This one is starting to bug me - sometimes when I encase silver wire, it goes gold, other times I've been able to keep it bright and silvery. I do like the way it looks when it turns, but sometimes I just want it to stay silver!
I thought I had it cracked, not putting the encasing glass on too hot, and melting in carefully and slowly, and this has worked in the past, but just recently it's gone gold no matter what! Does anyone know why? I thought maybe it was the sort of glass underneath, but I'm not convinced, and now I'm wondering if there's something on the silver itself? (fine silver on a spool from Palmers.) I presume this is like the oxidising you get on silver naturally, only sped up! so the other thing I could adjust is the flame, but I don't seem to have a lot of luck there either.. :(
Please help if you can!
I have had mine turn a pink colour ::)
That would be nice! :)
I think I have read somewhere that the different types of clear make silver go different colours. Corina did a test of different clears, how "dirty" they are etc, and also how they react over silver. Check it out, I hope it answers your questions:
http://www.corinabeads.com/pages/clear.php
Ah, I also remember another reaction with silver and clear. If you trail clear over transparent cobolt blue or amethyst, then add silver and melt slowly in, and lastly encase it, you can get all sort of interesting reactions :)
Julie, I love you! This has been bugging me for ages, and yes, I use vetro - well, now I will try my CIM and look at buying some Lauscha (I think Sal was selling some?) Anyway, thank you so much, I will consult Corina's page next time I have a puzzle! And try the reactions too.. :-*
Ah, one of my favorite topics!
First things first. It's likely the color going over the glass that's causing the gold color. I'm assuming that you're using clear? I've found that the Moretti/Effetre clears will usually keep the silver silver colored. When I want to be sure to keep the silver, I use pale aqua....it's very pale, but it's got some color, so not ideal for all applications.
The Vetrofond clears will usually put a bit of goldy color on silver. Sometimes it's quite faint, just a hint. I've learned that when I'm going to putting clear over silver, the only surefire way to guarantee a pure silver finish is to encase thinly with the pale aqua, and then to cover that with the clear of your choice. Of course a small test should do the trick as well, but I never test....I just go for it and enjoy the suprise!
Changing the color of silver is something that I do a lot. I love the suprise colors that I get with various clears, and I love to deliberately exploit the color changing properties by making silver 'sandwiches' with different layers of color...each affecting the silver differently. I do beads called "Sirens" that have these layers, so the underside of a layer of silver will be silver, and the upper side will appear gold. The Tangled Web bead in the Show and Tell for this week is done with fine silver, but I've gilded it with 049 Straw Yellow, which gives a dependable golden glow to silver.
Hmmm. Not sure if any of that is actually helpful! But changing the color of silver with glass is addictive!
Oh, I'm much obliged, Kathryn ;D ;D You may want to try the Effetre crystal clear as well - that seems to be the one Corina found that lets the silver stay most true to it's silver colour.
Ah, snap, Sherry :) Thanks for your advice, must try those sandwiches some time ;D
Thank you Sherry - I love using pale aqua, it is much nicer to encase with.. I'm just glad to find out it is the vetro and not me! I will try different clears too, I suppose with thin layers and spreading them flat with a marver, you could use fairly dark trans colours sparingly over silver. I have tried this a little over leaf, but it hasn't occured to me to try it over silver wire! :)
I feel a little spend coming on ;D
Ohhh some grat tips on here - a big THANKS for sharing!!
For some reason I thought you couldn't encse silver - I thought it made the bead crack - perhaps I made that up in my head - wouldn't be the first time!!
I'm sure it makes it more possible, but I've had more cracked beads from trying to encase certain colours like raku! Here are my test pieces..
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3173/2902249537_de5b4fe3b7_m.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/53211004@N00/2902249537/)
the first is efftre, a bit scummy and for some reason I got big bubbles, but the silver is wonderfully bright! The second is CIM, it wnet a bit gold.. but then, I should have made all the test parameters the same and done that one over cobalt as well! The last I think is effetre, but I have to admit I forgot (I make a great scientist don't I ::))
oooh...I like! I havnt done any silver work for a while now, had some results a while ago that I didnt like, but perhaps I will try again now I have seen the potential in those little beadys you have there! silver sandwiches...sounds yum! hehehe
If I do some I may post, but I havnt yet succeeded in putting up a picture here...
These are two partial views of either side of the same bead; the first picture shows the 'Sirens' design, which is what I call the silver sandwiches. It's not the best angle to see this, but the underside of each of the silver pieces is silver in color, while the upper side is gold in color. It really adds a great deal of depth, and it helps to visually lighten the design.
(http://glsgirl.eaph.com/share/October012008/goldeneggpartial.jpg)
In this picture, you can see that the floating form in the window is composed of freeform blobs of fine silver. They're silver colored on the underside, and gold colored on the outside. The silver color really draws the viewer's eye into the bead, I think. I'm still playing with this design, by the way....it's far from perfect at this stage, but I have a million ideas and not enough time!
(http://glsgirl.eaph.com/share/October012008/goldeneggpartial2.jpg)
Wow! Sherry, they are lovely! I must admit, though I've figured out how to keep it silver, I've not wanted to in every bead, I love the gold tones too! :)
Looks perfect to me.