Copper ruby frit and iris opal yellow frit

[harakeke]

Hi - I've got some copper ruby reduction frit, and iris opal yellow reduction frit, and was wondering what colours I was hoping to get. So far the copper ruby comes out black, and the opal yellow, dirty brown.

Anyone have any experience with these?

[StellaBlue]

Try this with the copper ruby -

Make a base bead in your favorite shape using Moretti white. Roll it fairly heavily in copper ruby frit. Melt in all the frit, marver the bead gently to cool it down. Now put the whole thing back in the flame and heat the snot outta it (technical term) until the whole thing droops (like for a gravity bead). Twirl your mandrel a bit to get some good swirls - or rake, or marver, or twist - whatver you need to get a pretty pattern, reshape your bead, then encase fairly heavily.

This gives me something that looks like a black cherry sundae - streaks of red, black cherry, and caramel swirled over a white base.

Regards,
Rita

[Sashabeads]

Copper ruby is a great color, and you can actually reduce it to look coppery instead of silver the way many of the other reduction frits look when reduced. It's a timing issue with the reduction. I personally like to use reduction frit by making a bead, rolling it in frit, melting it partly in (no undercuts!) but still bumpy. Then I turn down my oxygen and quickly flash the bead in the reduction flame. At worst the copper ruby will be silver, but you can get it to be coppery, and it will stay that way. I have a bead sitting on my bed-side table right now that is black with coppery reduced copper ruby. It's lovely and about 3 years old.

I've never tried the iris opal yellow, but if it's coming out dirty brown then my suspicion is that you have over reduced it. Over reduction might also be why your copper ruby is black (or perhaps you didn't have enough of a reduction flame.) Reduction frit is best with a quick time or two back in the reducing flame; it is not a long process. Too long and you burn out the metals. You can partially salvage the reaction by turning the oxygen back up, putting the bead back into a neutral/oxidizing flame and then trying again, but too many times and it will all go gray and icky (IMO).

Do some practice with some small beads and don't hesitate to ask more questions. I love working with reduction frit (esp. silver blue, silver green and copper ruby) when I'm in the mood to use them.

Sasha

[jaci]

I like copper ruby on ASK carmel apple! Yummy combo!!

[Kevan]

I like copper ruby by itself, I really haven't used the frit, but you can pull stringer with the frit and reduce it. You will get coppery stringer.

[LyndaJ]

Reichenbach opal yellow doesn't really DO anything by itself. It's a lot like the 104 opal yellow. Non-reactive base color that can blush yellow if treated correctly.

You might like to use the OY frit first, melt it in a little, then melt some of the rub frit over it. Should give some pretty streaking.

[Chuckie]

If those colors are turning black and dirty brown on you, you're probably working it too hot for too long. While you can "heat the snot" out of them, you can't do it for an extended amount of time or you lose the colors.

[StellaBlue]

Originally Posted by Chuckie

If those colors are turning black and dirty brown on you, you're probably working it too hot for too long. While you can "heat the snot" out of them, you can't do it for an extended amount of time or you lose the colors.

Yeah, that's the truth. You gotta treat it like my hubby treats shopping at WalMart - in and back out, the instant you get what you want!

I second the idea of little practice beads. I'm slowly working my way through the reduction frit colors, ordering one or two at a time to play with (iris orange, iris gold, copper ruby, silver green,silver blue). When I get a new one I typically make several small beads, one reduced, one oxidized, one just melted, one melted, cooled, and reheated a couple of times. I sometime try a couple of different base colors, too- usually some reactive ones like dark ivory or EDP as well as black, white, and clear. Often I'll put a dot of clear on each sample bead to see how encasing might change the look. I don't bother to anneal these, just pull 'em off, string on a wire and hang 'em up for reference.

Maybe it's just me - but I haven't found one yet that I prefer treating to a reduction flame. Several have really neat looks in an oxidizing flame, though - that's where I seem to get the most "metallicy" looking stuff. I often find the most colors happening via the heat-cool-reheat in a neutral or ever so slightly oxidizing flame.

Rita

[Chuckie]

If you're new at this and still having trouble forming your beads, you can take the painstakingly slow method of barely heating your bead, almost to the point of the glass isn't moving yet, and pulling it out of the flame over and over again to shape your bead. You can hurry it along a bit by just spots heating (and I mean tiny, little spots) quickly pushing the area closer to the shape you want, and keep repeating that until you have the shape you want. It takes forever, but you won't lose your color.

[harakeke]

Thanks everyone - there's not that many of us to ask Downunder (NZ)!