Psyche Metamorphosis

Hey all! So I am finally getting around to something I found to be really interesting about this awesome silver glass that is now available to all of us soft glass workers. All of these beads were made with Double Helix's Psyche,but you will notice how different they all are. Below I will explain all of the differences of how I made them.

As you will notice this bead appears to be very goldish greenish in comparison to the other beads below. This was the first bead I made on my Hot Head using 1lb cylinders. I cranked up my torch and blasted it in a bushy flame and here is what I got.

This bead was made on my minor. I made the base, used a somewhat reducing flame, used a clear stringer for the swirl, reduced and then encased. I put it in a reducing flame to pull out the metals in the dots, but in this instance I tried to turn up my propane knob. I only ended up with one really shiny dot and the others were pretty, but not as metallic and rainbowy as I wanted.

Ah, now that's what I'm talking about! This time I made the base, used a clear stringer, reduced it turning down my oxygen knob (this works far better to reduce) and making a little snake forked tongue flame and putting the bead at the tip of the little orange tongue. Holy crap! Isn't that EVEN BETTER?! I then encased and then used that same style flame for the dots. Teeny little oil slicks appeared! Woo Hoo!

Of course since I was now getting all cocky I had to try something a little bit different. This time I made a pretty dirty and bushy flame turning down my oxy, but not all the way the the forked tongue. I thought maybe I could get those gold tones like on my HH if I started with a dirty flame (I think it's just about impossible to make a really dirty flame like on a HH. These babies are supposed to make a nice clean flame. I mean that's why I upgraded right?! Anyways... moving on...) Well it didn't turn gold, but look at all the pretty streakies I got! Very cool. The darker stripes are what the original color looks like before you reduce it, kind of purply. Then I finished by encasing and applying the outside dots. I used my forked tongue flame and gently kissed all of the little dots on the outside and VOILA! See how beautiful they got?! YESSSS!

OMG! Do you see all of the little "oil slicks," in the dots?! As I was cleaning the bead I noticed all of the detail in the dots. Infact you can see that they are shimmery from a distance, but it's only when you turn the bead and really examine it that you begin to see all of the crystals that grew on the surface! WOW!Here is another picture showing the really shiny dots!


Well there you have it! These were my findings from my experimentation. Hope you enjoyed the show!

Much love,

Genea