Monday, September 8

Adventures in Pure Silver

The following are some photos of my first adventure mixing glass and pure silver. The silver is 99% pure silver, otherwise known as fine silver. Sterling silver is actually only 92.5% pure with the remaining % being copper. Fine silver melts beautifully and remaining bright silver with no firescale, which makes it the best choice when mixing with molten glass.

These will eventually go up for sale individually as focal beads, as they are beautiful simply worn on a chain, or used in a more elaborate jewelry design. Here is a sneak peek for you!
Don't forget to check out the current items on e-bay by clicking here




Here are a few new bead sets as well.
These beads are turquoise transparent with Dichroic glass inserts. You ask what is dichroic glass?
Originally created for the aerospace industry, dichroic glass is now available to artists through dichroic coating manufacturers. Glass artists often refer to dichroic glass as "dichro".[3] The main characteristic of dichroic glass is that it has a transmitted colour and a completely different reflected colour, as certain wavelengths of light either pass through or are reflected. This causes an array of colour to be displayed. The colors shift depending on the angle of view.

It makes very unique pretty beads.


I hadn't experimented with my frit lately either, so it was time to make a few sets. My frit comes from Robin Koza of Frit Diversions. Check out her site for all the colour mixes that she offers.
This set uses frit called Peruvian Violet. The background of the glass is Bullseye Very Fine Purple, coordinated with beads of transparent violet and white.

Same frit but with black glass background. Spacer beads are Very Fine Purple and transparent purple.
Same frit again, with Salmon Pink glass as background. Amazing how the same Peruvian Violet frit combination can change based on the backdrop glass colour. In this set, the pink and purple in the frit, coordinate with the spacer beads of the same hues to create a dainty set of beads.
Til next time,
D.

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