White turning purple?

[weiner]

Can anyone tell me why my white turns purple when I use black on it? I got a great swirly design out of it, but black and white it aint.

Cheryl

[dogmaw]

Could you post a picture of your bead? That would help me a lot.

[ElizabethCreations]

are you using Moretti black?
Moretti black is a very very dark transparent purple. So when using on white, it turns purple. Sometimes, Moretti Black can ''bleed'' on the white and you have this purple on it.
That's probably why you have this problem.
Vetrofond Black is a dark dark blue and you probably won't have this trouble. Intense black too can solve the problem but if you heat it too much, it will web... And it's much more expensive than the Vetrofond Black!

[Dasi]

You are overcooking your effetre black. If you use the effetre black you must treat it with less heat to keep the black from spreading by being overheated. OR you could use vetrofond black. Vetrofond black works better over white but it can still be overheated and turn blue at the edges.

[JavaGirlBT]

Effetre black is really a dark purple color, so sometimes over white it looks purple instead of black, especially if it has been swirled.

[Firebug]

Hi Cheryl,

Actually black glass is a very, very, very, VERY dark purple when it is made. White designs on black will always have a bit of purple because of this.

What kind of black are you using? Effetre or Vetrofond? I find that the purple problem is minimized greatly with Vetrofond for some reason. You could also encase your black bead with a very thin layer of clear and then do your white detail work.

I know there are others that know more about this than I do, but Vetrofond black seems to be the best to work with white, IMHO. Also, melt your designs in slowly (if you aren't already) - that also helps keep the edges crisper.

Hope this helps!

Cheers
Kathy

[weiner]

Thanks everyone for your input. I have both Effetre and Vetrofond and, truth be told, I don't know which one I used. I guess this will be a good project for me today to figure out what is what.

Thanks again,

Cheryl

[Chuckie]

Originally Posted by Firebug

I find that the purple problem is minimized greatly with Vetrofond for some reason.

It's because the Vetrofond is an ultra-dark green glass, or at least it bleeds green when you cook the crapola out of it. I guess greens don't run as easily as purples.

When I get my Vetro and Effetre black rods mixed up, I pull fine stringers, hold them up to the light and can tell which is which by looking for the purple and green tint.

Char

[weiner]

Wow! Thanks, Char. I will trot on down to the dungeon now and pull stringer. Much easier than the plan I had in mind.

[Chuckie]

The difference is very subtle. If you end up with all Effetre or all Vetrofond, you might have a hard time telling the difference without a known color sample.

[Emily]

If it's purple, it's Effetre.

It doesn't have to be overcooked to look purple. If for some reason the black is thin (pulled out thinly in a swirl will definitely do it), it's going to show that it's really purple.

If you're ever doing melted-in black dots on transparents (pupils on eyeballs is the classic example), that's a time when you'll really want to have some intense black on hand. Purple pupils just don't cut it.

[koko76]

While it certainly is true that different blacks behave differently, so do different whites. I had a lot of issue with moretti white doing odd things next to a bunch of dark colors, I recently picked up some lauscha white, and it definitely makes a difference, certainly against the moretti black. The lauscha doesn't seem to go as "soupy" when melting as the moretti, prolly accounts for other colors bleeding into it less.

[Firebug]

Originally Posted by Chuckie

It's because the Vetrofond is an ultra-dark green glass, or at least it bleeds green when you cook the crapola out of it. I guess greens don't run as easily as purples.

When I get my Vetro and Effetre black rods mixed up, I pull fine stringers, hold them up to the light and can tell which is which by looking for the purple and green tint.

Char

Thanks Char! I never knew the vetrofond was ultra-dark green! I learn something new everytime I log onto LE!

Cheers
Kathy

[DesertDreamer]

Two other 'fixes' to the purple black problem. One is 'old school' but works VERY well, and I learned it years ago from Kate Fowle. Take a cobalt blue transparent rod, heat a small gather, and roll it in black Thompson enamel, heating and melting in 3-4 layers one at a time, then pull out a stringer. (It will feel stiffer than regular cobalt blue does.)

OR, splurge a little and invest in a few rods of Moretti intense black. One rod will last a LONG time if you only use it as stringer, even for dotting.