How do I know to reduce or strike?.

[ruth]

This is a very newbie question. How do you know what to do with a new glass rod?

I received some very interesting Raichenbach rods for Christmas. I thought I could just look each colour up and be informed if it needed reducing, striking or what. It has not proved that easy.


Can anyone advise where I can the information ?

Thank you

Ruth
Sewnthings

[helbels]

Hiya

If you tell us the names of the rods, we can help you and give you precise information on each.

However, a quick way to tell is:

a) Reducing glass will turn metallically silver when you put the tip in a flame that is either propane rich or oxygen rich.

b) Reducing glass will generally turn clearish when you give it a good heat in a neutral flame.  Take it out of the flame to cool, then put it back in and gently reheat it at the back of the flame.  If it's a striker, it will "strike" to a different colour.

[ruth]

Thank you Helen. I have a little list....

Dark multi

Gold ruby bright

Strawberry red

Mystic grey blue

Pink lady

Pearl pink

Garnet red

Pearl beige

Ocean

Magic

Silver brown

Pearl violet

Antique green

Santa was generous


In the mean time I will test some rods as you suggest

[helbels]

Hiya

Most of those you have there are neither strikers nor reducers, so you can just work with them in a normal flame.

The ones I know are:

Magic - Striker  (but it's a bit of a bugger to strike - get it mega hot and cool well before trying to reintroduce to the flame)
Silver Brown - Reducer
Dark Multi - Striker
Garnet Red - Not sure, but MAY be a striker (a lot of reds are)

I'm sure someone else will be along to contribute shortly.

[ruth]

Thank you, I feel much happier now.

Going to play!

Ruth

[Nicknack]

Work the gold ruby bright further away from the torch than usual, or you may burn out all the colour, and don't make a bead of just that, or it'll be too dark to see the colour - use it over white or pale pink (or clear), or use it for decoration.

Hope this helps.

Nick

[Calico Cat]

You can sometimes get the Pink Lady to strike to a deeper pink 

Carole

[Pauline]

check the Wiki here  http://www.frit-happens.co.uk/wiki/Reichenbach

or at the top of the page

[Rascal]

Hi, I have some ocean, I'm not anywhere near an expert but I used it over a white core and got some beautiful swirls of blue similar to the tuffnells page. Not sure if you can strike or reduce but over white is an option to try.  Karen

[ruth]

Thank you everyone for your help. You are generous with your knowledge.

PROGRESS REPORT

Armed with the advice I experimented with MAGIC, It looked great. Particularly on red.Came out of the kiln looking good. fantastic goldy finish.... So I decided to make more red and Magic beads for a bracelet for DD's birthday on Monday.

Same Red, Same Magic===Very disappointing charcoal grey on  red.

My promise to myself 2013 is that I will master posting photographs and post at least one each month.

So .... on New years day I will post photos of the GOOD , BAD and UGLY.

Advice is welcome

Ruth
sewnthings

[helbels]

Hi Ruth

It's probably not you - Magic is a notoriously tricky glass, and some people never succeed in getting it to go anything other than sludgy brown!

[June]

Magic can be helped by cooling quickly such as you do when using a press or sometimes blowing on it, but as others have said, it's a hit and miss thing. I like it with thai orchid or similar 

[Jolene]

As on the first beads the magic looked goldy then you may have reduced it (propane rich flame) it looks very metalic when reduced.

[katherinem]

It's not easy is it, to know what do with each glass!

I can't help with the multi or the magic, I've never got multi to do anything much. Likewise the silver brown, I know the theory is to get it white hot, cool, then strike, but I've given up on it for the moment - too hard!

I love ocean, it's lovely over turquoise as a colour for sea. Don't get it too hot, or the sparkles burn out of it. Antique green is also pretty, clear with gold sparkles - as far as I know it doesn't go green!

The mystic ones go kind of streaky opaque when you work them.

I have some of the garnet red, I haven't used it much yet, but it seems a good transparent red. As has already been said, with the pink and red ones it's important not to overheat them or you burn the colour out of it.

Hope this helps a bit! Happy experimenting.