Dark matter and the universe

Dark matter is a good name for this new glass from Effetre. It doesn't do all that much sitting there on its own, but combine it with other stuff and you're going to get a reaction. The self spacer, 1 below, is a good example. The lower picture gives a better idea of how it actually looks, with the top picture more acurately reflecting the rod. It's when you start to play with it that you get a better idea of what it is. Bead 2 is reduced, with a neat sheen and purplish area that do not show up well in the photo. 3 is with silver foil melted in, and the greenish patina looks really interesting, especially if paired with other colors, sis, for instance, that I haven't had time to try yet. 4 is silver foil melted in and encased in clear, and I'll be honest, it looks better without the encasement. 5 is with DH psyche scrolls, struck and reduced. Not much happening but I wasn't expecting much. I'm still learning to get the most out of psyche and it seems tricky to work. Interesting green fuming effect on the dark matter, though. This is more evident in 6, which is struck, reduced and encased with clear. 7 is with alternating bands of triton and aion2, struck, reduced, and encased in clear. It's a pretty bead, but the main thing that strikes me is the difference between it and 8, which is dark matter with triton scrolls, struck and reduced and left on its own. 10 is dark matter with CiM gunmetal unique stringer. There is a gunmetal-like reaction on bead 5 that didn't show up on film, which can be seen as the greyer area underneath the psyche. It seems to be a function of the silver glass, since it didn't show up on the gunmetal bead, but my attempts to duplicate it without the silver glass and just by working it high in the flame were unsuccessful. As I said in the beginning, I like this glass more for what it does than what it looks like. The encased psyche in particular looks better than anywhere else.

playing with colors

Having had enough of unpredictable results, I did a CiM poison apple, or at least I thought it was since it was really Effetre cool kiwi and Effetre dark matter bead, each with DH aion2 decoration and encased, the apple with vetro crystal pale green and the dark matter with clear. I don't like the large layer of clear on the sides of the dark matter bead. I should have encased a lot thinner, but at this point, coverage is more what I'm after. The finesse will come with time and practice. The lower shot is 2 beads with Effetre gaillo ocra, the left with plum silver scrolls and the right with reduced and encased aion2 and the middle bead is closer to what I thought I'd get with the lower blooper photo, Effetre silver colors 1, 2 and 3, 1 layered over 2 next to 3. I don't remember if I encased it. Probably not.


Here's a gratuitous shot of Vetro candy apple with DH triton because I like it.


I don't know which photo I like better, so I'll do both. The sorta cylindrical bead is silver color 3, and the roundish one is dirty martini. I didn't think these colors came up very different for me and they don't. Hopefully Effetre will release these colors individually so I can get more to try out, but until then, I doubt I will be doing much more experimentation. Incidentally, silver color 2 is shocky and 1 tends to boil.

Not everything turns out like I want it to. At this stage of my expertise, not much does. Here is a prime example. I saw a cool bead on the Frantz Art Glass blog for the silver challenge winners. I wanted to do something similar and while I knew I wouldn't get the same bead and didn't have the fuel to do it the same way, I didn't know how far I was going to be off. The other is an ugly attempt to get an encased bead to turn out the way I wanted, vs. the way the glass was going to react. EDP and Aion2: not a pretty combo no matter how I encase it. What a waste of glass, fuel, and time.

I wantd to see what difference there was between Effetre 076 trans red and Vetro 951 (I think) candy apple. As this picture shows, not much. The 076 rod is thicker than the Vetro one, so I had an easier time building up this large holed bead, but otherwise both act the same if I don't burn the glass. I'll be honest--I was trying not to. SIS for decoration but essentially the same bead.