nortel minor. I gave up the hot head a few months ago and have never looked back!!!

hayley thanks for the tutorial, ive bookmarked it!

[Princess Pink]

Ok i am still struggling with striking! I've pretty much given up with Luna 2 but now I've got some terra 2 and terranova 2.1 and I get beige sludge.

I can't even seem to get the first strike. Can someone explain where I'm going wrong? X

[Gayetha]

When you want to strike it - hold it up to the flame as if you were going to draw on the bead with stringers (rather than putting it right into the flame). Sometimes that works. Also try changing the thickness of the layer of silver glass - some work better as thin layers and some are better thicker. The colour of the base glass layer can affect it too. Try putting stringers of luna onto amethyst purple, and terranova onto opal yellow.

Baby beige poop beads can be made into quite nice necklaces too - mix them in with lots of black and neutral colours - it is surprising how many people will be interested in them. Just don't tell them that they ae failures!

[Pia Kaven]

since I have no time to read all this now... and I really need to, I am bookmarking it for my references.
Thanks for all!
Pia