My Adventures with Anise White........so far!

I am a member of an online glass forum and I was posing a question the other day about a batch of soft white glass that I had that was shocking like popcorn all over my studio when it was introduced into the flame.   I had all but lost my patience with it and it was about to be thrown under my bench when a more experienced and talented fellow forum member Sally Carver, suggested this.....

 I think "Soft White" may possibly actually be Anice white. A few years ago I swear this glass was as rare as hen's teeth. I even remember there being fights about getting it in the US. Seems a bit odd that they're now flogging it off as white.
If it is Anice (and not some kind of Alabaster) then it's really nothing like White but it does do some REALLY funky things. Try laying stringers of it over black and you'll get a purple keyline running through the stringer. (Actually - try that anyway - to check whether you have Anice). If it is Anice you have then you can do cool things like this with it:
http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=84692

So yesterday armed with this information and having read the information available I headed back out to the studio to experiment and here is what I found.  To start with I followed the tutorial by Jim Smircich and layered up Anise White (soft white 208) with some black....in this case Reinenbach Dense Black and worked in a slightly reducing flame.  I then got out my fuming kit and silver fumed it and this is what happened the blacks turning blue and purples and the white ranging from white to mustard/ochre yellow.

So not being satisfied with that I was wondering how this would react with other glass, I have had some success with shards and stringers that incorporate Petrol Green and Iris Blue so decided to experiment with those first.  I started by layering the Iris blue with the white and did not see much reaction so being the impatient type and this being experiment time I covered this with petrol Green and white and followed the same instructions and this is the reaction I got.....this one I encased but It has some lovely sandy webbing going on there....

So then I too some black and made a black lentil and covered it in white stringers and some of my own handmade reactive stringers and produced this.....again some lovely webbing going on...this one has not been fumed just worked in the flame and then I etched it....

So now I was on a roll I was wondering what would happend if I gold fumed some of the mixes I had tried so I made a round bead in Intense Black and decorated it with Anise White stringers and some of my own reactive stringers and gold fumed it....I was stunned when this beauty popped out of the kiln this morning!

You can see on this bead clearly where the white stringers have been placed they produce that lovely dark line running through that goldy mustardy line in the bead and what is difficult to photograph is the shiny quality to this due to the fuming.  It also looks like it has been etched but it hasn't this is just what happened during the process.

So Now I thought I would experiment abit so I took a couple of my favourite glasses which for the moment I am gonna keep to myself (sorry!)  and I made a bead half in one glass and half in the other and then I laid on white stringers to create square shapes working in a slightly reducing flame as before then I gold fumed it and .......

You can see that this lovely pink appeared with definate lines where the Anise White had been, a cool effect that I am gonna experiment further.  You can also see the two shades of pink the top of the bead is a darker richer bubblegum pink.

So taking this information I then made a big lentil in the glass I used for the top half of this bead and  Anise White...layering it up randomly.  Once I had the shape I added my own stringers and Gold fumed the bead and I was stunned this morning to pull this out of the kiln.  Sadly the bead cracked as did alot of my other experimental ones....to much peering at them and not enough time in the flame!!

The stringers I used are the same as the ones I used on my etched black bead....I just love what has happened to them during this process.

So there we are....I will be experimenting more over the next week or so and really want to try and incorporate some of this knowledge into my Swirl Beads

For those of you who may not have seen Swirl Beads....this is one below and I have a tutorial on the process to achieve it available in my Etsy Shop : www.raspberryrings.etsy.com
 

And to finish I am excited to say that Milly and her Freind Patrick have been featured in this months issue of Devon Life Magazine here in the UK! and here they are flying on the long the beach at Westward Ho!

Thank you for reading my blog and Happy Melting to all you Glassy People out there!!

Trying to get back in the Beady Saddle!!

 Well who knows where this year has gone already!!  The studio is almost finished but the house is very definately not fully unpacked!!  Why do these things take so long?  It is all those little DIY jobs that drag on and on!  This and the fact that I have a boisterous Lakeland Terrier who needs a good long walk everyday or she will cause chaos!!

So to start the news and the blog I wanted to first take a moment and say how touched I have been by all my customers old, and newer who have kept in touch during my bead drought, I have been suprised by the number of people who have made contact and asked how things are going.  To those of you a HUGE thank you x

 So what is the grand plan I hear you cry!   Well, once we have finished sorting out the unpacking, recycling etc.  I am going to have a 'Beady Party' and invited all those local customers to an open evening or indeed anyone who would like to come.  You can have a browse around the studio where I am setting up a couple of cabinets of beads and jewellery for sale and of course nibbles and drinks!  You can't have a bead party without those!!  By Easter I should be fully up and running and will be selling from the 'studio shop' to anyone who wants to drop by!

 Although there are still some things to do in the Studio the ventilation, kiln, torch, propane and oxcycon are all in so what is girl to do!!  Well not the ironing that is for sure!!

 I found myself nervous at lighting the torch, apart from a class with the wonderful Astrid Reidel back in October I have not been on the torch at all since August of last year, an age away.  I found myself having one of those moments....spent ages cleaning my glass tiding the work surface infact doing anything to avoid the inevitable even though I was SO excited to get started.  Like sharpening your pencils then having that moment of panic when you have to start a clean sheet of paper.  I decided that the only way to get back in the beady saddle was to start with beads that were simple and organic, no clever stuff just layering dots and spots and bumps to get myself back in the swing. But of course the temptation of all that silver glass winking at me from its storage meant it wasn't long before I was incorporating the wonderful Double Helix glass into the mix with its lovely reflective qualities.  

The hours soon slipped away and I started on some stripes too!  My encasing skills seem to have been forgotton but I wasn't unhappy with this little collection.  It is just practice and what better than to be practicing something you really enjoy!

So what next....well stick a tungsten pick in it!! 

Then why not combine everything and see what happens!  

I still feel like I have a ways to go before I feel confident again but I do feel like I have rounded the corner and am on my way!

Have a good week everyone, I will be blogging on a more regular basis now that I am almost straight so I can let you know when the website shop is open again. I have put a few items on sale from last years stock in my Etsy Shop and I will be adding stock as and when I get a minute over the next week.  http://www.etsy.com/shop/RASPBERRYRINGS  Here is the link so do pop over if you like and have a look!

And now for anyone who regularly reads my blogs...when I am blogging that is!!   The picture of Milly for this week is one of her and her friend Patrick today at Grey Sands Beach in Appledore were they had a mammoth run and totally exhausted each other.....Hurray!!