Silver Testing with a Few Good Ones!

Last day at the torch I was testing a few new rods of Double Helix silvered glass.  It's always interesting that is for sure.  Some turn out and some look like mud and unfortunately this time I also had some pretty ones with thermal cracks - major bummer!  Here are a few of my favorite ones from the day:

Okay so now for my log information.  First 16 beads are all testing Psyche by Double Helix.

First in this series has a base of Opal Yellow and dots of Psyche.  It's just a dark muddy mess and the photo actually looks better than the actual bead.  2. Ivory base, dots of Psyche - reduced, center dots are capped in clear, left side dots are capped with light aqua and the right side dots are capped with rose quartz. Some of the dots were covered with the transparent before reducing just to see the affect and those just stayed a muddy color.  3.  Base of Canyon De Chilly with small side dots of Psyche being covered before reducing.  Center dots were reduced before being covered with clear.  Another muddy mess. 4.  This bead has potential.  It is a base of silvered plum with random sm messy dots and strings of Psyche melted in then a messy application of clear stringer melted in, reduced, then large clear dots in the typical triangle formation all melted in.  Raised side dots of Psyche are reduced.  The bead is a bit dark all by itself but I can see using dots of silvered plum, with Psyche on top of that, all on a lighter base color bead.  I'll be trying that soon! 5.  Black base, opal yellow dots with port-holes of Psyche.  This is a pretty cool looking bead.  I got some awesome shades of purple on these.  6.  CIM Sangre base with random application of Psyche.  A bit dark by itself but again has good potential for a different type of bead. 7. Silvered Plum base with one side having Sangre dots before applying the Psyche. 

These two beauties are my favorite beads of the day!  The one on the right has a thermal crack though.  Guess I will be doing some research to figure out exactly why it happened - could be a few things. The bead on the left is a base of opal yellow, encased with Psyche, reduced, spiral ring of clear melted in, encased in clear and then smooshed into shape.  Very cool focal bead if I do say so myself. I might just wear this one around my neck tomorrow!  Second bead has a base of opal yellow, sangre and silvered plum and then the same application as the first one except I also added some silvered ivory stringer.  I love the blues and greens in this one!

These are the last 7 in the series of testing Psyche.  1.  has a base of Ivory and then I can't remember what I did.  My neighbor came to watch me make beads and I totally forgot to take notes after I made this bead.  I know I placed a dot below the Psyche but I can't remember for sure but I think it was white or copper green.  Oh well. Beads 2 and 3 both have bases of Hades and Psyche and clear glass.  Bead number 4 has a base of Dirty Martini which produced some nice shades of red, purple and blue.  5. is awesome in real life but the photo didn't pick up the awesome purples.  It is Psyche on a base of copper green.  Will use this again for sure!  Bead 6 is flipping cool!  It is a base of Psyche wrapped in pure silver wire and then encased.  The last bead is a base of Psyche, clear stinger melted in, reduced and then encased.  Nice effect!

The next Double Helix glass I tested was Kalypso.

The first bead of this set of 3 is the only one with Kalypso in it because I took a quick break from the silvered glass.  So the first bead has a very unique sunset look to it. I had read about this combination and wanted to try it.  It is a base of 591256 pink dark pastel and a simple stripe of Kalypso down the center and then encased.  I like it.  This is the only bead I used Kalypso in today.   Now this is where it sort of makes sense that I strayed from testing my silvered glass.  Since I had the pink out and it is a new glass for me, I wanted to try it with an encasement of rose quartz and crocus.  I think they turned out pretty nice and the purple especially will work nicely for my purple customers - or rather my customers who are purple fans!

This set I'm testing 503132.1 Terranova 2.1.  First bead is a base of Hades and it's just to dark too even bother explaining what I did with the Terranova.  Second bead is fantastic!  It is a base of copper green and dots of T 2.1.  Amazing purples and pinks and even a bit of red in these clear encased port-holes.  Third bead is a simple ivory base with the T 2.1. dotted on and I tried the striking method on this.  Nothing special color wise but it's kind of a nice organic looking bead.  4th bead is a base of T 2.1 simply struck and encased.  Last bead is a base of yellow opal encased with T2.1 struck then the same process I always use in this type of bead.  This one did not get a thermal crack!!!  I am not sure I am getting the color on this that I'm supposed to.  I need to read up a bit more about the Terranova 2.1 glass.

Last in my testing today is 503127.2 Terra 2.  Again I'm not sure I'm getting all the colors possible out of this glass.  It's like I'm almost there but just need to find a way to tweak it a bit.  Back to the bead forums for me tonight!  The last one in this series is  my favorite of these with the large bead being my second favorite - again another thermal crack - darn it!
1. Base of Hades, dots of T2, reduced, encased.  2. Base of Hades, etc. 3. Base of opal yellow, sangre, and copper green, encased with T2 and the usual application of clear spiral and clear, smoosh, etc. 4. Base of Canyon De Chili. 5. Base of Dirty Martini with flat dots being reduced and raised dots being struck. 6. French Blue base, center dots of T2, side dots of black right before applying T2, all reduced and capped with clear.  Very nice purple colors are produced over the black dots.

Some of the beads are so colorful that I took photos of them in different lighting conditions.  Here are some more pix of them just to get the idea of how colorful these beads actually are.

 Unfortunate thermal crack on this one and it will get bigger until the entire bead breaks in half :-(

 The other bead with the dreaded thermal crack.

That's it.  I'm caught up finally with my blog.  Now I can go back to my torch and start experimenting tomorrow!
As always, thanks for reading my blog and taking the time to send me your comments!!!  I do appreciate it very much!