NZGBA – New Zealand Glass Bead Artists

Have any of you tried to use Raku frit or stringers? I guess the same could be said for using Chalcedony from Gaffer. I have recently tried the Raku frit from Annie Rose (called iris frit) and had a terrible time getting it to pop in colour. I have not had any luck with the stringer so found either frit or creating an entire bead from the glass as the answer. Robyn Thomas recently did this in my studio with the Tag glass she imported from overseas. I guess the same steps could apply to Double helix although Karen Irwin could add her tips to this post as she has a lot of experience with silvered glass. So I hopped online and trawled around the forums to see what I could find. Here’s a summary of my findings.

One of the most important steps to getting the colours right is to ensure on your first application you use a neutral flame. very often these reactive colours will only change colours once or twice and tend to lose their appeal if they are worked too long. The trick is to create your bead in the shape you want it. If you are using a full rod of reactive glass either Raku, Double Helix or Tag then creating the bead and shaping it in a neutral flame is of utmost importance. If you are using a base bead then once it is shaped add your stringer or frit. Typically at this stage the reactive glass will be a brownish tint and nothing exciting.

Then you reduce your propane/lpg (NB leave the oxy as is) until the candles are short and ficussed then bring the bead into the flame in the area where your bead is licking against the candles. If you see a metallic sheen on the surface you have too much propane. The surface of the bead will start to go a weird cloudy colour, at this point remove the bead from the heat and wait until the glow leaves the bead (Donna holds her beads under the table in the shadow to know when the glow has left her beads before she puts them in her vermiculite which I think is an excellent way to know for sure).

Once you have lost the glow flash the bead in the flame until the surface darkens. At this point you can hold the bead in the flame as you would to fire polish your tool marks out i.e. don’t have the whole bead hot or you return to square one. The first shift in colour should be reds and oranges the second should be blues and greens, each time you repeat the process you are diminishing the ability for the glass to shift so be wary of doing this more than 3 times until you get comfortable with the colours shifts.

Helen Moore once told me that in order to get the blues and Greens from Gaffer Chalcedony she actually held the bead in the candles then held the bead in front of the fan to cool it so you can get away with really abusing it of course always being mindful of cracking!

If  Helen, Robyn or Karen want to add their thoughts please do so as it would be great to hear from those who have success with reactives. Otherwise Give it a go and participate in our monthly challenge…