Hot Head Raku uuuuties!

[monarae]

Okay, I give up; I'm gonna post my frustration!

I'm on a hot head using propane. I've heated the snot out of it, I've blown on it, I've used graphite, brass, a butterknife dipped in water, and nothing works. I've tried different bases. I've tried stringer (straight and twisted) and several sizes of frit. I've tried it close to the torch head and far away in the flame.

All I get is tan/green, with the exception of the blue edges when the base is black, or almost nothing at all when the base is light blue.

It's a good think I like it tan/green, but I really want it to be a rainbow! When I tried it on light blue, I got it to be brown, but couldn't get it black, and encased it. When it came out of the kiln the frit had almost disappeared, it became so light.

The closest I got to black was silver, which is too much reduction. What happens if I encase the silver?

Help, before I quit raku!

Mona

[Palestrina]

Try this:
Put your raku on black, cobalt, or something dark using stringer. Melt it in. Take it out of the flame and let it cool a bit. Then, put it up to the face of your torch, about an inch away and heat the raku until it begins to disappear. You'll see it go very white and then clear. It will take a while (about a minute or 2?) but it will happen. Take it out of the flame and marver it (make sure your marver is cool). Now, if it's dark brown (almost transparent looking) or black, either encase it immediately without letting it touch the flame, or flash it in the flame like you're striking it, bit very quickly! Don't leave it there for more than a second.

If none of this works, wait until you get a new torch. Really.

Sorry you're having so much trouble... hope this helps!

[monarae]

Thanks Kimberly. I'll give it a try.

When I heat it up until it disappears, does that mean I won't be able to see it in the HOT HOT bead, or when it is cool?

Mona

[Palestrina]

Hot Hot bead. You'll actually see the hot raku itself beginning to go clear on the hot hot bead. When you cool it on your marver, you'll then see it and it should be dark brown or black.

One more tip: if you run your marver across it rather then just pressing it on there, you'll get a cool pattern, like a rainbow and you should see a funky outline. Give it a shot!

[monarae]

Thanks I'll try again today.

Mona

[Palestrina]

Let me know if it works, and no matter what, take a pic. I'd love to see it even if you didn't get the color. You should also write down exactly what you did as soon as you're finished. This way I can be of more help (and so can others). Have fun!!

P.S. As far as the kiln washing it out, II don't know. I know others are having issues with this but no one seems to know why. I have a feeling it has to do with the level of color on the bead and the level of heat before going in.

[FourTailsLampwork]

I'll give this a try, too. I want to do a set of raku prayer beads for a friend, and it doesn't work if they aren't pretty shiny colours.

[Heart-Fire]

Originally Posted by monarae

Okay, I give up; I'm gonna post my frustration!

I'm on a hot head using propane. I've heated the snot out of it, I've blown on it, I've used graphite, brass, a butterknife dipped in water, and nothing works. I've tried different bases. I've tried stringer (straight and twisted) and several sizes of frit. I've tried it close to the torch head and far away in the flame.

All I get is tan/green, with the exception of the blue edges when the base is black, or almost nothing at all when the base is light blue.

It's a good think I like it tan/green, but I really want it to be a rainbow! When I tried it on light blue, I got it to be brown, but couldn't get it black, and encased it. When it came out of the kiln the frit had almost disappeared, it became so light.

The closest I got to black was silver, which is too much reduction. What happens if I encase the silver?

Help, before I quit raku!

Mona

Did you ever get raku to work on a hot head? If so, would you please describe your technique. I'd like to try on my torch.

[jaci]

The only way I ever really got it to work was to pull a thicker stringer with it and get the tip white hot ad I layed it in the mandrel. It should basically go instantly dark when you lay it down. If you start with a small bead of clear or metallic black or something reactive, just dot the surface with little white hot dots. You are basically atriking it before it hits the bead. Because you have it white hot it should not really ball up as much as spread out on the surface if it does, get it hotter. It's really hard to do thin with a full size rod. The stringer works so much better. It's fine to use the "emergency stringer method" to this. It creates less of a partial strike that may have to be over come with more heat, but try each way. When you have small blobs of raku on the surface you can lightly rake them and apply clear if you want partially or a full encasement.

Remember raku is a reduction glass. I could not get colors like dawn does ever on the HH. They were more dusky Pinks or dk purple. Or earthy.

If you think you were loosing color in the kiln, there are a few things to try.
Turn your kiln down 20 degrees or so. It may run hot.
Work the raku last in your torch time, then ramp down without holding very long
Under work the raku in the flame. This way the last part of the strikkimg process happens in the kiln rather than burning out. This one it tricky, because you have to strike it and then stop earlier than you would to get xyz color, but late enough that your colors just begin to bloom. You may not understand until you see raku really work for you.

GOOD LUCK and post some pics!

The other thing to try is to put a pea size amount of raku on your rod and heavily encase after striking. (don't forget it's 96, use 96 clear) if you are using the 104 raku.. Well there is your problem!

The original terra was my 'raku' of the hh world. Worked perfect every time! I have not tried the new stuff yet. Nor do I play with my hh so much any more. Terra was one of those things you could over work the color out of really fast. I basically was wrap n go! And got raku colors out of it.

[monarae]

Here is the best Raku bead I've ever made. Notice that it is somewhat sculptural. I focused more on the shape of the bead and not at all on trying to make magic with the raku. I think that's the best way to deal with it...ignore it and make a bead that takes a lot of manipulation and in and out of the flame.

[kayrein97]

Beautiful monarae!

[jaci]

It is beautiful!