using CBS glow pigment and UV reactive glass

[WOBGnut]

After searching under every version of Ultra Violet reactive glass and glow pigment terms I can think of, I haven’t found any discussion on using these. Surely with the current rage on everything glowy this has come up somewhere on this site. If so, please post the link to discussions. If not, please post any experiences you have with these products; Boro UV reactive glasses of various colors and brands and/or CBS’s Glow Pigment. Especially the CBS Glow Pigment.
There is some information on the websites of the various vendors selling UV reactive glass (particularly Boro) but virtually none on using the Glow Pigment other than to say it has no COE.

I’m waiting on an order I just placed for a bunch of these and have lots of ideas swirling around in my head on using them. But NO experience. I’m particularly interested in info. on the glow pigment since I can use it with Boro or Soft glass.

GLOW PIGMENT QUESTIONS Can it be mixed in the colors? Does it need to be encased like it does when fusing with it? (Saw that on the CBS video but no mention of using it in Lampworking except that you can.) Does it need to be treated like Dichro in that it burns off if exposed to flame? Can I mix it with color or clear, pull out to a stringer and do dots or stringer work with it? How does doing that sort of thing affect the amount of glow you get?

As you can see ideas and ?s just bursting to a bright glow in my head.
Thanks, Linda

[WOBGnut]

Hi All, since I wasn’t getting any replies on this, I contacted Sandberg (CBS) directly. Got a very helpful answer from Howard Sandberg who passed on the following:
GLOW TIP SHEET
GLOW PIGMENT

• MUST BE FULLY ENCASED INSIDE GLASS. CUT YOUR CLEAR CAP LARGE ENOUGH TO FULLY ENCAPSULATE ALL EDGES AND TRAP PIGMENT INSIDE.
• PIGMENT CAN HANDLE TEMPERATURES UP TO 1800F
• KEEP PIGMENT DRY, EVEN DURING/AFTER COLDWORKING
• CAN BE MIXED WITH GLASS POWDER FOR CASTING ETC., BUT DO NOT EXCEED 30% PIGMENT TO GLASS RATIO
• CAN BE MIXED WITH ANY BINDER, GLAZE, OVERGLAZE OR ANY OTHER CLEAR MEDIUM USED FOR HOTWORKING.
• HANDLE PIGMENT AS IF IT WERE GLASS POWDER (USE PROPER BREATHING FILTER AND VENTILATION)
• STORE PIGMENT IN A COOL DRY PLACE

He also added answers to my specific questions regarding working on a torch.
Does it burn off in the flame like dichroic - YES, IT IS SIMILAR TO DICHROIC IN THAT IT NEEDS PROTECTION FROM THE HOT FLAME. THE PIGMENT IS DESTROYED AT 1800 DEGREES F.

does it need to be applied and then encased? YES, ONLY BECAUSE WATER WILL DESTROY THE GLOW EFFECT. THUS, FULLY ENCASE AND PLAN IF YOU ARE COLDWOKING DON'T LET WATER TO ENTER BETWEEN LAYERS TO THE GLOW.

Can it be mixed in with color rods or only trans parents? IT CAN BE MIXED WITH ANY GLASS, BUT REMEMBER IT IS NOT GLASS. THINK OF IT MORE AS AN "INCLUSION" INSIDE THE GLASS. DO NOT MIX MORE THAN 30% PIGMENT TO 80%GLASS IF MIXING IN WITH POWDERS, FRIT, ETC.

Does it work only on surface or can be used in implosions? IT CAN BE WORKED ON THE SURFACE AND/OR MARVERED IN, AS LONG AS IT IS FULLY ENCASED AT THE END.

[Three Muses Glass]

Thanks for posting your Q's and their A's! I haven't used that product before, just boro UV glass in rods. It's...kinda cool but honestly, who walks around under UV? I like the boro bars glow sticks better, even though they just look white.

[WOBGnut]

I was resisting it too, for the same reason. But one of the other artists at a gallery I show at accidentally bought UV reactive paint and went a head and worked up a line of jewelry for fun. She has a black light In her display. We decided to make a whole display of UV work for the fun of it. I have some ideas for sculpture work and pendants that look one way in regular light and completely different in UV. Interestingly, one of the photographers has a PRINT of a picture she took a few years ago under black light lighting. Amazingly, the print is UV reactive on the areas that had UV reactive glass. This is a photo on regular art stock paper that the image is changing color under UV!

Anyway, UV lighting is much more readily available now a days, so I could see a display shelf in a home being set up with UV to display artwork. And UV seems to be quite the rage in the club scene. I already had three types of UV light sets that I’ve collected thru the years so my only new investment in this project was some cool different glass. I’m always willing to spend a little on glass. @o@

After looking around on YouTube, I noticed that almost all the UV reactive pieces were made as “smoke” paraphernalia. I’d like to explore using such a versatile product for less recreational and more artistic pieces for the artistic challenge.

I also make glass elements for fairy gardens and can see lots of potential in glow in the dark accents for people to put in their fairy gardens. Hence my interest in how to use the glow pigment.

I’ll try to post items as I get them made in a few weeks. Cross fingers that my ideas work! LOL

[WOBGnut]

I’m not sure whether to place these photos in the gallery or here, or both. But since they pertain specifically to my original question posted here, I’m going to start with them here (see next two posts under this). I’m pretty happy with how the orchids turned out although as usual photos don’t do them justice. Some real disappointment with some of the UV reactive glass and some I really like.

The pinks (both versions I used were a disappointment - Lucy was one), even done as raised dots or on top of lighter color and thick surface application, they barely show up. What’s interesting is in the photos it does but not in real life UV lighting. Mainly on that upper petal of the lady slipper orchid, with the dots. Those dots are supposed to be pink, not the background part of the petal.

The blue, I’ll have to tell the name later as I don’t have the glass handy, was 50/50 on how well it worked. Pretty much no change on the dots on the slipper bulb between regular light and UV. But, on a pendant I did, it reacts really well as a backer. What was bizarre was some glass that wasn’t supposed to react did. I made a bubble trap “flower” compression with the diluted boro glow stick. It worked very easily and looks just like a dandelion puff ball in normal light, but doesn’t glow AT ALL in UV. However, the NS Forest Green I used for leaves doesn’t show at all in normal light against the UV blue and then floresces LOTS in UV.

The Uranium neon green however performed BRILLIANTLY. On top of anything, by itself, mixed w clear to make it go farther... it performs stellarly. The least amount of UV makes it glow.

Another note, on the ladyslipper, the little pouch cover part over the bulb, that looks bright glowing white (like a lightbulb) is a boro bar glow stick. It really glows with UV but isn’t really THAT bright. It does retain some glow once the light is off it for just a second. It does have to be used pretty much full strength. In the roots on the lava stone, I mixed it with clear about 3:1 (3 being glow bar). The root to the right doesn’t glow at all under UV. But I wanted some level of transparency on the roots, so wouldn’t go full strength anyway. The white part on the Ghost Orchids are also the Boro Stick glow. In UV photo they look pinkish; that is camera play... in real life they glow white.

Some notes on UV lighting... the 50 or so LED bulb UV flashlight works the best. I got a 6” strip of LED lights and they’re barely strong enough. The floresent style bulbs are almost useless. The pieces also need to be in a black box type setting to really show off to potential.

Now let’s see if I can get the pics loaded...OK this is going to take a bit of work. Image sizes are waaaaaayyyy too big. I’ll upload those separately when I figure out how.

[WOBGnut]

Ghost Orchids: mounted on driftwood. The roots follow the contours of the driftwood and wrap around to the back in some places. I realized after I mounted them (ie too late to change them) that I got some details wrong on the shapes of the flowers. All you orchid lovers out there, count it as using artistic license.

Blacklight version


Daylight version

[WOBGnut]

Here’s the UV reactive Ladyslipper orchid. It’s mounted on Lava rock.

Daylight



Blacklight

[Val Cox]

These glass orchids are gorgeous, nice job!

[WOBGnut]

Thanks Val, they were fun! I used to live in Yorktown. Love that area, such an active art supporting area!
Linda

[Three Muses Glass]

They're gorgeous!!! It's really nice to see UV on something non-heady. You should definitely post these in the Gallery as well.

(I totally agree with you about Lucy. I got nada. Illuminati is really nice though.)

[Glassbeadlady]

Beautiful! Congratulations! Thanks so much for your detailed explanation.

[Ladypainter]

Thank you so much for sharing your research with us!

[WOBGnut]

Here I am again with the results of some work to report. Unfortunately, I don’t have photos handy yet. I’m taking a fusing class out of town and killing time in hotel room tonight, so can add some more use notes here. I’ll add photos after this weekend when I’m back home.

I experimented with the CBS glow powder on some mushrooms and fairies I’m making. The glow powder HAS to be encased. But, is very difficult to encase because it doesn’t let the glass stick to it (kind of like putting irridized to irridized in fusing - they don’t fuse). Or in flameworking terms, like adding glass to a cold mandrel, it just doesn’t stick. That’s what the powder does. It sticks to the hot glass you rolled in it, but the next layer of glowing glass just rolls off the powder. The powder will burn off even easier than Dichro, so try not to put it in flame AT ALL until it’s covered.

The trick is to make a gather (in this case, Soft 104 Glass), roll it in the powder then encase it. To do that, you have to heat up a much larger gather and try to cover the glow powder AND hit the lower layer of glass at the base of the rolled gather, at the same time, to trap the powder. However, if you can achieve this and then pull out the gather to a thick stringer or rod to use, it holds it’s glow very well. I used it to add dots to mushrooms and for the fairies wings. It worked especially well for the wings. They glow in even the faintest of shadow and without necessarily being purposefully light charged.

I wish they’d make a video using this stuff in flameworking. The instructions are really more applicable to fusing even though CBS makes a point of saying it’s for Lampworking too. Well, more experiments to come. I’d LOVE to hear from anyone else who’s tired to use the CBS glow powder in a Lampworking project!

Good night and happy torching.