|
When I wrote PTF, I hadn't been very succesful with dichroic, so, I kind of skipped that part (of course, not without explaining at great length that and why I would do so....in the world according to Corina things that don't get mentioned never "just" not get mentioned, I am sure you have already noticed that...) - but I have learned a lot in the past years, so now I can give tons of advice on dichroic, the number 1 advice being: get a bunch of scrap dichroic (preferably, pick it out of a nice big box of scrap in person - but not everybody is able to just hop in a car and drive to Frantz and say "Hey Mike, can I go through that big box that I know you have hidden under the table in the far corner of the warehouse....") Here is a picture of my scrap dichroic collection:
The beauty of having lots of small pieces is that you can test the colors. From my experience, certain colors just "hold up" better than others, I don't know whether that is just a mystery of certain batches (like one time, green is great, other times, it burns off easily), or whether it is a relyable characteristic of certain colors. My favorite dichroic so far is green - it stays sparkly no matter how long you work it, the blues and purples I have had are more on the "fainter" side, some of the pinks disintegrate easily, but again, that's the beauty of getting a variety, so you can find out which color is your favorite.
Although all Dichroic (as far as I know, and that might not be all that far...) is made by "Coatings by Sandberg") and should thus be the same, I have noticed differences in the dichroic depending on WHERE I bought it....I took a picture of two strips of dichroic on clear, from the side, I hope you can see the difference:
Both strips are about 1/4 inch wide, and they are the same color: Magenta/Green. The strip on the left handside (Arrowsprings) appears quite a bit thicker (=more clear) than the strip on the right (Frantzartglass). At first I thought that the Arrowsprings one was made by coating a thicker sheet of clear with the Dichroic, but I wondered whether Sandberg would do that....(maybe they do) - one thing I know is that most of the major suppliers buy their dichroic in full sheets from Sandberg, and then cut it into strips, which are then fired in a kiln, to anneal the strips, and to smooth out the rough edges from cutting. I think the reason that the Arrowsprings strip is thicker is because they fired the glass longer or at a higher temperature, and the glass started to "round out"...which is also why on the strip on the left you can SEE the dichroic in the picture above (it starts "curling" upwards with the curve of the clear), whereas on the strip on the right, the dichroic is strictly on the BOTTOM of the strip, because the clear strip is completely flat.... does this make any sense?
You might ask: "well, which kind of strip is better?" - and I don't think you can say either one - it all depends on your kind of application. For the time being it might be enough to know that there ARE differences depending on where you buy the dichroic, so, if you don't like the ONE suppliers stuff, try elsewhere, it might be different.
Speaking of application - One thing I am having fun with (and you will see in the Specials later on) - is seeing how certain colors of dichroic look on top of other colors. For beads where dichroic is the "main theme", the color underneath actually makes a bigger difference than I thought.....I have about 7 different combinations to show later, but the "bottom line" is: I like any color of dichroic best on BLACK.....black just makes the dichroic "sing" somehow....
But, there are also some happy surprises when moving beyond the known and proven: in the following bead (The Warrior Woman, hope you're enjoying it Jamie!) I placed SILVER dichroic on top of ivory rolled in silver foil. Very unexpectedly, I got a shaded copper:
I would have never expected this color to appear, and I am sure that I could never make it happen again, if I tried to, but that's the beauty of the glass sometimes, right? (yeah, right)
A few more things I wanted to share....little tricks that helped me greatly having fun with dichroic (and considering the price of the dichroic glass, you want to have fun paired with success, not fun failure....). Some beadmakers use full strips of dichroic, apply it to the bead and then burn it off. I could never quite manage doing that without burning off lots of the dichroic, both on the bead and on the strip - and then I ended up with a melted end on the stip that I would have to cut off....so, what I do instead is cut exactly they amount I will need (well, however exact you can be, but it's easy to figure out, after having been short a couple of times), then I preheat the pieces on a little hotplate (aka "mug-warmer") placed close to the torch:
That way the dichroic is already hot when you introduce it into the flame, it won't shock and it' cuts down on the time you need to melt it and push it around the bead.
Basically, what I do is make a small barrel shaped core in a transparent color, then I pick up the dichroic strip piece with tweezers, heat up a spot on the BEAD (not the dichroic) , touch the warm dichroic to the glowing bead, and then with a Magic Wand (or any other METAL tool, not a graphite marver) I push the dichroic around the bead, heating only the clear side of the dichroic, not the coated side. While pushing the dichroic strip AROUND the core barrel I also make sure to "tuck down" the sides, to prevent the dichroid from peeking out from the sides and burning....Hope this all makes sense. I have ONE picture of the way I hold the dichroic, you have to visualize a barrel shaped core bead on the mandrel:(never apply dichroic directly onto the mandrel, chances are that it will break your beadrelease...because with dichroic you alway use less heat and more "mechanical" action, so, it will stress the beadrelease, and it looks better with something underneath anyway....)
(I was planning to take pictures of the entire process in action ....but then I just realized how much time this will take me, and there are beads to be made as well.) If there is interest, I MIGHT do a little tutorial some day, just a last comment - while the specials tonight are "Dichroic-all-the-way"....a great way to make dichroic go a long way is to place little snippets of it in a small spot of a bead, like this one I had in September:
The word of wisdom for dichroic might be: less is more, but sometimes, more is more.... whatever tickles YOUR fancy.....
|
