Black pupil of the Evil/Turkish eye.
 

Good afternoon all you fabulous glass workers,

I have recently upgraded to a mega minor that I'm running with propane/oxygen on a concentrator.

My go to "warm up my hands" bead is to do a couple of evil eye beads.

Since I've started using my new torch, I've noticed a problem with the black (pupil) layer of my bead.

If I use Intense black it bleeds into the white (this might happen on my hot head too, but I never tried it).

I switched back to using Effetre Black (just the regular black) to do the pupils but the result is that it's going brown.

I think it might be a heat control issue, but I'm not sure. Has anyone else come across this when working with Effetre Black on a minor burner?

I don't think it's a heat control issue; Effetre black is really a transparent color. I use Reichenbach dense black (104) to avoid this problem, and it's worked well for me. Have you tried any other of the 104 blacks like Tuxedo or Hades?

Try a dab of clear between your layers. This should hold the I-black, also try not to over cook it. It will bleed and web.

Forget the black. Use Effetre Dark Matter. Works great.

Speaking of forgetting the black, you can also use DSP. I use it for stringer work and twisties as well. I can see how dark matter would be an equivalent. Great tip I had even forgotten myself Taino.

I've tried Tuxedo with a similar problem, I haven't tried Hades.

I think a lot of the problem is over cooking so I'll try being a little daintier with my flame.

Less heat will definitely help the situation.

another trick is to encase a dark opaque rod, like dk blue, with black; stays black and opaque even when pulled thin over white.