Layering Colors

One of the huge advantages of soft glass over borosilicate is the enormous variety of colors. There is a huge palette of transparent and opaque colors along with reactive silver glasses and the more temperamental opalino styles.

To give you even more options, along with mixing colors, transparent colors can also be layered over opaques to make a new look. The amount of colors that can be created is really almost overwhelming.

That is what I've been playing with in the past few weeks. I love transparent colors, but they can be a little problematic with my scrollwork designs because you can see through the body of the bead. You can also see the bead hole. It's not a bad thing, just often times not the look I'm going for. That's why usually I would work in opaque colors or I would etch the bead for a frosty look.

This last bead in the picture above is an example of a transparent color layered over white. You can see how it makes a very vibrant color and it hides the bead hole.

The only problem is that encasing an opaque color in a transparent takes a bit more time. Most opaque colors are softer, and the transparent colors are stiffer, so it is less like wrapping an apple in liquidy carmel and more like wrapping an apple in a stiff thick fudge. It can definitely be done, it just takes a bit more time heating the transparent and shifting it around, without letting the core become too hot.

That's why I've generally avoided too much encasing in the past, but I'm broadening my horizons and getting some very juicy colors in return.