I've just been exploring making beads from some glass shards my DH found whilst digging out some footings at a job he's doing for someone. The glass had a beautiful aquamarine colour and they look quite lovely - however - this has made me think about all those empty gin bottles & their lovely colours & COE's - does anyone know the COE's of current bottles - can they be combined etc.,
i dont know all the ins and outs and about combining with other glass but several people drink bombay saphire just so they can use the glass apparently ;)
It is a very pretty blue. I'm sure that must be the reason :D
Make a pull of a small piece of the recycled glass pull it into a rod thickness piece heat to molten and lay it on some heated scrap 104 clear, allow that to cool and note if the glass pulls in one direction or another, If it cools without bending or snapping your 104 , then you have compatability!
Try this with a boro punty and 104 and the 104 will shrink back and crack off the coe33.
Harveys Bristol Cream sherry bottles make lovely beads as do beer and wine bottles too. Just don't mix the different glasses. Concentrate on differently shaped beads or spacers. I cut my bottles and put into my big ceramic kiln to make flat sheets and then cut these up into 1/4 inch strips. I also use offcuts of stained glass, mostly Spectrum to make beads too. I can't remember what COE bottle glass is, somewhere around 84 I seem to recall, may be wrong. Spectrum is COE 96.
You could always try mixing tiny amounts of enamel powder with the glass to colour it.
Diana East has an article in the first issue of Bead magazine on Bombay sapphire glass. I have tried it, takes ages to melt, have pulled thick stringers with it, but not done anything with them. Made some plain round beads, quite lovely but takes a long time ,tried frit on them, some was ok some flaked off, even tried silvered glass as dots that worked if not too many dots
Jean
I'd be interested to read that article Jean. I have seen Diana's Bombay Sapphire hollow bead necklace...it is stunning. She has also made another hollow bead necklace using Lorina Pink Lemonade glass, fumed with gold to make it pink. I have a photo of it on my website at the bottom of the page:
http://www.bigbangbeads.com/Big_Bang_Beads/Notes_on_Diana_Easts_Master_Class_Day_2.html
As I said the article was in issue no 1. there are pictures of her blue necklace and pictures of the pink lemonade also some brown beads made with beer bottles. She wore her blue bombay necklace when we went for a curry on the first course I took with her, gorgeous!
I'll have to see if I can get a copy!
I have got an empty Bombay Gin bottle as well as a Harvey's lurking outside. I like Pat's idea of flattening them in a kiln...but I only have an SC2 so I'll probably just smash them up and melt them into rods.
I have heard of people using broken lenses from old car brake lights too.
di also made some beads using recycled glass in murano - her and sarah hornik spent a few hours "beach combing" a little gravel "beach" for some lumps of glass which they then melted and mixed into their new rods.... i know these were all 104 but they made some wonderful pieces - i'll see if i can scare up some pics from the archives... was just down there again recently and had a wander around looking at studio spaces...
the lumps that got the most excitement where ones that were called "uranium glass" by daniello - it was a kind of milky, creamy, bluey kinda glass that is apparently no longer safe to produce!... ;-)
go figure!...
Thanks for that - especialy about how to test for compatibility - useful. I've made a couple of beads from one of the shards, it melted quicker than my other stuff - My DH thought it was probably about 100 years old as he has found other parts of it and some have developed that oil on water effect.
I've made a few beads with Bombay sapphire glass, but haven't tried mixing it with any other glass. I've used silver leaf & silver foil with it though for a different look, it worked well and the silver didn't discolour at all, quite a pretty effect. :)
Interesting - I also have about 600 bottles of assorted enamels - haven't a clue what their COE's are. Some are very old but I have tested them and they still 'work'. If they are somehow administered to be on the inside of a hollow - I feel a dose of the experimentals coming on :D
Quotedi also made some beads using recycled glass in murano - her and sarah hornik spent a few hours "beach combing" a little gravel "beach" for some lumps of glass which they then melted and mixed into their new rods.... i know these were all 104 but they made some wonderful pieces - i'll see if i can scare up some pics from the archives... was just down there again recently and had a wander around looking at studio spaces...
Ooooooo - yes please do!
Quotethe lumps that got the most excitement where ones that were called "uranium glass" by daniello - it was a kind of milky, creamy, bluey kinda glass that is apparently no longer safe to produce!... ;-)
Did they do anything with the uranium glass or did they feel that it wasn't safe to play with?
oh heck yes they did stuff - i think you'll find lamp makers aren't easily put off by merely "dangerous" glass!! ;D ;D ;D
besides - our studio space was as well "ventilated" as sitting outside - some of our artists were wrapped like Eskimo's, and photographed in Sarah's photo blog!!..
i'll dig through the photos folder and see what i can find... i seem to remember that Corina had a go too, but got sidetracked with Sarah into a bead relay...
with the most abject thanks to sarah i found this pic of the beach glass.....
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3221/2378201727_2c95b86d39.jpg)
this one of the beach itself....
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2282/2379040316_b8eeb52814.jpg)
and this one of di and cosita...
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3235/2369544371_4bfd290648.jpg)
Quotethe lumps that got the most excitement where ones that were called "uranium glass" by daniello - it was a kind of milky, creamy, bluey kinda glass that is apparently no longer safe to produce!... ;-)
I read an article about that somewhere, from what I remember there was an English glass company making it just before the WW2 who had 3 tonnes of uranium confiscated when war broke out. I've seen a few pictures of old glassware made with it, and has a really nice green/yellow colours to it. I have a small bit of frit I was given called 'uranium glass' which is yellow but might be made in a modern safe way without anything radioactive - however under UV light it glows wonderfully!
Ive got a stack of 1inch Uranium marbles they live in my fishtank,oh heck thats why my fish all have 2 heads:d hehehe
Thanks for the pics Q...you'd have to wear shoes on that beach! And what an impressive collection of glass shards...far more varied than you'd find at Worthing. Lovely photo of Di and Cosita too.
I am now tempted to go round the junk shops looking for uranium glass...I've also heard that the proper stuff glows an erie green colour under UV, so maybe that frit is the real thing! I've got some modern 'Uranium' Effetre glass that is not made of radio-active materials...I'm off to check if it glows...now where's me UV light?
Wandering around in my workshop with a UV light was quite an eye-opener (Yes, I know, I am odd!) , I found that some beads I made with light amber mixed and streaked into opaque white glowed an amazing orange colour!
I bought a few collections from ebay whence I was in my enamelling phase & I have some old yellow enamels that are no longer in production - due to potential hazardous material presumably - & aren't some reds meant to be a bit dodgy too? Me thinks a quick whizz around my shed with a UV lamp may show up some interesting things too.
Yellow Uranium glass is still in production, Gaffer sell it for glass blowing and it has a lead crystal base. I'm working with it for casting and yes it does glow green under UV light. A lot of glass was tinted with Uranium up till the second world war so it doesn't have to be the iconic greeny yellow to glow! There's quite a few places in Edinburgh that if you have a UV keyring and shine it at the chandeliers you get glowing greenness!
Going back to the original thread, if the glass your hubby dug up is 100year old or more it could be that it's lead rather than soda which would make it softer to work with too!
I suspect you're right - its quite nice to work with - he's now come back with nearly whole bottles which are the size of an old fashioned milk bottle - about 1/2 pint - and they weigh a ton. The walls are about 10mm thick in parts, so probably lead based too.