Double Helix Thallo, Effetre Lilac Pastel, Dark Lilac Pastel, Navy Blue, Canyon and Sand

This week I was lucky enough to have some new glasses arrive from Tuffnell Glass  always a great suprise to find them on the doormat!  So I am writing this blog post to tell you what I have discovered about them.

Todays glasses are from the back in the photo above are Effetre Sand, Canyon, Navy Blue, Lilac Pastel and Dark Lilac pastel.  So the first thing I did was to make some small beads to see how the glass responded to the flame.

The most interesting were the Lilacs, the rods look grey but they transform into these very subtle lilac colours, you can see the two rods at the front - dark in front with the lilac second in the line up.

Then the Navy which I really like, it is a completely new shade of blue, for me, and it is a really useful addition for shading and dotting, next is the Canyon which is a turquoise blue.  Both of these blues behaved well in the flame, like all blues you have to be careful not to work it to hot particularly the Canyon or you will get 'burning' and a grey finish to the bead.

Last in the line up is the Sand which I was very excited about, you don't find so many pretty sand colours about and this one is a lovely deep rich sand colour and is my favourite from the batch.

I then made a small barrel bead and decorated it with dots to see how it behaved with some of the colours.  You can see that the Navy went abit streaky as I think I over heated abit, The pastels held the design but personally I am not so keen on the streaky finish on these two glasses but if you love that organic look these are great.

I then made one of my 3D beads with from the centre, Navy, Sand, and finishing with the two liliacs.  Please excuse the clear it was abit scummy!  You can see that the colours sat well together and the liliacs did not produce their streaky lines when encased but the colours look almost the same.  The tutorial for this 3D design is available in my Etsy Shop

I then sat down and made some of my decorative Raspberry Beads combining some of the new colours in with some old favourites....

The Canyon looks lovely finishing the dots on here....

And you can see the Sand working well in this one....

And this one to along with the Navy and the Canyon.....

Sand on those dots around the outside edge and some of the liliacs and Canyon in there to

Navy providing the darker spots on the outside edges of this one

And you can spot the new colours in these beads, the darker Navy providing a great contrast for the Sand and Canyon  on that bead on the left.

My opinion on them is they are great additions to the palette but as I have mentioned they do streak if you work to hot but I will definitely be buying some more of the Sand and the Canyon.

So excited to see some Double Helix Thallo in my parcel and some fine copper mesh to play with.
The Thallo is a beautiful transparent green in the rod form.  I started out as before with a couple of small beads to see how the glass worked in the flame.

As you can see they worked extremely well in a light reduction flame.  I kept on flashing the bead into the propane rich flame and it created this fabulous slick of colours.

I then tried encasing.... difficult to photograph but it turns this beautiful pearlised light green colour.

Below are a couple of cabs, the photograph on the left is photographed in studio lighting and you can see the translucent quality of this glass.  I have decorated with Effetre white stringer which transformed into this pretty gold colour in the reduction and the spots of white formed gold outlines.  The photograph on the right is photographed in daylight and you can really see what is special about this glass, it is spectacular in the light and changes colours as you move it around.   The photos are of the same cabs!

I then combined the  Thallo with the copper mesh.  I like to make windows so the mesh is a suprise element to the design.   The copper itself goes a disturbing soot colour when you add it to the flame, which is just a flash to warm it but don't panic, encase quickly and you will get this stunning red copper peeping out from your bead.

This one is with DH Kalypso....

So there we are....hope this has been of interest.  Thank you Tuffnell for giving me the opportunity to have a play with glass I might otherwise not get my hands on!!   If you are interested in this Swirl techinique that is also available in my Etsy Shop.   Happy Melting Everyone!