Copper foil + white glass + fire

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One of my all time favorite techniques when working with glass in the flame is copper foil on white glass. It's the copper that produces that lovely robins egg, Mediterranean sea blue..

It's a simple recipe:

Begin with a rod of moretti white
You will need a small amount of Thompsons white enamel (powdered glass) ..experiment! different colors with the copper produce something new every time. Some will give you lovely char black which you may or may not want so experiment with the glass and the heat.
Small bits of torn copper foil..not too much..[but here again..experiment.]

The beads above were created with very small bits of copper foil..[not an entire wrap] white enamels as well as brilliant blue enamels gently melted in at the finish.

Prepare a simple bead in the flame [you will lose your well formed bead so don't worry overly much about the shape to begin with] and allow it to set up a bit..roll into enamels and then into your copper bits, and heat throughly in the flame so that the copper is well heated. Shape and roll in enamels of your choice. This time treat the enamels carefully and heat gently in the cooler part of the flame so that you do not burn out the color you've chosen~


Can you tell I'm jonesing for my torch!?

Comments

Duni said…
These are so gorgeous! I love the 'speckled' effect. Amazing work!
April 18, 2011 at 7:35 AM
Jane Perala said…
Thanks for reminding about this technique - I had forgotten all about it. Your beads look great!
April 18, 2011 at 7:47 AM
Jewelry Making said…
Shining shimmering! These are marvelous. You amazed me of your ideas. Looking forward to learn more from you.
October 25, 2011 at 7:51 AM
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