Striking Terracotta!

Tuffnell Glass have a special offer for the month of July - a free 1/4 kilo of Effetre Tongue Pink with orders over £10.  Now a few people do already know that I'm a huge fan of TP, but I really really don't think its name does it any favours, so I prefer to call it Striking Terracotta!


In response to a thread running on Frit Happens Forum this evening, I nipped out to The Lusherie and took some pretty dreadful pics of how I use this striking glass (the colour develops as the glass is heated and cooled).


First of all, I had a go at making a bead similar to this one, from April 2009.

1. TP (I can't bring myself to use the full name) starts out white in the rod, and was still white after I wound the glass onto a 9mm mandrel.

2. I heated the glass through so that it flowed into a smooth shape - still white.

3.  I added 6 dots of dark ivory and melted them smooth - the TP  is still mostly white, but its a bit darker now around the bead hole.

4. I added a dot of Reichenbach Gold Violet on top of the dark ivory.  I like to use a strong pink underneath DH Aurae, because I don't like it to look too amber (over Gold Pink the Aurae gives pink and blue).  TP is still white.

5. Terrible unfocussed photo to show an interesting stage - whilst hot the TP is now growing darker

6. But it fades again as it cools.

7. Here we go!  I covered the Gold Violet with dots of Double Helix Aurae and melted them smooth (in a neutral flame).  The TP immediately reacts and strikes a lovely terracotta shade.

8. I cooled the bead, then turn up the propane and wafted in the reducing flame to bring out the Aurae lustre.  TP still dark.

9. I adjusted the flame back to neutral then covered the Aurae with a generous dollop of clear - leave raised.  The Aurae has crackled the dark ivory as well as striking the TP.  Success!






TP also works well with silver leaf or foil, as in this heart that I made in May 2010.

1. This time I made a large, egg shaped bead - those streaks in the middle disappeared as the glass cooled.

2. And marvered it into a cone.  Appalling photo but look!  Its actually starting to strike a bit, maybe that's because there's a large mass of glass here?

3. Rolled in silver leaf and burnished on, to expel any air trapped between the leaf and the glass.

4. I melted the silver into the glass. You can just see that the TP has struck a deep colour now.

5. Mashed flat.

6. It wasn't a very exciting bead so I texture stamped a corner, rubbed on a little more leaf and added some silvered ivory bumps.  The bead's still not very exciting but hopefully you can see that TP really does react nicely with silver.


So if you're struggling to turn Tongue Pink (bleurgh) into Striking Terracotta, I hope this helps! :0)