Boro Stix

[Beansprout]

I got an assorted pack of boro sticks from Wale, and they aren't comptible with my normal boro! One bubbled and went mental, and I made something today with clear boro ontop of the colour, and it cracked off. A couple of things I have made haven't cracked but that is a small join between stix and clear boro. I'll have another go with some more colours... but three colours out of a pack?

Has anyone used boro stix successfully?

Ta

[garishglobes]

I have used quite a number of the borostix without a problem. If you're making encased beads, I think one suggestion is to wrap clear around the mandrel - just a thin wrap - before the borostix colour and then encase. I know this is a really daft question, but you're sure it is the borostix that are the problem and not the clear?

[Kalorlo]

I know you're supposed to mix them up before using them, because they're cast into bars rather than furnace pulled.

[Steampunkglass]

I do find some of the colours tend to crack when you first heat them, unlike most boro rods, but if you warm them carefully they tend to play really well. Having said that I've had some problems with cracking when I deeply encase some of the colours in marbles, the greens I find particularly nasty for that, but the white is really nice, and the pinks are the best pinks I've yet found. Which colours are you using?

[fionaess]

Never had any problems with boro stix either -

[Barnacle Bay]

Boro Stix - where do these come from - any info warmly welcomed 

[garishglobes]

Plowden and Thompson used to have a few, Frit en Glas in the Netherlands has some - or the usual US suppliers 

My biggest gripe with them is that the colours tend to wash out when encased.

[Steampunkglass]

I think Plowden's only keep the white, and they don't call them borostix, they just say 'the short sticks of white' instead