Hello friends!
It's been awhile since I posted a blog about my findings. I am always on the hunt for the "perfect clear". One that melts well, is free from scratches on the rods, bubbles, one that is compatible with the glass I use, one that only needs a quick wipe in windex or alcohol to be cleaned. I am excited to say I've found it! I added a few new clears to my last glass order and Double Helix Zephyr was one of them. I had wanted to try their clear for awhile and decided this was the time. Now what I am posting is only Zephyr. These are just my very quick glass tests to see how the glass "behaves" with things I like to use in my work.
Here are the quick tests- (from left to right) Raku encased with Zephyr, yellow filigrana encased with Zephyr, Rainbow dichroic encased with Zephyr, and Zephyr.
All of these tests were done to see if there was any incompatible cracking. As you can see it passed with all of the glasses! This means that I can safely layer these with Zephyr in my work without worrying if I will run into any troubles. The last thing you want to do is make a gorgeous focal bead only to have cracks appear after your annealed bead comes out of the kiln!
The last bead is just Zephyr by itself. You may not be able to tell, but the glass is AMAZINGLY OPTICALLY CLEAR. No bubbles, no scratches, no anything... AMAZING! It's crystal clear! The glass has the perfect melting consistency. It's not too stiff, but not mushy soft either.
This next test was to see how Zephyr reacts with silver leaf. On the left you can see what silver does on the surface of the glass. It is a bit shimmery with some gold looking tones. On the right the silver leaf has been gently heated as it was encased. Some clears will make silver leaf look gold when encased. Zephyr leaves silver leaf looking silver when encased.
This last test was to see if Zephyr could be used as a clear core for problematic glass, and to test how it reacts with baking soda. I have learned that yellow, coral and some orange glass tend to cooler faster than other colors. I was having some HORRIBLE cracking issues with some XL focal beads. I bought up this problem in the International Society of Glass Bead makers group on Facebook. They were kind enough to give me the tip of using a clear core as a base for these types of colors to avoid the cracking. So as you can see I have pressed the Sunburst Coral bead super thin and no cracks have appeared!
Breakage- Sunburst Coral with no clear core.
The last test was to see how Zephyr reacted with baking soda as you all know I am totally diggin on my stone textured beads. It's a bit hard to tell from the photo, but the glass has a layer of white on it with very little pitting.So for the baking soda test I know that this will not be a clear I will use for the stone textured beads. This really isn't an issue since there are plenty of other clears that pit very nicely for stone beads.
This test also tells me that whatever is in the formula for Zephyr keeps the glass protected from things that would want to destroy it's clarity.
So what is my review? BUY IT! It's AMAZING! It's worth every penny you spend on it!
Below you can see some of the clear in action.
Beads with Double Helix Zephyr.
Beads with Double Helix Zephyr.
I hope you found these tests to be helpful and that if you were thinking about trying Zephyr that this would give you that extra push to add it to your order.
Thanks so much for stopping by.
xo Genea
