Vetrofond painted desert odd lot

This is another color that may not be fair to post because it isn't easy to get, Vetrofond painted desert odd lot. It is bee-you-tee-full. It is streaky, it is purple and it reacts with stuff. What's not to love? Only that I may not be able to get any more. I'm going to hoard this one. OK, it's a little shocky. I popped the end of the rod off, twice in fact. The first time when I was just heating it and the second when I had started a gather. Rats. This is a characteristic I'm noting with the odd lots. The worst was honey crunch, which I have vowed never to use again. Lichen was pretty bad but once I got the hang of it it was all right. This one falls into the latter category. Besides, I love this color.

1 is plain. The rod is an unassuming grey with a core of reddish and a distinct 4-lobed cloverleaf of lighter grey inside. Did I take a picture of this? You bet. Did it turn out? Not at all.

This color reacts with silver and turns out pretty. Yay!
2 is with silver foil, melted in. Nice texture and a little sparkle thrown in.
3 is with silver foil, melted in and encased. Where did this come from. Super lilac that I can get on film, as it were. The contrast with the brownish fuming is quite nice.

4 is with silvered ivory stringer, and considering the name, a very desert-y looking bead. I think I am going to do something with this, but I don't know what. 5 is with plain ivory, and the contrast isn't very good in this bead. The colored glass just washes right out, but I see a little bleeding I may be able to use. 6 is with copper red green, and to be honest, I thought about the lack of difference between the colors and decided against my fat rod of copper green because I already had one rod threatening to pop. I wish I hadn't been so lazy. I would have liked to see the color combination, since the only way I could tell the 2 apart was the order I put the glass on the mandrel.

These are both with DH triton, and to be honest, I don't care for either of them. Both fume brownish with the silver glass and the triton has reduced on bead 7 to that lime green I don't care for. I see hints of rose and lavender but for the most part it's light brown and lime. The unencased bead, 8, is a little better because the brown in it is quite pronounced and the triton did go all silver. I wonder what happens to painted desert if it is reduced without any decoration?

9 is with dots of intense black covered with dots of painted desert. The painted desert has gone somewhat translucent on top of the black and I may want to use this effect later. 10 is with plum silver and I think it is interesting that the plum silver fumed the painted desert more than the silvered Spanish leather stringer I picked up by accident in bead 11. I kept wondering why the plum silver wouldn't do its metallic thing and it was only after the bead was cool that I remembered the Spanish leather stringer was still on the worktable. It is a nice contrast but I don't see using it at any time soon. I like the real plum silver better.

An update on painted desert: It is possible to get more striation and color by manipulating the glass on the mandrel. The beads with painted desert are on the left. In a bead where intense black is encased with painted desert, the black doesn't show through the painted desert. Shucks. Oh, yes, the reason the painted desert rod on top is so short is below.

As a bonus shot, this is the end of the painted glass rod that shot off once I had started melting a gather. This is not the one that landed in my lap this morning. That got all kinds of water poured on it to put out the fire and fractured into frit. No, I didn't get burned, but the chair cushion will have to be turned over when company comes to visit. I wonder if this is a striking color like moon rock turns out to be. I'll have to let this question sit. It will be a while before I work up the nerve to heat up this color again.

Would I buy this glass again? In a heartbeat. I wish I had pounds of the stuff. Will I be able to? No idea.