green aventurine

[mel]

Has anyone had any problems, or successes with the green aventurine ribbon from Tuffnells. i made some lentils about a year ago with a layer of this which was encased, they all cracked big time. I have retried, in an unpressed bead (white core, encased in green sparkly ribbon and encased in clear, but again, virtually straight from the kiln-I heard it crack.

The gold ribbon works fine, and I don t generally have any annealing problems even with complex beads.

Any tips? Or should I give up?

[lampworklover]

Afraid I had the same problem; encases beautifully, but most of them cracked at some point. I have two beads which survived ; made at the same time and they're fine. Odd really. I did think I'd revisit it in the new year and see if I have more success...

[Rascal]

I've had the same problems, I used the stringer one and the beads cracked within a few days. But not had the same problems with the blue or gold.

[mel]

Thanks, it's looking like I should shelve it. I have some blue to try though......

[Shirley]

I don't have stringer or ribbons, but I love it in a frit!

[Dietmar]

There might be a tooo big difference in COE between the green and the other glass of the bead. I woulr like to see the broken surfaces to examine the way it broke. Glass tells you a lot about what went wrong, but you'll have to read it.

It might help to dilute that glass with a COE 104 glass. In a class I was told to use a transparent green (pea green) to mix it, but I choose the opaque version. The opacifier will break down but the lower viscosity might help better to make the COEs fit better.

If you do the stringer test, it shows how well the two glasses will fit in a combination. The test result should be straighter after mixing with the same amount of COE 104.