My wonderful son has bought me a bundle of Pandora glass for Xmas - have had a look at some threads here and it looks like the glass is aptly named. I know its been out for a little while now and wondered if anyone has had good results with an SC2 kiln. Any suggestions, or is it more of a case of suck it and see.
Shelia
Have fun with it ;D
We've got kilncare beadcube/maxine but should be the same as the SC2.
It strikes in the Kiln. Make bead, shove in there and wait. Check the colours after a few hours if happy anneal if not leave longer. We've got an experimental wavy one that just sits in the kiln and has been heated up many times. The outer edge initially struck to a lovely purple with the encased waves staying the pandora glass khaki colour. The purple outer has now turned more mud colour but the encased waves are beginning to change colour. I'm surprised it's not cracked yet as we heat our kiln up as fast as we can and then garage our new beads.
I normally use a base of either scummy clear or yellow but its fun playing with others.
Ruth
I have plenty of scummy stuff and I believe Sal said use it thin but don't encase with Lauscha. I have my kiln set up as per the installation leaflet (ish), cranks up in 30 mins, sits at about 537 for 3 hours- seems to work alright for everything else. Will be free to do some experimenting tonight whilst DH is out climbing. :D
I am prepared for an assortment of brick coloured beads.
I quite like this glass, though it is hard to time and I've had mixed results. I made some first thing yesterday, made some other bits and then shut the kiln (sc2) down at about lunchtime. They were still in there today, I did another session of about 2 hours. They still haven't struck but there's a bit of purple coming now, so I'm expecting them to go purple next time, only I'd better not make it a very long session as they can go over! I probably should do a cycle dedicated to Pandora, and work out properly how long it takes in my kiln. Mine sits at 525. As Sal says use it thin, if you use it thicker it can go dark and look muddy so go for wispyness over your base colour. I had some successful ones right at the start and I can't remeber if I encased them or not, so I think so experiments are in order :)
I think this one will need careful logging.
Interesting thread, thank you! I was hoping to have a go with this glass, but I make so few beads I always batch anneal, so I didn't think it would work. But if I'm reading this correctly, if I leave beads in for a couple or three cycles, it might just work....? So much for not buying more glass till I've used the stuff I have ::)
;D
'So much for not buying more glass till I've used the stuff I have'
Sorry & What! You are making me feel embarrased about the amount of glass I seem to have accumulated since I started this. ;D I blame it on Tuffnells myself ;) bringing out all this new stuff.
Quote from: Yellow friend on January 27, 2010, 05:02:17 PM
'So much for not buying more glass till I've used the stuff I have'
Sorry & What! You are making me feel embarrased about the amount of glass I seem to have accumulated since I started this. ;D I blame it on Tuffnells myself ;) bringing out all this new stuff.
;D
Quote'So much for not buying more glass till I've used the stuff I have'
I've only been at this for 6 months and I seem to have acquired a very large amount of glass already. I think it is half the fun to have it all organised in nice tubes, colour coordinated and ready to peruse and use. I LOVE my glass collection but am a bit afraid of how big it will be in a year's time. ;D ;D ;D
It will never be too big believe me ;)
I soooo believe you!
Coincidentally I stumbled on this (http://www.doublehelixglassworks.com/DH_guide_pandora.pdf)last night which you might find helpful.
I no longer have my SC2 but got great results with Pandora in it just running my usual kiln cycle (annealing at 520 C) for between 2 and 4 hours. Its a beautiful glass and well worth the effort of getting the kiln cycle right.
Sarah
xxx
I had some ages ago, but never got much out of it. Might give it another go. Does anyone know if it's best encased or unencased?
Well Sarah made some gorgeous ones un-encased and I've only ever encased it.
We both had great results with it in our old kilns but when we both got the Maxi kilns our Pandora immediately turned reddy-salmony-brick colour. Absolutely 'orrible. :(
My old kiln was a Paragon Bluebird - always got lovely bluey-purples out of it. I had to adjust my Maxi down in temperature to get the same result.
I always encase with Effetre clear as Pandora absolutely hates Lauscha and cracks like a good 'un if you encase it with that.
Quote from: Redhotsal on January 27, 2010, 10:54:00 PM
My old kiln was a Paragon Bluebird - always got lovely bluey-purples out of it. I had to adjust my Maxi down in temperature to get the same result.
That must have been you not the kiln - I get reddy-salmony
Hmmmm........but you have had a new element? Wonder if the new element is hotter than the old one? Was using 520 on the Bluebird - try it at about 490 and see if you get the purples? :D
Quote from: Redhotsal on January 27, 2010, 11:13:26 PM
Hmmmm........but you have had a new element? Wonder if the new element is hotter than the old one? Was using 520 on the Bluebird - try it at about 490 and see if you get the purples? :D
Yep, new element no. 2 now!
Am on 520 but will try 490, thanks ;D
Quote from: Failariel on January 27, 2010, 11:07:06 PM
Quote from: Redhotsal on January 27, 2010, 10:54:00 PM
My old kiln was a Paragon Bluebird - always got lovely bluey-purples out of it. I had to adjust my Maxi down in temperature to get the same result.
That must have been you not the kiln - I get reddy-salmony
Sal's right as usual - try lowering the annealing temperature Collette - I have hundreds of reddy-salmony ones while I struggled to get the schedule right in my maxine but by lowering the annealing temperature I got these - all pandora over vetrofond topaz/amber. The paler ones have had longer annealing schedules.
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3663/3365900835_2f0ae63890.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/flameforcefive/3365900835/)
Sarah
xxx
I will, thanks Sarah x
Quote from: Veebee on January 27, 2010, 04:51:08 PM
Interesting thread, thank you! I was hoping to have a go with this glass, but I make so few beads I always batch anneal, so I didn't think it would work.
I found I got more blues and less salmony-brick type colours if the bead was cooler when it went into the kiln, so now when I play with it I just cool in vermiculite and batch anneal with everything else.
Had a go last night and the best one was a deep translucent reddy colour (not encased) have quite a bit of a yukky beige, so will refire these to see if it awakens anything. A couple seem to be reddish on one side and opaque beige on the other? wish I'd observed which way up they were just to turn them over. I do believe the one that changed the best was put on slightly thinner. No signs of green or purple yet. More experiments are afoot :)
Quote from: Magpie on January 28, 2010, 04:30:11 PM
Quote from: Veebee on January 27, 2010, 04:51:08 PM
Interesting thread, thank you! I was hoping to have a go with this glass, but I make so few beads I always batch anneal, so I didn't think it would work.
I found I got more blues and less salmony-brick type colours if the bead was cooler when it went into the kiln, so now when I play with it I just cool in vermiculite and batch anneal with everything else.
Fab thanks!
I'm gonna be sooo poor soon ::)
;D
Just for info - I've never managed to get Pandora to restrike by refiring it, dunno why but it seems to strike first time or not at all, at least, in my experience. Beige may mean that you didn't get it hot enough before you put it in the kiln.....
I heated mine like crazy and then left in the kiln at 520 deg cent for about 4 hours in total in an SC2. I didn't encase and got blues and purples.
Thanks for that Sal & Pat - the next batch will get a severe nuking :D
Shelia
Mine were encased - might not have gotten them hot enough to strike?
I've put all the ones I made last night at the back end of the kiln to see if they'll do anything and I've just done a batch on a light topaz (no encasing). I've heated them up to the point that they started to change to spots (but not completely). They def looked darker in the kiln - fingers crossed. :)
Here's hoping then ;D
Here are the results (http://i989.photobucket.com/albums/af14/crocosmia60/beads290110035.jpg) (http://i989.photobucket.com/albums/af14/crocosmia60/beads290110034.jpg)
In the first set of 4, 3 are encased on clear and have been refired, bit paler, more of a cranberry/mauve with the odd streak of beige. The top right is not encased and seems redder. They were more or less without any colour before being refired. The others were not encased and were on topaz, much nicer colours with blues and purples. I'm quite pleased with these results - Thanks for your advice everyone ;D
Shelia
Those look lovely, I'll try not encasing it next time! Did you apply the pandora and rake it, or lay it on in stringers or something, as it has a very lovely wispy/ streaky effect?
That second set have some beautiful colours in them, Congrats!
I wish i had a kiln so i could play with pretty silver glass :(
wow - you've got some great colours!
Kathryn
I simply encased the topaz with Pandora pressing so that it went on fairly thinly, I think some of the variation comes from putting it on in slightly different thicknesses. I just melted it in, with no raking involved. I think I will try super heating & then encasing to see if I can get colour first time. I did do a tornado bead which is still a yukky beige apart from the ends which have gone red. The encasing was a bit thicker so I'm going to put it in again, I have nothing to lose cos it's pretty grim as it is :D
Shelia
They look great! Well done - I've never got red from Pandora!
There you go. If at first you don't succeed, try try try again. Beautiful resuts.
Oh those are lovely!
Thank you ladies, just hope it wasn't beginners luck now that I've decided to make a necklace out of them. Fingers crossed for the next batch. :D
Shelia
Lovely beads Sheila - well done ;D
I'd be interested to see how you get on with super heating pandora - my experience is that it doesn't like much done to it before it goes in the kiln.
Sarah
xxx
All the second batch were heated until they were white hot but not for too long, just up to the point where you can see some of the lines turn into dots. I've done a couple more this evening so will see how they turn out tomorrow. They all looked slightly reddish before I put them in the kiln. I don't know if its because they were on topaz. Maybe I should just try the next batch on clear?