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  #1  
Old 2015-01-01, 4:08pm
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Kalorlo Kalorlo is offline
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Default NS aurora

I have been doing some experimenting with NS aurora, trying to get different effects and am mostly ending up with brown... You may have seen this already on the Northstar Glass Borosilicate Colour Facebook group - I think forums can be more useful for this kind of thing (plus I had real difficulties finding any pics of things that were mostly aurora on its own).

Here's what I did so far.



First I made these beads. They all have a clear core. From left to right: aurora, encased in clear; aurora with clear frit, encased in clear; aurora on surface. They are mostly brown with a little dull pinky-red (slight hint of purple on one side of the fritty one). On the surface I got the rod colour. They went through my normal kiln schedule which has a striking segment at 621C (1150F) for 10 mins and anneals at 565C (1049F).

I looked up the Northstar newsletter about it: http://www.northstarglass.com/newsletters/1.pdf

It says:
"For NS-47 Aurora it is also possible to get a full spectrum of colors depending on which flame is used as well as whether the piece is encased in clear or a color. To achieve vibrant blues, try working it in a highly oxidizing flame. To yield a green, work it in a neutral flame. To generate vibrant deep reds, work the piece in a neutral flame then reduce the piece when it is close to completion."

So, I'm on a Minor and 10lpm concentrator, so may not be able to get blues but I should at least be able to try for green, right?

So I tried turning my oxy up as high as I can get it and the propane down a little - gave me a hissing flame. I made these two beads. To get the lighter areas I had to really blast the surface and then allow to air cool for a long time. I still couldn't get the whole bead light. The light areas looked greenish before encasing and going in the kiln, but came out like this.



I then made an encased stringer, which looks a dull green with occasional pinker sections (see below).



The bead on the left went through the kiln and got a great deal darker. It's more purple than brown, but still pretty dark. The right bead is unannealed. I made it from the end of the rod I'd been using, so the blue streak is encased while the rest is plain aurora on the surface. Still really hard to strike, so the other side is all black, but there's a dark greenish section at the bottom of this side. Second pic shows the blue streak better.



You can see my encased rod and stringer here. (Rod also has a clear core). Nothing's come out of the kiln looking remotely like that.



I decided to do something a bit bigger next and with no mandrel in the way, so made a pair of scorpion claws.

One claw is solid aurora - still an awful lot of brown-black even for something with a much longer working time that was going in and out of the flame. I used a fairly high oxy flame but also enough propane to let me melt easily. For the second claw, I made a gather of aurora, encased it and then did all the shaping. It looked lighter before it went in the kiln, now it is weirdly salmony with other areas - a few dark blue-purple bits, a little almost-green haze. These were annealed with no striking segment, so at 565C all the way.



Things I want to know:
1) When unencased, is this pretty much what I should expect to get?
2) Green. How?
3) Do you think there are other issues here - am I not getting it hot enough to begin with, apart from any oxy limitations? Does it only get the vibrant colours in blown work?

I'll try reducing it before encasing next time.

Should I just file it under brown? It was handy in eye murrini and jellyfish tentacles for the saturation.

I'll be taking some along next time I visit somewhere with oxygen tanks, to see if I get anything different.

I've been getting really nice results from all the amber purples I've tried and almost everything else too - NS multi is the other frustrating colour so far (I got pale washed-out grey-green in beads when it wouldn't do anything either in the flame or the kiln) but I've not tried it again yet.
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Last edited by Kalorlo; 2015-01-02 at 4:52am.
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  #2  
Old 2015-01-01, 4:46pm
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So I found Firelady's clip of Milon Townsend making legs with aurora... http://www.fireladyproductions.com/S...te_Colors.html

He gets brighter red-pink from an entirely reducing flame, no encasing, and an oxy flame stays rod colour. Hmm.
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Old 2015-01-01, 9:18pm
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I use it as Brownish ...
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Old 2015-01-02, 4:38am
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That's really nice and a more interesting brown than I've been getting!

I trawled through the search again and found these posts:

http://www.lampworketc.com/forums/sh...ra#post2441915 - proof aurora goes green! By Heather/Ericaceae.
http://www.lampworketc.com/forums/sh...ra#post1190381 - pretty muted multicoloured beads by Suzanne.
http://www.lampworketc.com/forums/sh...ghlight=aurora - darker red/green/blue heart by e. mort.
http://www.lampworketc.com/forums/sh...ora#post482419 - brighter blues and greens heart by e. mort.

http://www.lampworketc.com/forums/sh...ghlight=aurora - no pics but saying that annealing at 1000F (538C) stops colour changing to brown, if it wasn't already.
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Last edited by Kalorlo; 2015-01-02 at 4:50am.
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Old 2015-01-02, 9:28am
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I think I got something today! I melted my glass entirely in a reducing flame - got opaque salmony pink on my rod, which vanished on the bead, but rolling it in the edge of the flame made the surface lighten up, and then after encasing it definitely looked green. I have a few variations on that in the kiln and added a new program that doesn't go above 538C.

Fingers crossed I get something out! It definitely looked different to what I was getting before...
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Old 2015-01-08, 8:27pm
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well... ?
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Old 2015-01-09, 6:37am
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Right, annealed at 538C for all these.



First bead (left) was less reduced than the others and I'm going to call it taupe because it's one of those really weird inbetween colours. In the second bead I reduced it enough to get an opaque surface then encased it - got seagreen along with the salmon pink! And the third is again reduced a lot, clear frit and encased - has gone purple under the frit.

When I say reduced a lot, I had my flame so I just started getting about 2mm of yellow bushy ends on my candles (Minor). Get the rod or surface of the bead properly hot in this and you'll see the surface change after a moment or two, that's when it develops the opaque salmon colour. It'll tend to go away while forming the bead (even in the same flame) and you'll have to bring it back again on the surface once you have it shaped.

After working like that, my rod looks like this.



I made a pair of hearts after that, to work with a larger mass of glass and get the mandrel out of the way. The base is red Elvis with a spiral of aurora round it, added in a reducing flame. In this one I added the clear frit when the aurora was still standing out, melted it in in a reducing flame, then encased in clear. (I didn't pull the tail into the best shape here, wasn't sure which direction to go in). Same heart, two pics.



You can see I got a band of green and yellow on one lobe and various other colours, with a good bit of salmon pink and red from the glass that wasn't under frit. A little muddy in areas. The area on top of the lobes was added last, worked least, and has the brightest colour. I'e also got haze spread across the red Elvis areas, which looks pretty cool with the frit on top.

I made this heart second, which is a lot bigger and also has a little bit of TAG sparky inside, not that you can see it much here.

This one has a clear core under the Elvis, and the aurora was all put on the gather at the same time and melted down before I added the frit. I prefer the effect in the first one. The colours are more muted here (it was worked longer too). Shape is better.



Then I made some beads where I tried to use a lighter hand on the reduction. That didn't work - I got tiny hints of colour in these but they are mostly just really dark. The little yellow spots are where metals came to the surface. I was trying to brush lightly with the edge of the reducing flame and it really doesn't do much.



Finally, I made these three. From left to right:
1. Formed in neutral flame, heated through in reducing flame once so it went iridescent not opaque, encased. Got purple.
2. Reduced a lot, added clear frit, reduced more and encased - got blue-green and yellow, plus slightly purple round the other side.
3. Reduced a lot, added clear frit, not encased. Red and green, and yellowish round the back, which lost the surface pink.



Here are the beads in hand, slightly washed-out, but shows the back on the last bead.



(i also made another big claw with frit that ended up fairly uniform muted purple pastel tones, no pic yet).
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