How to get Silver Tears to look silvery?

LauraLou · #1 2010-08-18, 2:30pm

warning, Boro newbie here... do I reduce it, use an oxidizing flame? I know I need to encase it, but it just looks like a glowing-greenish transparent color.

thanks,
Laura

LauraLou · #2 2010-08-24, 8:25am

anybody???

e. mort · #3 2010-08-24, 8:27am

silver tears only looks silvery for me on the surface. It can be pretty encased but not silvery.

LauraLou · #4 2010-08-24, 9:13am

Ok, thanks. I'm trying to get the hazy/greyish look.... I will experiment some more...

kirrakat123 · #5 2010-08-25, 12:21am

Hi, On the Momka website (www.momkasglass.com) it says to --
"Encased under an oxidizing flame gives transparent golden amber
veils with a faint bluish reflective quality and you can get a mirroring
iridescence on the surface. Inside outs can give anything from
amber to steel grays. Under neutral flame, surface colors can get
a bit darker. " I love alot of the Momka colors, but have not tried
Silver Tears yet. Thanks, Cynthia in Australia

LauraLou · #6 2010-08-25, 7:43am

Quote:

Originally Posted by kirrakat123

Hi, On the Momka website (www.momkasglass.com) it says to --
"Encased under an oxidizing flame gives transparent golden amber
veils with a faint bluish reflective quality and you can get a mirroring
iridescence on the surface. Inside outs can give anything from
amber to steel grays. Under neutral flame, surface colors can get
a bit darker. " I love alot of the Momka colors, but have not tried
Silver Tears yet. Thanks, Cynthia in Australia

thanks, cynthia! I'll try that!

AuntD · #7 2010-09-07, 2:35pm

LauraLou -- I'm not sure whether this is a factor in what you're trying to do, but just in case... lots of boro colors have 'silver' in their name, and it doesn't refer to the color you get, but to the fact that there is silver in the composition of the glass. The different chemicals they use to create the glass affects the colors you get, and you can get a lot of colors from silver glass, but not always an actual silver color.

You can sometimes get a silvery finish by bathing your finished piece in a reducing flame for a few seconds to bring the silver to the surface, but that doesn't always work. The problem with reducing flames for boro is that you can end up with horrible muddy or livered colors. Ask me how I know!

Because of the problem with muddy colors, it's usually best to keep boro in a neutral or oxidizing flame when working. I can't think offhand of any colors that require a reducing flame when working, which doesn't mean there aren't any, just that I've never used one.

LampworkbyLori · #8 2010-09-10, 11:00am

Hi Laura,

Are you by any chance trying to work from the Max n Me I recipe book? She uses a lot of Silver Tears in those recipes for half of each bead and rolls them in clear frit then makes the Silver Tears go almost white, at least in the pictures. In her second book, she does the same thing with Jamboree.

I have been struggling to get that result, too.

LauraLou · #9 2010-09-11, 6:32am

Quote:

Originally Posted by LampworkLori

Hi Laura,

Are you by any chance trying to work from the Max n Me I recipe book? She uses a lot of Silver Tears in those recipes for half of each bead and rolls them in clear frit then makes the Silver Tears go almost white, at least in the pictures. In her second book, she does the same thing with Jamboree.

I have been struggling to get that result, too.

Hi Lori! Yep, sure am. It seems like it's haze that isn't burned off, but the haze burns off when getting the bead hot enough to melt and shape up. I asked her about it and she said to get the haze, take it out of the flame for a half minute or so then put it back in. I had another thought too... maybe the glass she had was different than the glass I have. I usually work in soft glass and sometimes I'll get a batch that doesn't behave the same way as previously. does this happen with boro too? Feel free to PM me and maybe we can help each other! There's other recipes that I'm having trouble with, but I figured it's because I'm fairly new at working boro.

AuntD- thanks for the info! I appreciate any help I can get!

Laura

LyndaJ · #10 2010-09-11, 9:47am

I can get the haze to come back as you said by letting it cool and then rolling int back in a neutral flame before encasing. BUT my silver tears keeps striking a dark amber color. That's not what I'm after. Does it always strike?

LauraLou · #11 2010-09-11, 12:19pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by LyndaJ

I can get the haze to come back as you said by letting it cool and then rolling int back in a neutral flame before encasing. BUT my silver tears keeps striking a dark amber color. That's not what I'm after. Does it always strike?

The website says this about Silver Tears,
"Encased under oxidizing flame gives transparent golden amber veils with a faint bluish reflective quality and you can get a mirroring iridescence on their surface."

Maybe your flame is more oxidizing than you think? HTH!

LyndaJ · #12 2010-09-11, 3:02pm

It's not really iridescence on the bead, that goes away during the rounding process, but I can get the haze back. It's the haze that we see on that tutorial.

LauraLou · #13 2010-09-12, 9:32am

I was referring to the transparent golden amber veils. i haven't had it strike on me. How do you get the haze back and to stay on the bead while encasing it? I keep burning it off while encasing the bead.... do i have to get the clear super hot to encase then>?

gmkcpa · #14 2010-09-12, 5:13pm

Often I think that those special people who write the descriptions of what the glass can look like under varying conditions have their heads higher up in the clouds than I've ever gotten.

LyndaJ · #15 2010-09-13, 7:41am

Oh, I've never seen golden amber veils. I encase with the base bead under the flame. Once the haze is trapped, it stays - for me at least with boro.

JesterGlass · #16 2010-09-13, 8:10am

Quote:

Originally Posted by gmkcpa

Often I think that those special people who write the descriptions of what the glass can look like under varying conditions have their heads higher up in the clouds than I've ever gotten.

Or they are just better at manipulating flame composition (and perhaps are using oxy with higher purity than you). There's a reason they're doing the testing usually

I strongly recommend taking one of Henry Grimmet's "Working with GA Glass" classes, or going to AGI when he attends. There's really a science behind it, informed by experience at the torch.

LampworkbyLori · #17 2010-09-14, 11:46am

Hi Laura,
Sorry, I just got back to this thread and haven't actually been on the torch since. I was thinking that Lynda is right (in my case) that I am using a more oxidizing flame than I think. And I think you do have to keep the bead under the flame to avoid burning off the haze or maybe even reduce it a bit before encasing. I am going to torch today and I'll give it another shot. You know, she basically gets the same effect with SS3, Magic Mirror, Blue Reflection, etc and I've seen other people who have made beads kinda like hers on etsy, but nobody else has achieved this effect either.

Rose · #18 2010-09-14, 1:07pm

Lori, I hear ya on the Jamboree! I thought for sure the wrong name was used in the tutorials, but then I saw it was consistent. I just gave up and went my own direction after that, lol. I think we all can have such different flame characteristics so some things will never be able to be reproduced easily. I had good luck on the first tutorial but the second, forget it.

Oh, I want to add one thing. Trying to get those results and trying different glass took me down a new path and I discovered a new color and made some beads I never would have made if I hadn't been experimenting. So really, nothing lost!

Rose · #19 2010-09-14, 1:17pm

Laura,
I think my experience was that if I just made the beads and didn't worry about flame chemistry, they came out fine. I think it's when you add the frit that it changes it a bit for the look you want. Encase them and photograph them. See if they look similar. I use a lot of silver tears and they are never shiny. But they do look very similar to the tutorial beads. I worked with 2 oxycons and a cricket back then. I Did try to use a more oxy flame, tho.

LampworkbyLori · #20 2010-09-14, 11:15pm

Rose, I was admiring your beads last weekend. They have such a wispy look and you use beautiful color combinations. I really think you are my new favorite boro bead maker!

For now I am on a Bobcat w/natural gas and a M-15 and that's all the oxy that thing can handle. It's plenty hot and plenty pure. Unfortunately, I got side tracked today and didn't make it to the torch.

Anyway, I think it's great that these two recipe books are at the very least getting us started and moving in new directions; however, the point of her recipes was to show how we can use different colors like Purple Haze, Silver Tears, Jamboree, etc. in new ways and we aren't able to achieve that ... yet.

I have a couple of friends who are much more experienced than I am with boro, so I think I will ask them to try a recipe or two to see if they can push Silver Tears and Jamboree all the way out to a whitish color and see what happens...

Lori

Rose · #21 2010-09-15, 6:25am

Thank you Lori!

Here is an example of what I think you gals are talking about. In these beads that light peach color is caramel luster rolled in clear frit. See how it kind of turned creamy looking? That seems to happen for me after I add the frit. Maybe it's just some haze that happens before I encase it. Anyways Silver Tears does similar things for me with no special treatment. Use larger clear frit and see if it helps. (That is, if you were using small or fine)

I never was able to get this effect with Jamboree though.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/54432988...rk-beads-spice

Here's a tip.... try crushing up some Magic Mirror for frit. I LOVE that stuff! The chunky beads I posted on Etsy today are full of MM frit.

LampworkbyLori · #22 2010-09-15, 7:19am

OMG! Those ones on etsy are fabulous! Such great color! I wish I had a way to crush some frit. Doh! I just remembered I have an electric coffee grinder for that!

Yes, those Spice beads (beautiful!) are what I'm talking about. I'll give Carmel Luster a try with some Clear frit or dots and see if I can get something similar. Do you know if you used "new" or "old" Carmel Luster?

I just bought 3 colors in small frit and I'm thinking of exchanging them for medium. Sometimes reactive frits, like Aurora and the Exotics aren't big enough to really bloom in size small.

Lori

Rose · #23 2010-09-15, 7:28am

Go to Home Depot and buy a short pipe, about 6 in long with threads on the end. Guessing 2 in. diameter. Then buy a cap that screws onto that. Then buy another pipe of less diameter and a cap for that. The last one will be the crusher and will fit inside the first pipe but has to be longer. Drop some pieces of boro in and bang bang bang. You have frit. I don't bother putting it thru a screen as I just use small amounts here and there. Too big? Crush it again

Put it in a baggie and you are good to go.

If you need a pic, let me know. Costs about $6 to make, if I recall right. I think boro is too hard for a coffee grinder.

For clear frit I like the medium most, but the fine has it's place. For green exotic you can now make your own. I like it on the smaller side, but a chunk here and there is good, too.

CORRECTION: I didn't use Caramel Luster. It is Tan Silver Creek. Sorry!

LauraLou · #24 2010-09-15, 2:25pm

I don't know why I haven't been getting email updates, I'll re-subscribe tho.
Rose, I LOVE your beads! They are the style that I am trying to achieve. I'll go to home depot to get the pipes and try doing that. I had been heating a lollipop and plunging it into ice water, but that gets old fast. I think I was on a different torch back then too.
Anyway, I'll hopefully be able to work at these recipes again this weekend.
Thanks so much for stopping in, I hope you'll be back with lots of tips for us newbies!

Laura