Foiled the foil!
Torched last night despite being ready to fall asleep on my feet, and successfully encased silver foil! The resulting bead is very pretty.
Here is why this way succeeded:
1) Debbie suggested putting the foil over a clear color for best results. I added it over Moretti clear.
2) I cut the foil much narrower than it had been previously. This made it easier to encase the whole thing.
After adding the foil and burnishing it, I started heating the clear to encase it, but just as it was melting, I remembered that I should use the clear pale aqua. So I had to switch rods, not good when you're under a time limit before your gas gets unusable. I had also used some time before trying to pull a good stringer, which came out the right thickness, if not long enough.
But I managed to cover all the silver, though it required going over it several times, and had to wait patiently, turning the rod, for the clear aqua to melt. When it did, it looked like the foil was suspended in water. Very cool.
Next I added the flower dots. These came out better than they ever had before. Unfortunately, I messed one up a bit when plunging, and the end result was making the bead a bit lopsided and the flower imperfect. It took forever in the final encasing for the last layer to melt and even out, so I ended up with a slightly imperfect bead, but very pretty nevertheless.
After this bead, I changed tanks and went to play with the frit Debbie had given me. Since I had seen her work magic with the frit she had, I tried to play with the colors on my torch. I made a clear bead, then added the frit until it mostly covered the surface of the bead. Then I heated and cooled it, using the oxidizing area of the flame (farther out) to try to get interesting colors. I definitely got different colors than before, pretty ones. I then added stringer organic dots and stripes in black. I like (don't love) the finished bead.
Here is why this way succeeded:
1) Debbie suggested putting the foil over a clear color for best results. I added it over Moretti clear.
2) I cut the foil much narrower than it had been previously. This made it easier to encase the whole thing.
After adding the foil and burnishing it, I started heating the clear to encase it, but just as it was melting, I remembered that I should use the clear pale aqua. So I had to switch rods, not good when you're under a time limit before your gas gets unusable. I had also used some time before trying to pull a good stringer, which came out the right thickness, if not long enough.
But I managed to cover all the silver, though it required going over it several times, and had to wait patiently, turning the rod, for the clear aqua to melt. When it did, it looked like the foil was suspended in water. Very cool.
Next I added the flower dots. These came out better than they ever had before. Unfortunately, I messed one up a bit when plunging, and the end result was making the bead a bit lopsided and the flower imperfect. It took forever in the final encasing for the last layer to melt and even out, so I ended up with a slightly imperfect bead, but very pretty nevertheless.
After this bead, I changed tanks and went to play with the frit Debbie had given me. Since I had seen her work magic with the frit she had, I tried to play with the colors on my torch. I made a clear bead, then added the frit until it mostly covered the surface of the bead. Then I heated and cooled it, using the oxidizing area of the flame (farther out) to try to get interesting colors. I definitely got different colors than before, pretty ones. I then added stringer organic dots and stripes in black. I like (don't love) the finished bead.
posted by Susan at Aspiring Arts at 9:11 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home