Showing posts with label dichroic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dichroic. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Monday, August 17, 2015
Fresh Glass 8.17.15
Hey there...long time... uh... Been freaking busy! Found out some classes I need to take...were already happening! So I had to jump in and catch up or...wait til January. Waiting is not my forte. And... I started a tutoring job the same week! Argh! But things are a little calmer but...school is starting and hopefully work won't be far behind!
I have been a torching fiend! I have a trunk show the first weekend in October and so I want mostly newer stuffs...
Don't laugh but these were actually TWO torch sessions! Each time, I made exactly three beads and... hated them and quit! Only to get them them out and love them! Lather rinse repeat! LOL! Loving this honeycomb dichroic! So these will be a set... three large olives and 2 spacers and ...one for the bead bowl. Sigh! More tomorrow!
I have been a torching fiend! I have a trunk show the first weekend in October and so I want mostly newer stuffs...
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
We Interrupt These Fresh Glass Broadcasts...
... to show off a lot of beads that have been adopted! I haven't really shown off any sold work since February! Wow! How's that for lack of promotion!??
My college bestie bought this bead and had me wrap it... the funny thing was, I was thinking of her and a dress she had when I made it! She bought it without knowing that!
And the dichro on the front!
This was a turtle / ocean bead from my Corina class:
This was an End of Day bead from the same class:
Another End of day bead...I've been trying to use up some of the stringers on my desk!
And more....
My college bestie bought this bead and had me wrap it... the funny thing was, I was thinking of her and a dress she had when I made it! She bought it without knowing that!
The guitar sold lickety split! I loved the back of that bead:
 |  |
This was an End of Day bead from the same class:
This floral found a home:
I've been selling off that fabulous huge z99 set from when I first started lampworking in parts... makes me so sad... although I made more money from the parts than anyone was willing to pay for the set!
All were sold on Facebook! I'm trying to concentrate my efforts on the Fire Divas Glass Market, Glass Beads for Sale and Artisans Lampwork Beads for Sale.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
New Beads!
I finally got off my duff (OK... You know me, I'm not ON my duff that much... I've been dealing with another huge stamp order...) and cleaned some of the bounty of beads in my bead bowl! Or just finally dealt with the final stages of getting beads ready to photograph!
This gingko had been kicking around my work table for like... a year! Butterfingers here had dropped him on her tile floor! The bail broke but he was just too pretty to toss in the trash or melt back into...something! Then the other week, I had a really small, all day kumihimo class and I knew a large part of my day would be waiting for people to braid their work. I tossed him in my kit along with some sterling wire and had him all wrapped up before class began!
He's so pretty, I gotta show off both sides!:
This key was made back in the summer but got stuck on my key mandrel! I would work and work on it every time I passed my allen wrenches! It finally came off and I get it all polished up and took a pic! There's rich silver glass on that bead and it really shimmers!
This gingko had been kicking around my work table for like... a year! Butterfingers here had dropped him on her tile floor! The bail broke but he was just too pretty to toss in the trash or melt back into...something! Then the other week, I had a really small, all day kumihimo class and I knew a large part of my day would be waiting for people to braid their work. I tossed him in my kit along with some sterling wire and had him all wrapped up before class began!
This key was made back in the summer but got stuck on my key mandrel! I would work and work on it every time I passed my allen wrenches! It finally came off and I get it all polished up and took a pic! There's rich silver glass on that bead and it really shimmers!
This Green Tiger set is SO SMALL if you know my work... only an inch and a half long for the whole set! The blue is a cool color reaction!
There's more and all will be listed on my glass bead site in the next few days!
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Terms of the Trade - High Silver Glass & Dichroic
Continuing on our terminology journey, today we look at silver glasses and dichroic. High silver & silver saturated are two common terms you hear when shopping for glass beads. The meaning is pretty clear... there's lots of silver in a particular glass. Even though this is a basic vocabulary to glassy peeps... I hope you will keep reading...some good tips here for making glass beads!
Silver in glass? Yes, metals are common elements. Copper and Lead are also common in glass. If you are curious about what these metals do, check out the Bullseye website which lists the elements in a particular glass and what other elements may cause a reaction.
Glass artists are often looking for a reaction. One glass makes another "bleed" and create striations of color. Or the lovely black line that appears when turquoise touches ivory or coral. This button by fellow Fire Diva Rivers Edge is a perfect example. See the black line between the colors? That's a color reaction.
But back to the silver. Silver adds amazing shine to glass...a spectacular sheen! You can see what I'm referring to on this pandora style glass bead by Giapet.
This is a specific reaction that occurs when a silver saturated glass is "reduced." Reducing or reduction flames are mostly propane, starving the bead of oxygen. Silver needs oxygen to be a happy camper in the glass and when starved for oxygen, the silver molecules gather on the surface of the bead...where there is more oxygen in the air. Reduction is usually the last thing done to a bead before popping it in a kiln. This keeps the silver on the surface, creating that beautiful rich shine!
Here are another example. My fish has silver glass fins and the speckles on his body are silver glass as well.
Silver glass is very popular in spite of the cost. Starting at around $48 / pound and going up to $100 / pound, it's best used sparingly!
But that is not the ONLY thing silver does to glass. Silvered ivory is another term you hear alot, certainly on this blog! It's one of my favorite techniques! I simply love the rugged, ancient look you can get but adding fine (.999 pure) silver to ivory glass. Here are two examples, the first by Janel Dudley Beads called Sprouts. Check out the bottom half of her bead:
The second bead, I made. It features both techniques...silvered ivory on the inside with silver saturated glass on the dots and surface decoration.
The last glass I would like to show off to you is called dichroic. Dichroic glass was actually invented for NASA - I can't imagine what for but, I'm sure glad they shared it with the glass industry! This definition is from the website of CBS-dichroic, the best known manufacturer: "Quartz Crystal and Metal Oxides are Vaporized with an electron beam gun in an airless vacuum chamber and the vapor then floats upward and attaches then condenses on the surface of the glass in the form of a crystal structure."
Fancy, huh?? Well, the results are beautiful, sparkly and double colored....hence the name di = two; chroic = color! The two color are the color you see looking straight on at the glass and the color that light reflects back. See how the strips of dichroic look purple AND gold:
This bead is a perfect example of ways to use dichroic: There are THREE techniques here: Surface, encased and what one of my favorite teachers, Janet Andersen calls "party stringer."
That surface coating is the subject of much debate among lampworkers. Many say you cannot put the coating on the outside... but you can. You see it right there. The trick is, you MUST work cool. Too hot, and you have scum! But it can be done! Keep the coating away from the flame and wrap in reverse.... and keep working cool!
The dots on the bead are clear, clear glass traps the coating and makes it crackle and get all interesting. Most the dichroic you see is trapped under clear. That doesn't mean it's any less challenging to work. Many bead makers will clip a small piece of dichroic into their hemostats with the coating side up to stick into the flame without burning it off...but with me, my hemos fall over and then I'm panicked with a hot bead in the flame! OY!
But then I remembered an old fusing trick! Lay your fingernails on the glass. If your nail is touching the glass, you are touching the dichroic. If there is a visual "skip" between your nail and the glass, you are touching the glass side. The dichroic coating is on the back and creating a mirror effect! I can lay down my hemos and check with one hand while keeping that bead warm!
The final technique - exemplified by the pink and gold thin ribbon running around the bead between the surface application is party stringer. Lay down several strips dichroic onto a hot clear rod. Case well and pull. This makes dichro go a long way...which is a good thing! It too is pricey, running from 65 cents an INCH to 1.50 an INCH.
Check back tomorrow for some twisted beads!
Silver in glass? Yes, metals are common elements. Copper and Lead are also common in glass. If you are curious about what these metals do, check out the Bullseye website which lists the elements in a particular glass and what other elements may cause a reaction.
Glass artists are often looking for a reaction. One glass makes another "bleed" and create striations of color. Or the lovely black line that appears when turquoise touches ivory or coral. This button by fellow Fire Diva Rivers Edge is a perfect example. See the black line between the colors? That's a color reaction.
But back to the silver. Silver adds amazing shine to glass...a spectacular sheen! You can see what I'm referring to on this pandora style glass bead by Giapet.This is a specific reaction that occurs when a silver saturated glass is "reduced." Reducing or reduction flames are mostly propane, starving the bead of oxygen. Silver needs oxygen to be a happy camper in the glass and when starved for oxygen, the silver molecules gather on the surface of the bead...where there is more oxygen in the air. Reduction is usually the last thing done to a bead before popping it in a kiln. This keeps the silver on the surface, creating that beautiful rich shine!Here are another example. My fish has silver glass fins and the speckles on his body are silver glass as well.
Silver glass is very popular in spite of the cost. Starting at around $48 / pound and going up to $100 / pound, it's best used sparingly!
But that is not the ONLY thing silver does to glass. Silvered ivory is another term you hear alot, certainly on this blog! It's one of my favorite techniques! I simply love the rugged, ancient look you can get but adding fine (.999 pure) silver to ivory glass. Here are two examples, the first by Janel Dudley Beads called Sprouts. Check out the bottom half of her bead:
The second bead, I made. It features both techniques...silvered ivory on the inside with silver saturated glass on the dots and surface decoration.
The last glass I would like to show off to you is called dichroic. Dichroic glass was actually invented for NASA - I can't imagine what for but, I'm sure glad they shared it with the glass industry! This definition is from the website of CBS-dichroic, the best known manufacturer: "Quartz Crystal and Metal Oxides are Vaporized with an electron beam gun in an airless vacuum chamber and the vapor then floats upward and attaches then condenses on the surface of the glass in the form of a crystal structure."
Fancy, huh?? Well, the results are beautiful, sparkly and double colored....hence the name di = two; chroic = color! The two color are the color you see looking straight on at the glass and the color that light reflects back. See how the strips of dichroic look purple AND gold:
This bead is a perfect example of ways to use dichroic: There are THREE techniques here: Surface, encased and what one of my favorite teachers, Janet Andersen calls "party stringer."That surface coating is the subject of much debate among lampworkers. Many say you cannot put the coating on the outside... but you can. You see it right there. The trick is, you MUST work cool. Too hot, and you have scum! But it can be done! Keep the coating away from the flame and wrap in reverse.... and keep working cool!The dots on the bead are clear, clear glass traps the coating and makes it crackle and get all interesting. Most the dichroic you see is trapped under clear. That doesn't mean it's any less challenging to work. Many bead makers will clip a small piece of dichroic into their hemostats with the coating side up to stick into the flame without burning it off...but with me, my hemos fall over and then I'm panicked with a hot bead in the flame! OY!
But then I remembered an old fusing trick! Lay your fingernails on the glass. If your nail is touching the glass, you are touching the dichroic. If there is a visual "skip" between your nail and the glass, you are touching the glass side. The dichroic coating is on the back and creating a mirror effect! I can lay down my hemos and check with one hand while keeping that bead warm!
The final technique - exemplified by the pink and gold thin ribbon running around the bead between the surface application is party stringer. Lay down several strips dichroic onto a hot clear rod. Case well and pull. This makes dichro go a long way...which is a good thing! It too is pricey, running from 65 cents an INCH to 1.50 an INCH.
Check back tomorrow for some twisted beads!
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Dichro
Many bead artists think of dichroic glass as something to just add sparkle to the inside of a bead, such as this one.
It's true...It really does add depth and incredible sparkle! But there are different kinds of dichro now. Below is an example of what is called Pure Dichro.
To me, it looks more like silver foil that forgot to melt in. The bead above was made by capturing some pure dichro in clear, casing and pulling a stringer. I set that aside and made a small amber bead, rolled the hot bead in the pure dichro and cased. The stringer was used to add a small flower on each side.
The other thing I recently learned about dichro - in a Janet Anderson class at Glass Obsessions - is that dichro can be worked directly in the flame. This bead is not the best example...I'm an impatient glasser! But, by working it far back in the flame and keeping it rather cool, slowly heating to the point the dichro layer melts in, you can create a multil layered effect. Note the dots of clear over the dichro. The exposed dichro feels really neat to touch, not rough, but not glassy either.
And while these are all experimental beads (and for sale for less than the cost of the glass), it is a technique I want to explore further.
It's true...It really does add depth and incredible sparkle! But there are different kinds of dichro now. Below is an example of what is called Pure Dichro.
To me, it looks more like silver foil that forgot to melt in. The bead above was made by capturing some pure dichro in clear, casing and pulling a stringer. I set that aside and made a small amber bead, rolled the hot bead in the pure dichro and cased. The stringer was used to add a small flower on each side.
The other thing I recently learned about dichro - in a Janet Anderson class at Glass Obsessions - is that dichro can be worked directly in the flame. This bead is not the best example...I'm an impatient glasser! But, by working it far back in the flame and keeping it rather cool, slowly heating to the point the dichro layer melts in, you can create a multil layered effect. Note the dots of clear over the dichro. The exposed dichro feels really neat to touch, not rough, but not glassy either.
And while these are all experimental beads (and for sale for less than the cost of the glass), it is a technique I want to explore further.
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