Reduction Frit

[vickgould]

Where's the best and most economical place to get reduction frit? I want to do beads that look like the focals here:
http://moonstumpp.blogspot.com/2007/...-of-beads.html (the three at the bottom)

and

http://www.livoniaglass.com/pages/FritTesting.php

Now, I'm a newbie to this, so I'm assuming this is frit. And I do like the reduction kind (I think)

Vickie

[Jenn L'Rhe]

Vicki:
The Moon Stumpp beads shown have Double Helix glass not reduction frit. The ones she shows in bowls have the link to the manufacturer of the frit blends she used. The same thing goes for the Livonia Glass website. She is a tester for Glass Diversions frit. The link is in the first line on the page.

Frit blends are usually made by the person selling them and available through their websites. Individual color frits are available from bunches of sources.

Kay

[lunamoonshadow]

Gee, that Livonia site is cool--she even tells you exactly *how* she made each bead.
& as far as the Glass Diversions Frits--they're only available from the Glass Diversions Site--Robin is a Doll to buy from--her frits rock!
The first site tells you which frits she uses on the first few beads & has links to the site also (beadgoodies)--Candy makes lovely frit also--& like Kay said, blends are pretty much "buy 'em from who makes 'em" deals.
Individual colors--you can get by the ounce just about anywhere--if you're looking for "cheap", the only way you're going to get true "wholesale" is if you go to someplace like Olympic Color Rods & buy in bulk--a Kilo at a time, one color--that's 2.2 pounds! of a single color. Great if you just want "blue" or "raku" to last you the rest of your *life*, or if you're doing production work or running a studio, or teaching classes, but...for 90% of us, that's kind of overkill!

[Mopnglo]

You can purchase a sample back of the reduction frits from Arrow Springs.
http://www.arrowsprings.com/html/red...u__colors.html

[Emily]

Just from a quick look at Moon Stumpp's beads, the iridescent parts on the focal beads look like they probably weren't done with frit. I think they were done with stringer pulled from Double Helix rods. (I know it's Double Helix glass because she says so -- unfortunately, she doesn't say which colors from Double Helix.)

All of the silvered glasses, like the Double Helix glass, can be a challenge to use, so don't expect gorgeous results right off the bat. I think the easiest colors from Double Helix are Gaia and Nyx. Gaia is green and Nyx is essentially black (really really dark blue, actually -- I suspect it's basically Vetrofond black with a whopping amount of silver added). I like Elektra, but the base color is aquamarine, and in the past it had problems with bubbling like Effetre transparent aqua (which I suspect it actually was). DH was fussing with Elektra to deal with that problem, and I don't know if the newer batches are less bubbly -- I haven't bought any in a while. Psyche is purple-based -- pretty, but I haven't used it enough to have a good feel for it myself. It seems relatively easy. Kronos 2, for me at least, gives less iridescence than the others, but gives mysterious blues and, if you reduce it more, creams into tans (and brown, if you overdo it). I can't get Aion to do squat. I'd tell you to get the reduction colors sampler if it weren't for the fact that you might get Aion, and I can't make Aion do anything. Well, it does one trick, which is react with rubino and make it (the rubino) turn mustard yellow instead of pink -- pretty freaky and kind of interesting, but not worthy buying Aion for.

For reduction frit, which is a different animal entirely (a different COE, in fact -- 94-96, because it's either Kugler or Reichenbach glass, but you can get away with using tiny bits of it on the surface of 104), I'd second the recommendation to buy a few sample packs from Arrow Springs. The color refers to the color of the glass before it's reduced. Most of them don't have much of a color when they're reduced -- gold, silver, or bluish, but don't expect much in the way of green, purple, or red. Because the glass is originally made for glassblowing and is meant to be stretched out really thin, the color is really dense, so sometimes you might want to use the frit unreduced for spots of intense color. For whatever reason, I always had more trouble getting decent reduction from anything with purple, violet or lilac in the name, so you might want to stay away from those at first. (Of course, that could just be me, and somebody else might find those colors easy.) Copper ruby is another color that people find tricky, or at least that requires a little bit of a different flame. Just remember that you put your reduction glass on the bead in a neutral flame, and the last thing you do before you put the bead away is reduce it, because if you hit the reduction glass with a neutral flame again, you'll lose the reduction effect. So make your bead, make sure it's nice and warm and happy the whole way to the core, turn down your oxygen so that you have an inch and a half of yellow flames coming from the end of your torch (you still have some oxygen on, and your total flame is longer, but the first 1 1/2 inches is yellow fingers), then begin rotating your bead out in the end of the flame -- not in the yellow fingers. Watch carefully, and you will see the places where you've put the reduction glass start to turn metallic. As soon as the reduction glass turns metallic, you can take it out of the flame. If you keep exposing that part of the glass to the flame, it might get brighter metallic, but at a certain point it will begin to get duller until it gets muddy. If you've overreduced, you can remove the reduction by exposing the bead to a neutral or oxidizing flame and re-reduce it, but your results are never going to be as good as when you get it right the first time. Depending on where you've put the reduction glass, you may have to angle the bead and dip parts of it in and out of the flame so that you get all of the spots reduced without over-reducing other spots. It can be very tricky!

This method of reducing is (as best I can remember) what Larry Scott demonstrated at the Gathering last year. Other people use different methods -- I was doing it differently until I saw Larry's demo and tried his way. Some people turn their oxygen off entirely, while others use a relatively small reducing flame. Find out what works for you. It doesn't take long for the glass to reduce, though, so start with just a second or two in the reducing flame and add more time if necessary.



http://www.doublehelixglassworks.com/

[vickgould]

Wow! Thanks for all the advice! I think I'll try a sample pack and play around with it.

[HeatSeekingMSL]

I'm a bit of a nube and it's probably apparent in me asking this, but, is it possible to use reduction glass on a hot head?

[Elizabeth Beads]

I love Aion! It's lovely over dark amethyst or dark emerald.

Yes, a hothead is good for reducing. Cover the air intake holes with foil or a pot holder.

[HeatSeekingMSL]

YAY! thanks for your help!