When good beads go bad

I do things on a small scale. When I buy glass, I do it 1/4 lb. at a time, both for financial reasons because I have to have all the colors at once and because, well, I have to have all the colors at once and Joe is starting to say things like, "You got more crack," when a package comes. More on that another day. I buy MAPP gas in 1 lb. cylinders because my apartment complex prohibits 20lb. tanks for grills and I don't think they will wink at my glass. When a bead goes bad a little piece of me dies. OK, that's a little extreme, but I definitely analyze the heck out of it and try not to make it happen again. I have been experimenting a lot, like any beginner will, and I have my share of strange beads, but I hate it when I can't use them. On these, they just turned out to be unworkable. The top 2 had separator issues and the bottom one, well, I don't know what stuck to my utility blade tool but it looked too bloody to use.

Note to self: Don't sit there waiting to see what color something is going to go, just garage it. I am not an expert at encasing, in fact, it could be said I sock at it. In these cases, I didn't sink the beads in anealing bubble fast enough to prevent mild thermal shock. The cracks don't go past the encasement layer, but not because I mixed glasses, I don't think. The flat bead is Effetre dark matter, DH aion2, and clear and the round one Effetre gaillo ocra, aion2 and clear. I can still look at these, but for the functional use they were intended they will not do.

This is one that I did the first month of making beads, back in October. I don't know what I did wrong, or right, since I like the bead and tried to do it again, but the first bead I made using Effetre anice white had a uniform transparent grey layer over the white. I didn't smoke the glass, I think, since it doesn't have that streaky thing going on, nor is it a reaction to the millefiori, since the other beads I made using the same combination didn't go all wierd. Just a neat effect.

This last picture is what happens when you have a fat wad of various shades of green and aren't paying attention to what you are doing. My mind was thinking apple green and my brain didn't register that I had another glass that could be interpreted as apple green color: Effetre cool kiwi. So several beads that should have been CiM poison apple were made with Effetre cool kiwi. The kiwi rod is on top. Note that it has been used. I just have to make more beads tomorrow. What a shame.

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.