Having trouble with goldstone
 

I purchased some tutorials a couple of years ago and decided before I buy anymore I need to use them. So this particular tutorial from Lydia used goldstone. So I preheated my goldstone, double coated it with Lauscha Clear and double coated another with Moretti Super Clear and pulled 2mm stringers. I had to preheat both before using because they kept cracking and breaking off when introduced into the heat. I was introducing them into the side of my flame and the flame was turned down really low. So what the heck am I doing wrong? Are the stringers too thick for this type of application? Here's a pictue of the bead I made. I love the bead, but it could have been more sparkley with the goldstone.

You could be washing it out a bit with the double encasing of clear! Check out the vid by Corina on her goldstone chunk encasing...and a thin coat of clear (or other complimentary transparent) seems to be key! Here's the link:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...9141183168049#

Hope this helps!

De

Thanks De. I have tried single encasing goldstone before as in the video, but have lost the sparkles even faster. I think maybe I'm just working it too long. As far as the breakage goes, I guess I'll try making smaller stringers. Thanks again for your help and the link.

Patsy

I likey to use med amethyst

I think the less encasing you do, the more your goldstone will sparkle. Less time in the heat will also affect it. I've been using lavender blue to encase it lately. I just put a small piece on a chop stick, encase it and use another chopstick to pull it out.

Thanks ladies. I will try encasing with your suggestions.

Patsy

Sarah Hornik wrote a great Ebook on goldstone which I highly recommend. We had the pleasure of having Sarah at our Sydney bead meeting last Sunday when she was in town. After the meeting, Sarah and I went to one of our local bead shops to do some damage. I bought a strand of polished goldstone 6mm round beads for $3. Heated up a punty and put on the bead. Applied cool heat to melt it a bit and then encased with clear. It produced the best sparkle I've ever achieved and, so far, is the cheapest I have ever paid.

Also, don't melt the stringer in all the way. Melt it just until it is firmly attached but leave it raised. You will have a lot of sparkle that way.

Some goldstone has more sparkles than others. I have some I don't like as well as others. Maybe you just need different goldstone.

1 thing that I found out that Laucha clear doesn't really like to be mixed with other clear (moretti/vetro). I got more cracking beads when I only use vetro/moretti clear as core then encased the whole beads with laucha clear.

Another possibility, aside from compatibility issues, is if you trap an air bubble in your encasing. You pull the bubble when you pull the stringer and it causes cracking the second you introduce it to the heat.

I cheat and use purchased goldstone 2mm stringers. I love it!

I think you're definitely trapping air. Try encasing with the encasing rod at a sharp angle to the goldstone and painting on a thin layer of really, really molten clear in a linear fashion.

(Melt ball of Clear, touch to tip of goldstone and push down the goldstone gather, repeat, repeat all the way around.)

I never catch air since I started doing it this way... getting the clear super hot helps it to fit into the ridge left by the last stripe of Clear, and angling the rod helps to apply a thinner layer.

Just for fun, I drew a picture. Sadly, it's not a great picture, but maybe it will help.

Hmm, I don't think I mixed the clears. I think I made one with a little bit of lauscha clear on the end, picked up the goldstone, melted in and double encased in lauscha clear. The other was made the same way only this time I used moretti super clear as the base and double encased in the goldstone with moretti clear. The stringer is left raised. Maybe I'm just burning off the sparkles. I am making a big bead and am worried about keeping the bead warm so it doesn't crack. Probably should apply the goldstone as the last step instead of doing the feathering at the bottom as a last step.

Patsy

Thanks Melanie for the picture. I do apply the clear in a linear fashion now, but maybe need a sharper angle.

Great bead Patsy! That is a tough tutorial to follow!!! :)

Goldstone's sparkle can have 2 sources:

• "Real" goldstone is supersaturated with copper (gold) or chrome (green). The sparkles are tiny flakes of metal that precipitated out of the glass (like sugar coming out of hot tea as it cools).
  
• Other colors of goldstone and "shampoo glass" are made by adding mica powder to the glass.

Encasing should not affect mica-based glass - as long as you don't heat it so high the mica burns up.

But when you encase and pull a thin stringer of "real" goldstone - you may be diluting the copper so that the sparkles disappear. The excess copper is just absorbed in the clear glass.

Can you pull pure goldstone stringer and compare its sparkle to the encased?

I also think some goldstone is much sparklier than other bits, sometimes even within the same batch of chunks.

Also be sure to not pull the goldstone too thin In my experience a light encasing is better.

Talking about goldstone.... how do you get smaller chunks from your big chunk? I tried hitting it with a hammer and I tried using an old screwdriver as a chisel, but all I got was small flakes of goldstone?
How do you break it up into good working sized pieces?

I had Greg cut mine with his wet saw, then I used tile nippers.

I got the same tutorial and encased chunk goldstone, but I only gave it one layer of encasing. I pulled a thin stringer of clear and wrapped the goldstone chunk after heating it and pulling it into a barrel shape. Here's a pic I took of the single encased chunk before I pulled stringer.

With the one coat I have had nice thick goldstone stringer work like on this thimble, with no shock problem. Was there a specific reason you gave it two layers of encasing?

Yes, there was a reason I encased it twice. In past experience, I've lost all the sparkle. I double encased a while back and it worked better for me. Better sparkles. This was a big bead, and I just must have burned off the sparkle. It does have a satiny gold look to it though. It's pretty, just different. Just kind of frustrated that I don't get the glitter look after all this time of torching.

Put the chunk in your kiln and ramp up to annealing temperature. Carefully remove with tongs and immerse in a deep metal bowl of cold water. It will thermal shock into smaller pieces.

Eye protection and other reasonable safety precautions should be taken.

L

The strand of goldstone beads I bought has about 50 beads each 6mm.
#1. no cutting
#2. polished so very sparkley
#3. hell of a lot cheaper than buying it from the lampworking dealers.
#4. easy to heat up on the end of a punty
#5. easy to encase without trapping any air
#6. 1 bead makes one decent sized encased stringer.

Hey Tammy, I've been doing the goldstone bead thing for some time now... Just remember to squash the bead enough to close the hole so you don't trap the air in it...

Kerry

I forgot to add that Devardi glass has solid Adventurine Goldstone rods. I have been wrapping the end with a stringer of clear and pulling the size Goldstone stringers I need. No more chunks to cope with!

I do have a Rod Warmer that they sell and I love it to pieces.

http://www.devardiglass.com/specialtyglass.htm

Patsy, I think what's happening is that you're overheating the goldstone. This happens to me sometimes, especially if I'm working with goldstone with very small sparkly flakes. When goldston is overheated and encased, you get more of a satin look.

Try turning your torch down to a cool neutral flame, slowly heat the goldstone and as Kristina said, marver it into a barrel and encase it with a thin layer of clear. Right now I'm using Moretti Super Clear, so if you have some of that, you shouldn't have any problem. I think you might have a really hot torch setup and high heat can kill the sparkle really fast.

Who is the best source for the goldstone beads?