Sasha's Silver and other silver glass findings...

Ok the long awaited color report... with CiM's Dirty Martini, Peace, Grumpy Bear, and Moretti colors.

Ok so keep in mind that silver glass is VERY challenging to photograph so beads are even MORE beautiful than they appear. Also about the ones that don't look like they have anything on them, they do, there are little "oil slicks" all over them, they just don't get picked up by the camera.

Ok so here is my explanation about this pic. As you may have read all were done with Sasha's silver, but one bead which has been labeled ;) M058-V odd is an odd lot of Ink Blue, M252 is Dark Gray, M260-BP is bubble gum pink odd, m014 is Medium topaz.

I think I was the most shocked about Ink Blue and Dark Gray. I mean would you have guessed that that's what the colors were before the fuming of silver on the surface from Sasha's stringer? Me neither! Pretty though huh?!

Now as for the Medium Topaz and SS stringer and Peace and Aion2 stringer. The beads ARE actually pretty! They have that oil slick on them that you can't see in this pic. You have to have them right under the light to see the iridescence.

Now for this picture... DD stands for "Dirty, Dirty" why? why not? lol I used a "dirty" almost totally propane flame to get those results. So here is what I did. For the beads on the right I used that little lapping reduction flame they show on Double Helix's website and got those results. Some prettier than others, but they do have "oil slicks" on them. I did get curious though. I was thinking the stringer was still kind of gray looking, but the rest of the bead was so pretty with all of the silver that had fumed onto the surface. I wonder what adding some more propane will do...

Well as you can see in column too using a DD flame brought out even MORE color. Does that makes the beads in the other column ugly? NO, it just makes them more subtle.

So how did I do it? Well I will tell you... For the DD beads I melted in my stringer per usual in a neutral flame. I then cranked up my propane and began reducing in a almost totally propane flame. I put it in the little tip of the orange flame heated both sides until glowing( not molten, but warm), I then pulled it out to have a look. I re-introduced it again into the fatter part of the orange flame. It seems like it gets more metallics if you put it there. If you decide you want more color turn the propane down a little and wave your bead around in the flame. I did this about 5 times before putting the beads into the kiln. Pretty spiffy huh?

So anyways, there are my findings whilst playing around with the glass. I hope that this inspires you to make something pretty or that it answered some questions you have about this glass. I, in no way claim to be an expert in silver glass,but I thought you might like to find some new things out and give them a try. It's a total bummer when you spend an entire day or whatever getting nothing but mud ;)

All right .. now I am really off for the weekend! Have a great one!

Much love,

Genea