Goldstone ribbons

[lantana]

Hi all, I have just taken delivery of some goldstone ribbons, and although I have used goldstone frit before, I'm not sure whether they should be made into smaller stringers or used as they are? any advice would be welcome. Thanks 

[tsarvo]

Good question, I tried them for the first time yesterday.
I have to admit that I lost almost half of the first rod as it shocked all over me
(aleast I looked sparkly pretty but not huggable :-) )
Attempted to pull it into stringers which wasn't a huge success :-0
But a lot of what I tried yesterday wasn't great. X

[julieHB]

I just use them as they are; work cool if you want to keep the sparkle 

It is easier to keep the sparkle if you encase it, but still wouldn't blast it with heat.

[lantana]

Thanks, I will try it as is. It just looks quite wide, and if I just wanted a little sparkle, say behind some flowers, will it be too much? Could it be applied onto a clear rod and pulled into a thin stringer I wonder 

[Trudi]

Are you working with flat goldstone ribbons or encased goldstone rods?


I find the commercial rods very shocky and prefer to make my own stringers! It's very easy and you can have them as thick or thin as you like!

[ARBeads]

I'm with Trudi on this - pull you're own using light Amethyst to increase the sparkle.

I tried the pre pulled blue stringer and found it to incompatible with most Effetre - pinging of both immediately after annealing and several weeks later - yes the stringer was well attached to the base bead - it's almost like it's incompatible with itself!

[lantana]

Trudi - they are ribbons and quite wide. How would I make my own?

[Kathy]

Ooh, I'd love to know that too - I got a couple of ribbons in a swap a little while ago and never known what to do with them!

[Madam Steph]

I think Trudi means to pull your own stringer..not your own ribbons


I could be wrong


Linda x

[noora]

I have some bluestone ribbons (Tuffnell's sent them as replacement when I had ordered bluestone stringers but they were out) and just apply them as they are. Looks nice when you wrap some all the way around a bead and encase. It adds a nice sparkle. That's the only use I've found for them so far, they're too wide for small dots or scrollwork. The blue/purple ones to the right in this photo have some bluestone ribbon applied like that, perhaps you can see a bit of the sparkle in the photo:

[julieHB]

You can pull the ribbon into thinner stringer if you want - just work cool.

If you want encased stringer you can encase a bit of the ribbon thinly before pulling it out to an encased stringer. To get a really thin encasing pull thick stringers of the clear glass to encase with.

Alternatively you can buy goldstone nuggets that you encase and pull stringer from. Add a bit of clear glass onto the end of a mandrel, heat until molten and fix to a lump of goldstone which has been pre-warmed. Encase and pull into stringer.

[sarah t]

you can use the ribbon on its side rather than flat ( holding it like a pencil) for thinner lines and dots

[james M knox]

Hi All,

I find these ribbons make very nice twisties. 

I Melt a blob of white glass and mash it into a lollypop.

the gently melt the blue or gold ribbon on one side of the lollipop.

carefully cover the blue ribbon with either clear or a pale blue transparent.

cover the other side of the lollipop with some contrasting colour, I sometimes use red/orange or turquise.

Encase all the covered lollipop in thin clear,

Heat, pull and twist - Nice twisty with the goldstone shimmer.

This looks nice with the blue on one side and the gold on the other as well.

JMKnox

[Redhotsal]

Nice tip James, - goldstone also looks great encased in rubino.

[julieHB]

goldstone also looks great encased in rubino.

Oooooooh - haven't tried that - sounds very nice!

James, thanks for that great twistie recipe!