Canyon de Chelly Revisited

The comment from my last post got me wondering if CiM's Canyon de Chelly strikes differently in different torch chemistry.  I usually combine it with Double Helix Psyche because I love how they work together so I usually strike it and reduce the Psyche all in one go.  What would happen if I wasn't using Psyche?  I don't like turning the gas very high unless I'm reducing something, so I would ordinarily strike CDC by letting it air cool under the table until the glow was gone, then reheating it gently just past the tip of the visible flame.

The beads above are a base of CDC with CiM Hades on top and silvered ivory on the bottom.  The top beads were struck by turning the flame way up and reducing them in the cool part near the base of the flame, and the bottom by leaving the flame at its usual low level and holding the beads just above the visible tip.

I think I got better color out of the bottom ones, made without reduction.  There are hints of pink and lavender I like the look of.  Surprisingly, the top beads struck differently.  Or there is a slight reaction to Hades.The bead on the left shows hints of purple right next to the Hades.  CDC isn't a very translucent color so I don't think it is showing through the glass, such as I'd get with Vetrofond Seashell Swirl, for instance.  Just another odd quirk.

Play it Again, Sam

Ever have to make a bead/set similar to one you've made?  Ever forget what you used to make it?  This one was easy, because only two glasses look like this, CiM Canyon de Chelly and Double Helix Psyche.  I never tried to get such a thin layer of Psyche to reduce but the biggest effort was not to get too much gold/green in the spacers.  Canyon de Chelly is so easy to strike...and unstrike!

 This set, believe it or not, was a little more difficult.  Please forgive the difference in pictures.  As we brace for Irene, the clouds were rolling in faster than I could take pictures.  I was pretty sure I used CiM Smurfy for the base turquoise since I hate that grey thing Effetre does, but I'm not sure.  I decided to go with the CiM anyway, because I hate that grey thing Effetre does.

So what have I been doing?  I'm not sure it's a good practice to get into to list the glass I used for each bead/set in my listing, but when I'm saving to my hard drive and publishing to my facebook album, I'm listing what I made everything of and any special processes.  This way if I ever need or want to repeat something, I can.

After a (not so short) break...

 Yeah, it's been a very long time.  I haven't been entirely away from my torch but I haven't been at it as much as I'd like.  The above set is the result of a couple weeks of doing a couple beads here and there.  The base glass for this is Creation is Messy's Canyon de Chelly, one of my absolute favorite glasses to use.  Not only does it play nice in the flame, but it does some pretty cool stuff with other colors and techniques.  It is a striking color that changes color depending on whether it's just heated and cooled or heated, cooled, and reheated.  And then there's the size of the base bead, which makes a difference.  It's easier to get it to do the neat stripey thing on a large bead than a small one.  Shaping the bead with metal seems to give better effects, so the rapid cooling and partial reheating is key, and sometimes after the color strikes it unstrikes again, but unpredictably.  It doesn't seem to change color in the annealer, which I really dig.  What you see going into the annealer is what you're going to get.

The earrings on the right were my first stab and combining CDC with Double Helix Psyche.  I don't know how evident it is in the picture but there is a reaction on the CDC where the silver laden Psyche touches it that doesn't occur with DH Triton or silvered ivory.  I call that neat.  The central beads contain only CDC and Psyche.  The border on the dark Psyche is the reaction from the CDC.  It has to be melted in and superheated.  Notice in the top photo and the vessel that it doesn't always do this.

With this bracelet I was going for balance and similarity between the glass and the dyed freshwater pearls  I used in the earrings, since the pearls were too small for the bracelet.  The glass I used on the spacers is Vetrofond plum.  It does this neat metallic thing similar to Effetre silver plum when treated the same way, that is allowed to air cool until the glow is gone and reheated gently in the top of my hot head flame, but stays more purple, so call it light silver plum.  Note the beads three beads in from the clasp.  The base glass is yellower because it didn't strike at all, being CiM Stoneground.  I couldn't remember whether I used Stoneground or CDC on the earrings and the lack of reaction on these beads reminded me.  Hey, this bracelet is for my own use and with the weight on the clasp it stays right side up so no one will see them anyway.

 I had so much fun making this vessel I'm keeping the pictures big and showing both sides, so there.  I used a 3/16 mandrel and built the end on the end of the mandrel again so it was a pain to clean, but with a solid color vessel and not planning to sell this I went for the stability of having two base beads to build from.  This meant I had two ends to keep warm but for every flower a tear.  I didn't melt the Psyche in all the way but I was loving the way the CDC was striking and I wanted to leave it the way it was.  I also hate the way the camera washes out the reduction effect of the Psyche, but trust me, it really is there.  The handles and rim are made from an actual rod of Effetre Lace Agate I have been hoarding.  On the smaller beads I used silvered ivory, but it wouldn't do for functional handles, since I can't really pull stringers that thick.

I have missed working glass.  There have been compensations, like losing 50 pounds through diet and time at the gymn.  I hope to continue losing about 20 pounds to get back to my "feel good" weight, but the signs of diabetes that scared me, the blood clot that sidelined me and the limitations that my excess weight caused on my mobility are gone.  I recently acheived a time on a mile "jogging" (more of a fast walk, really) that I haven't achieved since I was 15.  Now I have to try to incorporate the things that I really like doing with the things that I need to stay healthy.  I'll never achieve perfection, but all I ask for is a fighting go.  I may even post a new profile picture if I can find someone who knows how to work my camera.

After a Short Break

 It's been a couple weeks since I posted last, primarily because after I had surgery, I got sick.  Isn't that always the way?  I did make a few beads to test out the new annealer, and have done more since. 

 I finally got Devardi coppery black to lustre, by making the bead, turning the torch up to rocket and striking it then.  I also discovered that if I anneal the beads afterward, the lustre disappears in the kiln.  I may try setting the annealing temperature lower, say 925.  I may not, because this glass uses so much gas to bring up the coating, I don't want to take a chance.  I also discovered that when other colors are added on top, if they are left raised the coppery black doesn't have enough contact with the flame to lustre, and if the coppery black is left raised on top of tuxedo, for instance, it doesn't lustre either.  A bit of a pain to use.

 I wanted to see what Clio did in the kiln, since I read somewhere that it finishes developing color in it.  The two beads on the bottom are Clio, on the left, just Clio, after I attempted to strike and reduce it, and on the right, the same thing with a layer of clear on top.  I like the effect under clear, with the milky reduction modifying the color.  I was hoping for a more ruby color, but I suppose I should be glad I could get anything other than yellow with the hothead.

 I ordered in some more Effetre pink 256.  This bead is the old on the sides and the new in the middle.  I was fairly disappointed that the pink isn't more vivid.  Oh well, try again another time.

So, how's the annealer working?  I made the encased beads pictured here with the express idea of testing this out.  I've had problems with the old kiln cracking encased beads, especially when the beads had a thick encasement layer or were squashed into lentils.  I love the way these turned out.  I still can't do florals to save my life, but I thought the lentil came out very well.

Not the best bead I've ever made, but it served its purpose, which was to see how well a nice long soak held the bead together.  I encased a core of tuxedo with clear, in this case Vetrofond, which I've had more problems with cracking than Effetre or CiM, then added decorations of green and some bizarre poke flowers, which Joe was very kind about but he's color blind, then encased in another thick layer of clear and shaped the whole thing.  It stayed intact and didn't give me any trouble at all.  In cleaning this one the few other encased beads I made, I noticed the absence of a phenomenon I noticed with my cracked beads before.  I could tell if a bead was going to crack by feeling a concentrated vibraton along a line along the hole while cleaning it, even if it didn't crack right away.  It felt almost like an electric shock.  Now I know why it was happening, because none of the beads I made this time did it.

 I was testing out how CiM Tamarind worked on these beads, layering them fairly thickly with a twistie of CiM Canyon de Chelly, DH Clio and Terra2 and a bit of silvered ivory, then swirling it and encasing in clear.  I got some ruby out of the Clio here, and I generally like this combination for a twistie.  I can't really figure out where all the color came from, but that's OK.

This is the backside of the same bead, again showing the strange interaction of color.

This is the same twistie on a base of tamarind with the silvered ivory and squashed in a badly overfilled lentil press.  It's a pity.  I have to try this again without overfilling the press, because I think it looks pretty neat.

This bead ticks me off.  I used a base of white, I think CiM peace, covered it completely with every bit of stringer and twistie I found on the bench, spun it and added ends of tamarind.  I love the way the twisties looked and the colors I got, and am fairly happy with the shape of the bicone.

What I'm not happy about is the dimple I left on one of the ends.  I don't know how it got past me.  It totally wrecks the shape and I should have been able to see it.

Yep, there it is, right on top; it looks like someone scooped a chunk out of the bead and ruins what would have been a decent bead.  The worst part is that since I was just using up bits of twistie loitering around on the table, there's no way of redoing it.  Oh well.  It sure looks hand made.

CiM canyon de chelly

It's been a long while since I've posted, primarily because of a bout with the flu and no gas for the torch. It's true: I bought out the home improvement center I work at. I've had a word with the guy who does the ordering and informed him of my expected consumption and he will try to keep me supplied.

I made a lot of beads with this color, primarily because it is billed as highly reactive and that is what I am currently going for. I have to say it changes character dramatically depending on what is done to it. 1 is plain for reference. With 2 through 5, I added a layer of metal to it. 2 is with silver foil, 3 is with silver foil, reduced and encased, 4 is with copper leaf, melted in very thoroughly, and 5 is the same encased. I have recently added copper leaf to my repertoire to see what it does with the colors and haven't formed an opinion yet as to whether I will continue. So far it's a toss-up.

With silver glass, canyon de chelly looks better under encasement. The aurae on the left isn't doing much but I like the triton on the right. The canyon is sort of grey underneath the encasement of both colors.

Ivory didn't do much and the silvered ivory stringer adds a nice textural organic type of thing. Who knew that the EDP would separate the canyon de chelly? Plum silver dark is disappointing.

There is a barely perceptable grey line with the turquoise and copper red green. I'm back to my teardrop shaped stringcutters again, I see.

With CiM tuxedo, the tux spreads and separates the canyon de chelly, like it does with almost everything else. It also bleeds a bit. Intense black isn't doing much of either.

Will I buy this again? Yes, because it is a good background color to have on hand. I have to try a head to head with CiM stoneground, which it reminds me of.

Post amended 5/20/11

I've been playing with CiM Canyon de Chelly a lot, and have come to the conclusion it is a color I can't live without. When I posted this, I was working very small and hadn't had any luck striking it. I've since learned that beads should be about 1cm or larger to strike properly and that it is capable of fascinating colors when it strikes. I got greens, of course, greys, purple even. It reacts with silver and silvered glass, notably Double Helix Psyche. If I want a really astounding neutral, this is my go to.