DragonJools

Fabulous New Toy: Carlo Dona Bead Press

2013-05-19T00:40:00.000-04:00

Not getting as much torch time in as I would like, but here is a little indulgence I got myself.

Ta da!

What is it, you ask? Well - it makes these:

It is a flower press. A Carlo Dona flower press. Like all Carlo Dona tools, it is ridiculously well made, and ridiculously expensive. Expensive enough to make you feel like you really have to justify it. It's rather like buying a sports car. You have to come up with the damnedest reasons to justify it.

But it's sooooo beautiful. And it does what it is designed to do, beautifully.

It is something of a one-trick pony - it makes flowers on the end of wire. That's it. A flower on a wire. At least until I think of some other creative way to use it. But it does it so well. Who would belittle a pony for having only one trick? It's like the story of the talking dog - "He ain't so special, he never did any of those things ... ."

In a nutshell, you get a blob of glass on the end of stainless steel wire (I've been using 18 gauge stainless steel wire made by Artistic Wire)

The press has a slit in the side, and hole at the bottom of the cup. Hang your molten gather of glass downward, slip it into the slot, with the wire emerging from the now-at-the-top hole, and press the

inner part of the press into the outer shell.

Et voila! A little firepolish - whack in a stamen, and you're good to go.

Rolling the gather of glass in frit (before pressing) is a super nice effect too. Woohoo - finally - a use for all that frit!

If that description doesn't help - try checking out Loribeads video on youtube. I find I have better luck keeping the flower from being lop-sided by hanging the drop down, raising the whole thing up, and peering up to check that it is centred.

This is the largest size I could find - the 6 petal press. You know me - go big or go home!

Anyhoo - spring flowers! Woohoo!

Because I know you will ask - I got it here:

BeadPress.com - Easy to order, easy to pay, shipping was fast and it came extremely well packaged. No fuss, no muss. Very satisfied.

Marbles

2013-04-16T17:15:00.000-04:00

Marbles - that's what I've been working on lately. Soft glass marbles. Starting to get stuff that I don't hate.

Photographing them is a little trickier, however.

New Marble Mold

2013-04-09T22:20:00.001-04:00

Indulged myself in a new marble mold. I made a large marble the other day that got away from me - it was actually too large for the molds that I have, so "aha," I thought - "That's an excuse to move up to a larger mold!"

I get my Marble molds from San Grumbling, who is the guy that Drew Fritts recommends in his book. I've had my other molds a few years, and I had forgotten how truly gorgeous they are when new.

These are just beautiful marble molds, beautifully made, and beautifully balanced. The graphite is silky smooth, fine-grained and highly polished.

Totally worth it - this is a tool for life!

Creation is Messy - Archived colours

2013-03-20T12:09:00.000-04:00

In case you didn't know - Creation is Messy (CiM) listed their discontinued and out of stock colours in their colour archives, here. Useful to know if you are looking up a colour and can't find it.

Effetre Streaky Pink

2013-03-16T00:22:00.000-04:00

This is an Effetre streaky purple pink - that I do not seem to have a number for. It resembles EDP with a Rubino core.

It attempts to devitrify - like EDP - and is somewhat less streaky than one might think it is going to turn out.

The top mandrel is two self-coloured beads, and the bottom mandrel are four beads with a base of amethyst and a stripe of the Streaky Pink on top.

It's handsome enough - I was expecting more dramatic results, I think.

Comparison: Effetre Tawnys

2013-03-14T23:58:00.000-04:00

All in the same picture - the tawny Effetre colours. From the top - with their rods below, Butterscotch, Honey Swirl, Tigereye, Amazon. (Weird name - Amazon, in the context of the others.)

My personal fave is the Tigereye.

Double Helix Notos

2013-03-12T00:12:00.000-04:00

Well - you're definitely not going to get bored with this colour. If you can't get at least 4 different looks out of it - you're just not trying hard enough.

This is Notos, three beads, self-coloured, and reduced. The bead on the left was cooler when reducing - but they all came out pretty similar.

This bead is a base of Notos, cooled to not glowing, reduced, and encased.

On the left, a base of Notos, reduced while hot (kinda muddy) and encased. And on the right, a base of black, encased w Notos and reduced cold.

Reduce this one cool.

Effetre 744 Amazon

2013-03-10T23:58:00.000-04:00

This is another streaky colour - not as warm as Effetre Tigereye - more like a dark version of Effetre Butterscotch.

Both are self-coloured beads, but the one on the left has gone darker - so re-heating may make this colour go darker.

Effetre 660 Tigereye

2013-03-08T23:52:00.000-05:00

Woohoo! Love this! Streaky and tiger-y. Very like the patterns in tigereye - without the chatoyancy, of course. It goes very red while hot, but cools to a tawny tiger colour, going quite a bit darker than the rod.

I like this one a LOT.

Effetre 736 Honey Swirl

2013-03-06T23:43:00.000-05:00

This is Effetre 736 - Honey Swirl. Also a yummy colour - a lighter version than the Effetre Butterscotch.

All three are self-coloured beads. It is a little streaky also. In the flame - it looked like it was devitrifying a little, but I can't really see it now. It does seem to have gone a little more opaque, like an opal would.

Effetre 732 Butterscotch

2013-03-04T23:38:00.000-05:00

I've had this some time - finally got around to testing it.

It really is a Werther's Butterscotch candy colour. Yum. It also goes a surprisingly bright cherry red in the flame.

Comparison: Sherbert, Seashell, Oyster Mushroom

2013-03-02T23:32:00.000-05:00

For comparison side by side, three of the new colours from CiM - from the top - 417 Sherbert (definitely green), 710 Seashell (close to ivory), 414 Oyster Mushroom (greenish).

CiM 414 Oyster Mushroom Ltd Run

2013-02-28T23:27:00.000-05:00

Well, CiM calls this "an opaque greenish ivory" - and puts it in with the greens. It is an opaque pale green. Perhaps a little on the greyish side.

From the left, a self-coloured bead, a base of Oyster Mushroom with a stripe of turquoise, and another self-coloured bead.

CiM 710 Seashell Ltd Run

2013-02-26T23:15:00.000-05:00

CiM Seashell is a pale creamy colour that could be a slightly pinkish ivory. It is actually very close to my own skin tone - which really says more about how badly I burn in the sun than anything else.

I've been hoping that CiM would make an "ivory" for sometime - and this is the closest yet.

From the left - self-coloured, with turquoise dots, and with EDP dots.

While the turquoise has bled a little, and the EDP has broken up a bit - there is not an extreme level of reaction.

Promising, promising. It would be nice to do some sculptural figures and see how it works out.

See - flesh coloured. My flesh, anyway.

CiM 417 Sherbert

2013-02-24T23:12:00.000-05:00

CiM Sherbert - Sherbert they called it - and Sherbert it is. A smooth cool, creamy green mint or maybe pistachio colour.

All three beads are self-coloured.

Cim 517 Breeze vs 516 Mediterranean

2013-02-22T23:07:00.000-05:00

Just so you can see both Breeze and Mediterranean in the same picture - here they are together.

CiM tells me that Mediterranean may not be reproducible - so stock up if you love it. I do!

This is Breeze on the top, and Mediterranean on the bottom.

CiM 516 Mediterranean Ltd Run

2013-02-20T22:59:00.000-05:00

CiM Mediterranean - a transparent dark blue-green. This is another beautiful dark teal. It is quite dense - on left are two self coloured beads - the bead on the right is a base of clear, with the left side being Mediterranean and the right side being CiM Breeze.

When diluted - Mediterranean and Breeze are quite similar, but Mediterranean is quite a bit darker.

CiM 517 Breeze Ltd Run

2013-02-18T10:17:00.000-05:00

Ah - now we're talking. Breeze is a breezy dark aqua-teal, like a Blue Zircon colour. Very, very yummy. You could just crank out spacers in this and be happy.

It's a bit tough to photograph accurately though!

Breeze reminds me of some of the Bluedini Uniques that I loved so much. I'm gonna buy pounds of this one.

CiM 610 Dark Velvet

2013-02-16T10:13:00.000-05:00

Another really, really dark transparent purple-black.

The bead on the left is self-coloured, the next is over white, the next is over clear.

It is purple when thinned out. Probably best for cored cane and shards. These uber-dark transparents would all work well as shards you know.

CiM 306 Honey Mustard Ltd Run

2013-02-14T06:00:00.000-05:00

CiM Honey Mustard is an opaque, pale yellow that immediately reminded me of Effetre's Opal Yellow.

So I right away thought I would test it for the sort of things that opal yellow is good at - and consequently - drew a blank as to what those things are.

The bead on the far left is self-coloured, the middle is with turquoise dots, the third has dots of EDP.

The two beads on the left struck to tan, and the one with the EDP dots was still white when I kilned it - but they all came out the same colour.

There is some interesting breakup around the EDP, much like with Opal Yellow. So this does look like an interesting possibility as a glass similar to Opal Yellow. As I remember - CiM Stone Ground was supposed to be similar to Opal Yellow - but this Honey Mustard might be more on the mark.

CiM 709 Truffle Ltd Run

2013-02-13T00:13:00.000-05:00

Truffle - a super-dark grey. The two beads on the left are self-coloured, the one on the right is very thin, over clear. It looks purple when hot, like most transparent greys do, but cooled to a smokey colour.

The far left bead is much more opaque than the centre bead - despite them both being solid colour. I think, as it was the first one made, that it got more heating and cooling cycles, so it could be that this glass goes more opaque as it gets worked. It would be interesting to try it in a sculptural use.

CiM 415 Dried Sage Ltd Run

2013-02-05T22:00:00.000-05:00

Interestingly - this is called Dried Sage. When I got it, it didn't have a name yet, and so I noted that it is an "opaque sage green."

So I guess that's definite - this is sage green!

The two beads on the left are self-coloured. You can see the rod is sort of shimmering - but that disappears when you work it.

The bead on the right has white dots (just regular Eff white) and Dried Sage on top. You can see on close examination that the sage is a little streaky, and makes some interesting patterns around the dots - and had bled into the white.

It's a nice, soft green in an earthtone, organic palette.

CiM 609 Berry Mist Ltd Run

2013-02-03T22:00:00.000-05:00

Another dark transparent red-purple - this is Berry Mist.

The two beads on the left are self-coloured - the next is over white, and the last is over clear.

It looks streaky over the white - but I can't guarantee that is not just my technique.

When hot - this is a beautifule blue tanzanite purple, but cools to a red purple. Too bad it doesn't stay the colour it is when hot!

It's a pretty dark colour - but not so dark that you have to dilute it. Thinned down, it looks kinda pinky. It might be fun to encase an opaque pink with this.

Losing my Mind

2013-01-31T11:38:00.000-05:00

I'm losing track of what I've blogged and what I haven't. I've been so crazy busy that - well - somethings are starting to get away from me.

This is Double Helix 507 Speckled Opaque, reduced and encased. I suspect that any of the dark high-silver colours that appear black(ish) and reduce to a metallic sheen will work the same way, e.g. Triton.

Make a thin core bead. To do this, put a small amount of glass on and get it very soft hot, then marver it firmly and quickly to a thin tube.

Let it cool, and very gently reduce it - bringing it just into the bottom edge of the flame. Reduce it until you see a metallic sheen - it doesn't take long. If you get the subtle metallic purple/green look - you will get the nicest results.

Then encase it without reheating it or letting the flame touch it before covering it with clear. This means you have to heat the clear up and have it ready to go and encase the whole bead in one swell foop. Occasional a bead will be so cool that when you put the clear on it, it cracks. So long as it doesn't fall off - keep going. After encasing, you can heat the whole thing up and re-heal it.

As you can see - it took a lot of experimenting to get the steps nailed down. Reducing once cool is really key to keeping the blues and avoiding the greens and ambers.

Comparison: Clears

2013-01-29T02:00:00.000-05:00

Clear glass. The holy grail of lampworking: absolutely perfectly sparklingly clear glass. Clear like a mountain stream. Clear like breath of fresh air. Clear like a baby's conscience.

Clear like the boro folks have.

grrrr.

You start out as a beginner thinking "clear is clear." Then you see some streaks in your carefully encased bead, and you ask someone one - and then you get, "Did you clean your glass?" "Were you working too low in the flame?" - so you clean your glass and make a conscious effort to work higher in the flame.

But you still have black streaks and scummy areas.

So you ask again. This time you get an avalanche of advice. Don't clean with glass cleaner. Do clean with glass cleaner. Use alcohol. Pickle the glass. Buy Lauscha. Lauscha's not compatible. Buy Aether. Buy Super clear. Super clear's no good. Buy Vetro. Buy Zephyr. It's the scratches on the glass. Buy thick rods and peel them. Pull the scum out. Work cool. Work hot. Work with a lot of oxygen. Work neutral.

And this point, you feel like a single worm at a party of hens, and you're about ready to work in nothing but periwinkle and pea green.

I'm here to make it all clear.

ha ha.

I wish.

The best advice I can give you is - cleaning your glass does help. The new, eco-friendly glass cleaners don't seem to do a good job. Good old fashioned Windex, alcohol, hot water and detergent, and running the rods through the dishwasher do help.

And - some days - the glass works better than others. If you see something nasty in the glass on the bead - go in with the tweezers and pull it out if it is going to wreck the bead.

Recently - I tried comparing clears - and got results that I completely did not expect.

OK - I started with 6 rods of clear - all labeled so I wouldn't get them mixed up. I did clean all of them, in an attempt to have them start equal.

From the left, top mandrel, we have: Effetre Clear 004, Effetre Super Clear 006, CiM 834 Clear, VS004 (more on what that is in a minute), Double Helix Zephyr, and on the bottom rod, TAG Clarity.

As you can see from the picture, they all turned out pretty good, with the lone exception of the CiM clear - which went weirdly burned.

In checking the CiM web-site - it notes that their clear perfers to be worked cool. Well - we all know that I do not work anything cool. I may be cool, but I don't work that way. So that is probably my fault.

The Effetre Clear turned out - in defiance of all expectations - pretty darn good. Not perfect - none of these came out perfect - but pretty darn good.

The Effetre Super Clear - well - it's better than I usually get. My usual experience with this clear is that it is suitable only for being encased with an opaque. You can see a line of scum - but in my experience, the Super Clear is not super clear, and this is better than I usually get.

The CiM clear comes individually wrapped in sheets of tissue, for gawd's sake. Seriously - how did it come out this bad? I want to apologize to it. I'm sorry CiM - this just wasn't your day. Let's go with "I worked it too hot" and move on.

The 4th (still above) - is VS004. VS004 is a new comer. It is made by the glass batchmaker who USED to work for Vetrofond. Remember Vetrofond? Remember I wrote in the fall that they were no more. Their furnaces failed and they could not raise the funds to get them going again. Well - their batch maker has moved on and was commissioned to make a batch of clear to the same formula as Vetro used to use. Vetro clear was the bees knees in it's day. And it's not bad here - a little patch of scum visible on the lower right quadrant of the bead.

Below, we have Double Helix Zephyr. Now we are getting into the premium clears. Lawdy, it's not perfect either. Good - but not perfect.

And here we have TAG (Trautman Art Glass) Clarity. Probably the nicest looking of the bunch - but not by much.

The whole test was disappointing. I was hoping for a clear winner - pun not intended but we'll go with it anyway. Not included in my test was Lauscha or Double Helix Aether. (Because I didn't have any on hand.)

Here we see all 6 clears again - over dichro - which is on clear.

Top mandrel, from the left: Clarity, Zephyr, VS004 (this is the one with the trails of black stuff in it this time), bottom mandrel, from the left, CiM, Super Clear, and Effetre.

Don't forget - we're looking at these much closer than if you just held them in your hand. Laying in your hand or strung in a bracelet - these would all look pretty much the same.

My conclusion: I still have no conclusion. Some days the glass plays nice, and on those days - keep on torching till you drop.

Although - that said - I'd probably buy a couple pounds of TAG Clarity and give it a good work out.

And I'd still want to try more of the VS004 - just because I loved the Vetro clear.

And I hear that the DH Zephyr is particularly good for making the high-silver and exotic colours pop.

And Effetre clear does have going for it that is quite thin when hot and easier to get into tight places. And it's cheap.

Like I said - no conclusion.