Stuck on Amber!!!!

[helbels]

Ok lovely peeps, here's hoping you can help me.

I have real problems with striking.  Now, I know I CAN strike, as I can get Sangre to go red again, and no problems with things like Luna 2, or Multicolour.

However, I've found with some glass, I seem to get "stuck" at the first strike stage.

This morning, I was having a first play with Chalcedony Blue.... Heated it very hot, let it cool... put it back in the flame very slowly, and "POW!"  - loads of lovely dark Amber streaks.   "Hurrah!" I thought.

However, after that, I could not get any further.  The Amber bits stayed resolutely amber.  Nothing further was forthcoming no matter how much I cooled, reheated...cooled, blew on it... etc    Even tried heating right back up and repeating the process and got the same every time.  Dark Amber, then nothing.

This has happened to me a few times.  What the heck am I doing wrong?

Thanks
Helen

[Jolene]

I have exactly this problem with Chalcedony and Chalcedony blue too, the only way I know how to get any colour at all is to cool encase over the first amber strike and then melt the encasing layer in slowly. These are CoE 96 Chalcedony encased with Gaffer clear.

shell-5 by kitzbitz art glass by Jolene, on Flickr

encased-chalcedony-2 by kitzbitz art glass by Jolene, on Flickr

[Hotglass28]

Have you read all the posts on LE about Chalcedony colours?  Lots of tips there.

Denise