Double Helix = Baby Poo

[AnnaSpanna]

Right I got some DH to try on my HH and I got some good results with Luna 2 and some partially good results with Gaia. however I am getting rather bored of churning out babby poo coloured adornments and swirls with Ekho.  Am I doing something wrong? Am I not letting the beads cool enough before striking them to get the effects? Am I not striking them long enough? Am I not even striking them at all but only think that I am?

So in essence I have been putting dots, swirls etc on my beads and then cooling them (sometimes with a marver) and then putting foil around the air holes so the flame goes a greenish colour and is distinctly different to the normal flame. I then "waft" my beads through the flame a few times and let them cool a bit and then waft a bit more - and voila...... Baby Poo! And if i do achieve anything more spectacular it seems to go AWOL when the flame goes back to normal and I try and encase etc. I will try and get some pics up of my good, bad and baby poo.

Dazed and confused (and more than a little frustrated). Please help....   

[helbels]

For what it's worth, I found with Ekho that I hardly have to reduce it at all to get some nice colours - I put it over Mystic Pink (just cos thats what I happened to have around) and then just let the natural reduction of the Hothead do its work (didn't cover the holes or anything) and then encased it.  This produced some nice purpley amber colours.

If I reduce it too much I get blues and greens, which are nice, but I can easily get those from Triton.

[AnnaSpanna]

I noticed that it had reacted slightly in the normal flame but wasn't sure that I wasn't supposed to get more of a reaction by reducing further and so might have over cooked it.

[Veebee]

I find that Ekho isn't a fan of heat. Once it goes clear it can be reduced, but don't get it too hot. If encasing, melt the encasement very slowly and carefully, literally just get the encasement in the flame.

When you cover your holes on your HH, to get a reduction flame, you should have large bushy proper fire, not blue green (that will work, but can be a bit hot). You need to cover the holes a bit better to stop the oxygen getting in. It will be a bit cooler then too.

The dark Ekho is a bit more friendly than the original, do you know which you have?

The other thing is the kiln. I find I lose Ekho in the kiln, because mine runs hotter than it says. So I put all Ekho beads at the front on the left hand side, under the propped shelf. Seems to do the trick most times!

HTH?