How to get a gradient like a sunset

[Onekura]

What is the best way to get a gradient - let's say I want to do a disk, where there is a ruby-red center and it blends into a yellow outer ring - something like a sunset. It should be a nice blending of the colors, but every time I try it gives me edges - I'm looking for a beautiful blending. Any ideas????

[ROC]

Have you tried it with transparents?

[PerfectDeb]

transparents. and overlap the layers, start with the lighter colours and overlap - might be a little hard on a disk though

what about twisting two rods together, like a twistie but leaving one end red, that way the colours would flow from one to another - worth a try?

[SuzyQ]

Here is what I would try with transparent color:

Using a thicker mandrel without bead release wind onto the very tip a blob of red. Make it round and thick with the very tip flat. Like an eraser pulled off the end of pencil would look. Then wind on more red to create a pencil tip. Now take your next lighter shade and going over the red pencil tip, wind on to cover it and add another pencil eraser blob on the end. Then the pencil tip. Add your next color and so on until you finish with an eraser blob of your last color. Heat the sucker up and pull it out.

I might have to try this!

[anneonline]

Thanks to the Loren II (Butterfly) class I just took [wow, wow, wow a genius instructor! - and at an amazing studio (FlameTree Glass, Atlanta GA)]... for opaque glass I would try mixing the red and yellow together in the flame (~ 0.75 inch dia gather) to make at least 1 new color that is between the 2 colors you are transitioning between (the more colors you mix between the 2 the smoother the gradient). Once mixed in the flame pull the new color back out into a 'rod' thickness (if you only want to mix one new color I would probably mix mostly yellow with a little red, but you can do a series with different percentages of yellow and red - I'm hoping they will result in shades between red, orange and yellow but glass mixing is not the same as paint so you will have to experiment). When the repulled mixed color rods cool... lay down your red layer, mix the first layer of your 'new transition color' into the interface with the red as you lay it down (heat and mush a little back and forth), then lay down as much of the transition color as you want without mixing into the lower layers, (repeat with any other mixed transition colors as desired), then repeat with your final (yellow) color (again mix the first layer of the yellow with the underlying mixed transition color)... you should get a diffuse gradient.

I hope the above is not confusing & good luck!

[Onekura]

Hey, thank you all for the awesome ideas - but I have to explain . . . I'm working with boro and I am making the humble pendants - now, my idea was to do one, where there is a red "sun" in the middle and transferring into a yellow outer ring. To see, what I am doing visit this link: http://www.bushbeads.com - this the kind of pendant I do. This problem is haunting me for some time now - if you have any ideas . . . would be suuuuuper. The best one so far, was using frit, but it's not quite what I want. Imagine a sunset and you know what it should be like . . . . . dreaming . . . keep it coming, friends . . . or better . . . fellow glass addicts!

[Onekura]

Oh, and sorry, I think this question should be in the boro - room, but I'm new to this forum

[PerfectDeb]

ah, the dark side is for you - off you go

[SuzyQ]

Oh. Okay, be off with you then.... *sigh* another one gone to the dark side

But thanks for posting this. I really want to test my theory now.

[menty666]

I think Anne's probably got the best suggestion for you. Though you could consider using transparent powders in the mix too.

Also, by using different ratios of clear, you can thin some colors to make less intense versions for transitions.

SuzyQ....I want to see pictures!