I've been having a lot of trouble encasing silver glass, as everything seems to end up the proverbial poo colour.....however today it all became clear (no pun intended).
Following Christina's helpful hint about starting with a small bead of silver glass, and encasing with a decent amount of clear, I found that if I let that first bead cool a good bit under the flame, and then started to wind SLOWLY, and evenly, keeping the rod in the flame and the bead under it, starting at one end and winding in a spiral to the other, just dribbling the glass on to it, I managed to avoid the bird's nest I usually get. Then I gently rounded the bead in the flame, but up about three quarters of the way up towards the tip....., Oh I forgot to mention I had a rather fuzzy flame with not too much oxygen, and this stopped the whole thing getting overcooked and streaky . I'm so pleased, and have made quite a few encased Ekho beads, that have lovely colours. I know most of you will know about this but I thought it might be useful for any other newbies who are having trouble . The glass I'm using is just Effetre new crystal clear. Pris
Actually the glass was CIM clear!! Sorry, I realised after I wrote this that I had I got my glasses mixed. I used the Effetre for the blob.
(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4012/4677491745_b56425243d.jpg)
The problem I'm having with silver brown is that I don't seem to be able to melt my encasing smooth without heating up the base too much and losing all the colours. I'll have to try again with other encasing methods - what I've been doing is making a big thick wrap round the centre, adding a small one either side and then melting the centre down... but I can't seem to get it smooth. I'll try a spiral next time. (I get bird's nests when I try to do hole-to-hole encasing ;D)
Heather have a look at laura sparlings tutorial on encasing on her website x
Hmm, ok, I'll try that way too! It's the heat and round up stage that goes wrong for me with the silver brown, but I guess having the encasing be that much more uniform right from the start can only help, right?
I did and it was much more successful! Shape's smooth, though I only kept a little bit of wispy colour. They *looked* purple inside when I put them in my bubbles. Definitely better than entirely clear, though! I'm not entirely sure what to try next - more silver brown in the core? Over different colours? Or maybe just try this again even cooler.
(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4015/4676261342_1e277a507b.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/kalorlo/4676261342/)
I've had a go with the glob method too. Here are the results. First one is silver brown with my winding method I think I've accidentaly discovered the Trilobite bead! Second one is Aurae over white with poked bubbles. Pris
(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4010/4678119502_167fe3ff0d.jpg)
Heather you can get the colours from the silver brown if you hold it just near a slightly reducing flame after it has cooled a bit.
I can get the colours initially, but then I lose them again. I kept them in my lentils (though not as good as your colours there!) but can't seem to do it with rounds.
I could try reducing less, I guess. I read over all the old threads on silver brown and some of them said to reduce a lot, others didn't.
try not to heat them too much - you need to heat to get the clear to melt but not the whole bead.
It's a bit tricky to get the concept at first as you think that if you don't keep heating then the glass doesn't melt in. Heat a bit, then flash under the table - if the whole bead is glowing orange allow it to cool a little bit before carrying on.
Great beads Peggy!
I don't think you need to reduce much.....I just hold them under the (slightly fuzzy) flame and bring them up to the flame, turning them just at the edge, and wait till they start to turn a bit metallic, then cool a bit and encase. I find if you do a heavy reduction and then reheat in an oxidised flame everything turns out grey. At least, it does for me! Pris