NS028 Blue Exotic

[Howie]

Hi,

I bought 1/4 pound of a few different colors and thought I had tried the Blue Exotic but just realized I had been using Aurora. The Aurora is very nice and I figured I'd give the Blue Exotic a try and see what it does.

I'm pretty certain it was suggested to work it in a highly oxidizing flame until complete then a final reducing flame then in the kiln. I cranked he oxygen up and got my gather going and noticed bumps on the gather. The bumps remained the whole time while I made a little heart. They never melted in smooth and I'm unsure what the cause was.

I may have boiled it, not sure. I didn't have a very big flame going and was using my top(minor) torch on the Redmax. The second one, I turned the oxygen back just a bit and also went slower with the heat. When I finished and put it into the reducing flame, there was no mirror finish. It was a light blue/grey.

Any ideas?

[chayes]

exotics are some weird colors. I have a few sticks around but never use em because of coe problems. It seems that there is an excess of chemicals in the exotics.

[oldschooltofu]

try blue carmel works way better and you get the same colors as exotic blue

try using frit, reduce for 4-5 seconds then neutral to oxyidizing flame and you will get golds and greens.

auora is really cool too...reduce to get purple and greens.

[Karen Hardy]

Baby,
Make a nice bead with ANY exotic. Then add dots of clear - or roll it
in clear frit. BEST combo of all time. You will be loving that Blue Exotic!

[Jamn!]

Dont leave it near the mandrel though. Because of all the metals it cools differently. So make a base out of something else first then exotic then clear... lolol

[Cosmo]

Too much oxygen will make colors boil. Use a neutral flame but work it further out in the flame until it starts to get molten, then you can heat it up more.

I used to use a lot of Green Exotic and Blue Exotic, mostly in frit form. They work well and give a nice wide range of colors. I have never had a problem with compatibility, but I didn't use much per piece.

[Jamn!]

There isn't an issue unless its used next to a mandrel. If you slow your annealing schedule down that helps too but they seem to crack from thermal shock when all the other beads will be fine.
There is a thread from a long time ago on WC where I think I put pictures.

I found the thread. Tom from Northstar put a good explanation in about the issue I was having. Its really because the mandrel acts as a heat sink. If you work off mandrel it wouldn't be an issue.
http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/show...ar+blue+exotic

[Howie]

To be honest, I've not made a bead yet with the boro but it's something I have been intending to do. I've seen some pretty awesome beads done with boro but being so new to it, I've just been doing some pendants and off mandrel stuff mainly.

I've had so much good feedback from people about the little heart pendants I've been making, I must have 40 of them.

The heat sink issue makes sense. I can't even say the learning curve is just from going from 104 to boro since I played with the soft glass for about a month with my hothead primarily, maybe 8 times, and a minor once before switching to boro. The only difference I can tell between the two really is boro doesn't get nearly as soupy, requires more heat and I still cringe like a bombsquad technician with a hangover clipping wires based on a coin toss every time I plunge a boro rod right into the flame. Oh yeah, I like the colors better too.