reall stupid question on frit

[Sheltie19]

Okay.. now I feel real stupid for even asking this.. but what are you all doing with the frit??? How are you using it.. and why do I see so much out there for sale. All,, I know of frit is you can roll a bead in it and come up with a varied pattern of colors.. but I keep seeing where you use frit on stuff.. and you have a very pretty design?? what am I missing on the frit world???
Sheltie

[Glassgoodies]

Gravity:



Twist:



Swirl:



Twisties:



You can also pull it into stringer or use it as a background for other designs.

[Just Nancy]

Here's my answer using pictures above to help visualize. Use it to enhance (the second bead above) or on help with organic looks (1&3).

There is a lot you can do with it, and a lot of color you can get added to a bead that would be very hard to add with single rods.

[lunamoonshadow]

There's a contest thread (somewhere--I think in the game room?) with loads of pictures of "frit twistie" beads, where folks made twisties by dipping melted glass in frit, pulling twistie & then using it to decorate the beads--just gorgeous. Nikki (the sheep goddess) uses the "frit twisties" on the wings of her dragonflies as well as using frit in the base of the bead--there's one up on ebay now:http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...6201&rd=1&rd=1




Me? Well, I'm mostly just hoarding it...pretty colors...must have them all you know...yum... (I think I'm addicted...send more frit...) 'cause I'm sooo a beginner making wonky lopsided beads still!

~luna
(note: picture "stolen" by permission...rofl...nikki knows I "steal" her pictures)

[DawnT]

When I first started I had a hard time with this as well. Here is a denim set I recently made and I was really pleased with it.

[Bubbyanne]

Great beads everyone!

There's so much you can do with frit. You can color your beads with frit colors that aren't available in the glass color pallettes we have available to us. Some frit reacts in interesting ways with silver and reduction frits will reduce to a metallic sheen.
Here's a few other uses I've found.
I use a mixed frit blend with a little aventurine as the base of my florals. It gives them a little sparkle and visual texture. I don't know if you can see the core very well in the pic.


These beads were from a frit challenge using only frit and white glass.
The floral bead has a white base rolled in green frit and the flowers were made by warming a white rod and dipping it in pink frit several times then pulled into a stringer.
The blue bead is white with blue frit mix from Val cox melted in then rolled in silver clear to get that texture.
The pink bead is white rolled in two frits then raked and swirled.
The purple bead is white and straight purple rose frit. This is one of my favorite frits, the color varies with each use and you get shades of purple in the bead.


Hope this was helpful.
Good luck and have fun experimenting!

[Sheltie19]

yes thanks everyone.. very helpful.... I wondered how you got all those pretty little patterns.... now I will have to play around with what frit I have right now

[glass-diary]

But don`t use frit COE 92 with sticks COE 104, it doesn`t fit

[meadowesky]

as long as you use it in small amounts you should be just fine. like 10% of the bead. a little more if you are doing just the surface.

[beadgoodies]

Frit, like enamel, pixie dust, silver foil, silver mesh, silver wire, goldstone, etc. is that category that I consider “glass extras.” Working with just glass rods can get boring and it’s easy to get into a rut. When I feel bored with what I’m doing, I start playing around with all the extra glass goodies available. Inevitably, I’ll come up with something new and intriguing both to me as a bead maker and to those buying my beads.

Earlier this week Desiree Hudson emailed me a picture of some beads she made using my Atlantis frit blend. She didn’t even use a lot of it – just a few frit bits on each bead! In addition, she used silver micro mesh. They are outstanding, imo! It was the “extras” that she used in making the beads that made these beads so gorgeous!



The more you have to play with, the more creative you can be and the more fun it is to make the beads. So, the more that’s available, the better!

Candy

[Lisi]

Here's a little trick on how to use these bright and pretty transparent frit colors on a black or other dark color base.

Effetre black, rolled in Effetre white frit, then rolled in violet frit (a transparent purple)

[Lisi]

Oh, and here's a "frit stringer" set: transparent pale amber T-008 (Effetre), the molten tip of the rod rolled in Val's Oscelot Spots, pulled into a stringer, and then applied over Effetre transparent medium amber T-012.

[beadgirl]

What beautiful beads! I thought you could not mix the different glasses either. The numbers were to far off LOL
THanks for posting nice, nice, nice. WOW
MarieAnn

[Lisi]

Originally Posted by beadgirl

What beautiful beads! I thought you could not mix the different glasses either. The numbers were to far off LOL
THanks for posting nice, nice, nice. WOW
MarieAnn

You can, but in a thin, single layer. For a really nice variegated color look on Effetre, use a dark base, roll in a pale opaque Effetre frit, then a bright transparent frit or frit mix over that. Like the violet beads above. Etch them, and then oo la-la! They look like crushed patterned velvet.

Most of these fantabulous bright colors are Reichenbach (92-94 COE), or Gaffer (96 COE). Their high lead content makes them compatable in small amounts of the surface. I've used them on Bullseye too, as well as the Uroboros and Spectrum sheet glass (96 COE).

[JanMD]

Sheltie -- You can also get some good ideas and inspiration from this page: http://www.blackberrybeads.com/Frits.htm

I liked to layer the frits on top of something that will annoy the frit and cause it to react in odd ways. Fun to do and fun to see what happens! Also try, as everyone has mentioned already, pulling stringer from frit. Also, layer the frit over (and under) enamels, both on the bead and in stringer. Apply a goodly amount of heat and watch the fireworks! (One suggestion: keep tabs on the ingredients of the mixture you are cooking up, so if you adore it, you can replicate it!)

I actually don't use much big frit anymore, mainly playing with powders now myself. I like the more delicate texture.

Jan