Sand inclusion?

[amyhoust]

I'm sure this has been asked before but I guess I am not using the correct key words because searching this forum is not finding me anything! (Except lots of pictures of pretty beach themed "sandy" beads - lovely but not what I was looking for!)

I have a request from a customer to make a bead with sand encased within the glass. (It is sand from Hawaii, I think it actually has some ground up coral in it). I am hoping this will be sort of similar to encasing cremains in glass as far as technique goes. But, has anyone tried this before, and is there anything I should know?

I am sort of curious what will happen because, isn't glass made from sand anyway?

Anyway I would love advice or pics if someone has done this before. Thanks in advance!

[Moth]

I tried to encase some of that sand art sand that my kids got at the fair. I knew the color would burn off of it, but I thought it would still look like sand. Nope...bunch of fizz and then it cracked. Now...I'm thinking that it isn't even 'real' sand. Who knows what that stuff actually is. LOL

I haven't tried it with beach type sand. I think you should just go for it and post your results for us all to see!

I know I'd be interested in seeing how it goes.

[lindag]

I have a bead with a bit of encased sand that I got in a trade a long time ago. The sand was from the Great Lakes area, I think and made by Ellen Altamore? I don't think you want to use a lot and I'm not sure how the coral will work. Clean it well and make sure it's perfectly dry and give it a go with a small amount and see what happens.

[losthelm]

Perhaps a small container bead?

[shawnette]

A hollow or vessel would work best, if you still want it to look like sand and not just dirty scuzz.

[hyperT]

Sand has a COE of 8 so you cant fuse it into soft glass or boro for that matter. You could include it in clear fused quartz, if you don't mind buying cobalt blue protective safety glasses to wear. The quartz gives off more light than it takes on when it is ignited so it is an extremely bright white light.
It also evaporates as you work it. There would be a heavy dust smell in the air that you don't want to breath. It leads to silicosis of the lung. Would be best to stick with Shawnette's method. Besides clear fused quartz is very expensive. There are also iron particals attached to sand which is why a clarifying agent (manganese dioxide) is used to make any glass clear without it the glass comes out green like a coka cola bottle.

[amyhoust]

Thank you for all the information and suggestions. This customer wanted something that looked like a cremains bead, but with sand. I'm not sure if a vessel or hollow bead would give her quite what she wanted. I can make vessels but I have never made a good hollow bead. Although I haven't tried in a long time. I suppose I could ask her if she would be interested in that as an option... it sounds like attempting to encase the bead in 104 glass is not going to work out.

[Alaska]

It would not take long to give one bead a try and see what happens. Perhaps a bead with a darker core, then roll in sand and encase with clear. Maybe it will crack but see what it actually does in your torch room!!

[amyhoust]

I am a bit paranoid about breathing in particles though. Otherwise I would be all for experimenting.

[istandalone24/7]

if you've got a really really hot torch...you could use quartz, which has a coe of 0. of course it still might crack, but maybe not.

[RSimmons]

Coral sand is likely to bubble - it's not silica and will dissolve and get scummy. BTW, fused quartz had a COE of 5.

Robert

[clan tabby]

I made several beads with black sand that Maren sent me from Hawai'i. One bead cracked, but I figured out later that was because of a bad batch of Effetre clear I had - lots of cracked beads, & that rarely happens with me. Anyway, all of the others turned out fine, with no cracking several years later. As I recall, I placed some sand on a graphite block & rolled the hot bead in it, just like with frit, & not much on any one bead. I encased most of the beads I made with the sand, but there were a couple I left the sand on the surface. If you do that, make sure you marver the sand in well or it will tend to fall off.

[Toni Lutman]

Years ago I actually made a soft glass vessel with sand imbedded on the inside ... by mistake.

I have my dipped mandrels in a jar of very fine sand. I apparently had a damp hollow mandrel that I dipped and put in the sand. I then went about making my transparent vessel and as I was working, I saw a bunch of sand flow into the vessel as I tilted the mandrel. It had apparently been sticking to the inside of the damp mandrel, and when the heat hit it, it dried and came loose.

I thought I'd ruined it, but decided to go ahead and finish it and see what would happen. It came out of the kiln just fine. I kept it for quite some time before I finally sold it. I keep thinking I should try it again some time, but never have.

Now I realize that I was lucky that it had dried completely before I was ready to give it a puff to expand it. Any dampness in the mandrel can come out as VERY HOT steam. If I ever try it again, I'll make sure the mandrel is dry inside, and I'll pour a bit of the sand into the end.

[amyhoust]

I did a few experimental beads today after all. I didn't have any problem with dust or funny smells. I did have some difficulty getting the sand to stick to the glass, but managed once I got it hot enough. I tried one bead with the sand encased, and another with the sand on the surface. I liked the encased one better as the sand didn't really stick to the outside of the bead in a uniform way. I guess it's just a question of, will it crack. It's in the kiln now so here's hoping.

I am really not sure what kind of "sand" this even is or what it is composed of, because it seems to have lots of bits of stuff in it. It doesn't look like plain old sand from the beaches here on Vancouver Island.

Will post pics tomorrow.

[Maui Greenstone]

Erin McAlister makes sand beads out of boro ALL THE TIME. I'll see if i can find a link for some images.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...type=3&theater

[Maui Greenstone]

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...7064686&type=3

here is a better link. Ask her if she is willing to share her secret

[azstar]

Just wanted to share some beautiful pictures of sand:

http://www.sandgrains.com/sand-grains-gallery.html

[amyhoust]

Ok so here are my results. First, a pic of the "sand" that I used. I have no idea what its composition is.



Here is the bead where I attempted to leave the sand on the surface. It didn't stick super well and is sort of flaking off, plus I don't really like how it looks.



And here is the bead with the sand encased. I used dark ivory, CiM mermaid, some silvered ivory, Lauscha clear, and some Val Cox frit too. Quite the mix I know so probably very brave. It isn't showing any signs of cracking yet though and I am really happy with how it came out. You can definitely see the sand through the clear portion of the bead.





I am going to keep an eye on it for a while before I give it to my customer. But it seems like it's pretty good. I was fairly rough with it while cleaning it to see if cracks would develop.

I did do a very long soak in my anneal cycle - about 3 hours - and before it went into the kiln, I really heated the crap out of the whole thing.

[KJohn]

Hey, that turned out really well.

[Moth]

Well it looks great!! Time will tell. Or a polariscope.

[DesertDreamer]

Love the bead! I've used NJ beach sand (much finer particles than the Hawaiian sand) in beads for the last few years, just for fun. One thing that helps is to wash the sand and let it air dry before working with it. The salts and odd lightweight stray bits wash away. I use a large coffee filter and wash 1/4 cup at a time. I spread it out thin on the filter and just gently blow on it as it's drying to get rid of odd flakes (usually pulverized bits of mussel shells).

I was inspired to do this because of a paperweight I bought from a nice little glass shop on Long Beach Island several years ago.