[GlassMigrations]

Originally Posted by krisb16

I played with Aurora and Dk. Aurora today and got dark blue, and nothing like these beautiful beads. Please bear with me while I ask some dumb questions.

1. Do you encase the Aurora before you strike the bead or after?
2. How long do you keep it out of the fire before reheating? I kept one out too long and it popped in my lap, but I kept waiting for it to turn light.
3. How long do you reheat it? Just barely? Or back to bright orange?
4. If you keep repeating the striking process, will it get lighter or darker?

Thanks for your patience, oh BE gurus! I've never been good at striking or getting anything out of silver glass, for that matter.

Kris

Hi Kris. I used to have BIG problems striking silver glass so keep trying and you'll get the hang of it. To help you out a bit, here are a couple of things I learned on LE to encourage striking silver glass.

1. I don't know if you have ever read in LE about the under the table test. Once you pull your bead out of the flame, let it cool to the point where it is no longer glowing. If you carefully wave your bead under the table, where you are sitting, the orange glow is much easier to see. Once the orange glow has faded, then you know you can strike the bead in the flame. Repeat the steps again until you have reached the desired effect. Just make sure you don't burn your leg passing the hot bead back and forth under the table.

2. If you are using a press to form your silver glass bead, let the press sit on some ice so it becomes very cold. Introducing your bead right out of the flame to the cold press will rapidly cool the bead. Due to the rapid temperature change, when you reintroduce your bead back into the flame again, the silver glass should strike a little easier. Just be sure not to leave your bead in the cold press too long, or your bead will explode when you put it back in the flame. Repeat the above steps as necessary.

3. Saturate a few paper towels folded together with cold tap water(squeeze excess water out). Place the wet papertowel stack on your work desk where you can easily reach it. Once you get your bead hot, remove from the flame. Wait a few seconds so the bead is no longer soft. Once it has hardened, gently and quickly roll your hot bead across the wet pile of papertowels. At that point reintroduce the bead into the flame. Just like in step 2, the temperature contrast helps the silver glass strike a little easier. Repeat the steps until you get the desired results. Just be sure your towels are very wet, if not, you'll be putting out a fire.

It was a while ago when I made those 2 sets of aurora beads, so the specifics are a little hazy. In the morning I will make a couple of the aurora beads and let you know exactly what I did to get those colors. Until then................