Why only silvered IVORY?

[lynn's lampwork]

Why does everyone always talk just about ivory with silver on beads? Can't I use other colors, even clear? or are the effects weird....

Just curious....thanks!

[J. Savina]

Hi Lynn!
It seems that you get some of the best effects with silver on moretti ivory. It looks very organic. And if that's the look you're going for, this combination is very nice. But I also sometimes use silver on clear before I roll my beads in frit. Some of the effects are really nice. Almost like a mosaic effect. Here's a picture of a set I did last year. It's with clear, then silver foil, then a mossy green frit.
J.

[TheBriarePatch]

I love silvered 260 pink - it can look like Opal Yellow!

[kbinkster]

Silver reacts with the ivory differently. Ivory is a more reactive color than most others. You can try using the silver with other colors, but you will get varying effects - and with some things, no effects at all.

I like using silver leaf over Effetre black and under Effetre clear. You can get some pretty blues and greens from the silver.

Transparent cobalt is fun, too.

Here's how I used to do it on the HotHead:

Make a base bead of black.
Roll over silver leaf. Rub in with tool.
Cover entire surface with spikes of clear. You do this by heating the tip of a clear rod and tagging the surface of the bead, pulling away quickly.
Melt in clear spikes.

Alternatively, you can just encase like you normally would. If you do the spikes, you can get exposed areas for different effects.

[rainygrrl]

I love silvered rubino stringer, silvered EDP, silvered Lauscha olive...

[Emily]

Except for silvered very pale aqua. Don't recommend that at all.

(The joke here is that VP aqua is the one color that does NOTHING with silver. Even clear reacts with silver, but not VP aqua -- which means you can get some cool effects by using bits of VP aqua on something that does react with silver, for a "resist" effect.)