Asian Boro Rods are here

[tuffnell glass]

Hi ,
      Well it arrived on Tuesday and its taken 2 days to wade through the order, find it a home and photograph it ready for the website. The New Asian Coloured Boro Rod is available in 19 colours and they are all in 1/4 kilo bundles , this stuff is so well priced we can sell it for only £2.75 per 1/4 kilo.

You can see them all on http://www.tuffnellglass.com/contents/en-uk/d75.html

We have 4 blues,2 whites , 2 blacks ,greens , striking reds,yellows and pink    plus lots more colours.

Best wishes & off to play,
Martin
Tuffnell Glass

[Steampunkglass]

Well so far I'm well pleased with the new colours. I've not had a chance to play with all of them yet (they only turned up a few hours ago) but there are a few that I've already been buying from the USA, so it's great not to have to go so far for restocking!

They all seem to melt very smoothly, and even the white plays nicely (which is normally a boro colour that can result in a bubble scum-fest   ) and is much denser than I expected, so does well for implosion work. I really like the choice of shades of cobalt blues, and the teal and pink are already one of my most used colours. In my opinion the pinky purple looks very similar to rods I have of other pinks but not quite so saturated - and a tenth of the price.

The opaque black I've been using for a while now, when I initially tried it I was disappointed as I found it less dense than the other brands, however it's really grown on me over the past few month as I find many of the other denser blacks can reduce and go grey, but one doesn't. At all. Ever. Or at least not so far! I can use this as a backing colour without worry, and then put anything I like on top of it without that little miserly voice in my head worrying about hiding and wasting expensive colour. There are very few colours I'd want to take a case of, but this might be one.

I've still got to explore the rest of these, already quite surprised how much I like the amber colour, and the soft jade like Imperial Green, not sure about the transparent yellows but to be fair it's a colour I seldom use anyway. Also I'd imagine some of the thicker 11-12mm blue rods some people may find harder to melt, as the cobalt blues tend to be a bit stiffer to work too, but then it's also great for those who can to have this option of fat rods to work off.

I suspect many of these will be excellent for use in sculptural forms, rather than implosions, or base colours to lay more expensive colours over. They may not be exciting colour changing glitter filled colours, but there are some nice bread-and-butter colours that aren't much dearer than buying clear rods, so a bargain worth having.

[Trudi]

nice review Glen ... thanks for taking the time!

[Steampunkglass]

Thanks Trudi, I've not had time to test them all in detail yet, and I've edited the above as I realised I wasn't comparing exactly the same colour  as this pink/purple. I've seen some rather snobby remarks on other forums and places about these Chinese colours, all of which I feel are unfounded and unhelpful, I don't want to see new boro people to be put off of what are really good basic colours that they can play with without worrying about the expense. Although these are just my opinions so far!

[garishglobes]

I'm with Glenn - I have been buying some of these colours from the US for a while now and it is really nice to be able to get them here, in a wider selection and at a very good price! They are brilliant for sculptural work and generally melt like butter. Old habits die hard and I still usually layer them over clear.... But at this price, there is less need to. They layer very nicely over each other too, making extra shades, and are an excellent base for the 'funkier' colours.
I have a soft spot for the Jade White, which looks fab blown and mixes with other colours to make opalescent type shades.. But the colours I use most would be the green, blue, white and red. The red is dark, really rich, and strikes in the kiln. It doesn't seem to need the extra rise in temp beyond 565 to strike and may be better without this. I usually end up putting it in the kiln clear(ish) and leaving it at 565. It comes out deep red this way. I haven't used the black before and am looking forward to trying that one.
These are also nice colours for blowing. They don't have many bubbles and blow out very nicely, layered over clear or on their own. Some of the Asian tubing (notably white but all of them to some extent) needs to be treated with some care when heating, but if you use the rods and layer over clear, they behave much better!

Oh, and a transparent yellow that doesn't go all hazy.... Now, there's something!

[Miriam]

The colours look good. I would like to try them all before I buy a 1/4 kilo. Would it be possible to make a sample pack with 1 rod of every colour?

[tuffnell glass]

Hi Miriam,
                 I will work out a price and pop a listing on the website .

Best wishes ,
Martin
Tuffnell Glass

[tuffnell glass]

Hi Miriam ,
                 We have added a mixed bundle to the website which includes 1 rod of each of the new boro Asian colours .

The link is  http://www.tuffnellglass.com/contents/en-uk/d75.html

Best wishes ,
Martin
Tuffnell Glass

[Miriam]

Thanks Martin, I will have a look and see what else I need. ;-)

[tuffnell glass]

Hi Miriam ,
                O.k ,

Best wishes ,
Martin
Tuffnell Glass

[Skyblue]

I dont use boro but enjoyed reading these reviews

[tuffnell glass]

Hi ,
       Come over to the dark side Skyblue

Best wishes
martin

[Kalorlo]

I made something in solid black today, and it is rather nice! Didn't take too much effort to melt either - I didn't have my flame turned up to max, and like Glenn said, I didn't see any evidence of greying. (It's still in the kiln so can't check for sure!)

[tuffnell glass]

Brilliant,
thanks for the updates .

Best wishes ,
Martin
Tuffnell Glass