I dont encase because I am encasing impaired. I only get good color when i do tube beads. I make the bead, roll in raku frit, 96, turn my propane down, oxy way up like dawn said. I cook the hell out of the bead at first, then roll on my marver. I make sure the whole bead is black. if not I keep superheating the part that is not black until the whole bead is black. when i stop super heating, i keep rolling the bead on my marver, either graphite (torch marver) or one of my brass marvers. Once its black, i start spot heating until the gets slight red, roll, between each time, i let the bead cool totally in between spot heatings. Learning to turn the bead black was a huge aha moment, (god bless dawn) spot heating and cooling was another huge aha moment. also, quit trying to do such large beads until I can get consistent colors. I can usually on the tube beads. I get the best color using 96 rods of raku , they are small rods, like two three times the size of stringer, i fry the hell out of the glass as im winding it on my bead, trying to save time, he he. sorry for the shitty pic, i got amazing purples and blues...you have to understand, raku was the reason i started lampworking. for a year, that is all I did was hundreds of raku beads. (was on a hot head, raku was new) just recently did I actually start to get alot of color, and on tube beads only. this went in the kiln unencased, and came out looking the same way. I can get purple and blues, thats about it.
