small black marks

[Trudi]

Hmm A few of my beads have vert slight  - very thin black lines on them - any ideas??

[Les]

What set up are you using ?? It could be dirt from the flame.... or too much fuel in the flame ??

Les xx

[Trudi]

I'm on a HH - I was on Mapp when I made the beads (Sorry - should have taken a picture) - I'm now on bulk propane!

[BeadyBugs]

You could be burning the glass?  It depends on the colour and how hot you are working it?  If you are on bulk, you tend to be more prone to burning the glass, I always used to work with the propane turned down a little, as I burnt everything when I switched from MAPP.

If it's not that, it might be metallic reactions, again depending on the glass?  Have you got any close up pictures?

And I don't know if the marks rub or scrape off, or if you are using vermiculite, but it could even be fluff or dust in the vermiculite burning on to the bead when you plunge it in.

HP x

[Trudi]

Hi

I'll try and get some pictures in the morning - it's effrete glass that came in my starter kit - I think it might be periwinkle it's a soft opaque lilacy blue colour.

I use fibre blankets!

[CelticGlass]

Hi

I'll try and get some pictures in the morning - it's effrete glass that came in my starter kit - I think it might be periwinkle it's a soft opaque lilacy blue colour.

I use fibre blankets!

Your glass rods need to be spotlessly clean also when you start work. Even a little hand cream or grease will turn to carbon deposits when the flame cooks it. I clean mine with methylated spirit..... before lighting the flame of course..nowhere near the flame 

[Shirley]

Trudi, I had the same problem when I switched to bulk. I think it was because I needed to get used to the flame all over again. I'd got in the habit of working the bead quite close to the torch head when the pressure was dropping on the MAPP can, and now I need to work a lot further out. I've got a fair few beads that are either streaky or that turned a bit runny!

[Trudi]

Hi

I made these while I was still on the dreaded MAPP - I switched to bulk last night!!

This is the worst one!

[Les]

to me that looks a little like dirt contamination.... if it was your fuel or torch, then I'm pretty sure the black marks wouls be throughout the whole bead....

[Trudi]

It's hard to to tell as it's opaque - but I think it's just on the surface - I could be wrong!

[glassworks]

hi chap - it looks awfully like a spot of soot or dirt either off the end of the torch or off the rod... any tiny little specks of carbon that may be in the torch head can get blown out .. stunning bead though - especially in the necklace...

i may also be a little cooked - but then i would expect it to be a little bigger area?..

[beadysam]

Could it be an opalino colour?  They are difficult to work with, and you have to go slooowww and cooolll or you can get sooty areas where it burns.  I haven't played with opalinos for ages but it took me a while to get the temp right to avoid the sooty marks.

Give the rod a clean and try again.  Do a sample bead worked hot and one worked cold and see ahet happens.  Have fun!

[Trudi]

Cheers

I'll try that!

[BeadyBugs]

Hi Trudi,

I'm not sure from the little picture and I could be wrong, but is the black on the surface?  I doesn't look like it's pulled through the glass, it looks like a denser, rougher line?  If so, and you try scraping it off with your nail or a wet plastic pan scrub and it disappears, it's probably some fluff or hair in your vermiculite or fibre blanket burning onto the bead when it's placed inside it. 

A few months ago, I started to get the occasional black scribbled-looking mark on my beads that weren't there when I took them out of the flame, but appeared after cooling in vermiculite.  I couldn't work out where they were coming from, til I realized a stray hair had fallen in .  Yuck!  Changed the vermiculite - problem solved.

Hope you get it sorted, what ever it is?

HP x

[Trudi]

Thanks for that I'll give it a try!