Colors for Glass Blowers

Hi,

I am trying to make Blood-Red, Blue and Orange colors for Glassblowers.

I know there are lot of commercial suppliers of glass colors but I want
to do them myself as I can't afford the cost of comm. ones nor are they
available in my country.

Can someone please help me here.

Somebody told me that W. A. Weyl's "Coloured Glasses" is a good
resource but I can't even get hold of that.

Thank you for your help in advance.

J.

Whatta coincidence! Here I was having my morning tea, and thinking to
myself, 'how can I help those nice fellows at Craftweb.com.'(?) And
here like a divine thunderbolt, you J. have offered a most excellent
solution!

Please everyone, go take advantage of the incredible wisdom and genius,
combined with sardonic humor, of our internet glass treasure, Pete
Vanderlaan. His wares are the best, from bomb proof crucibles, to 94
POINT THREE coe colored glass, as well as your assorted books,
adhesives and anything else that might tickle your fancy! And don't
forget--do you want to touch his monkey? He sells stuff too!

One word of caution though. It is customary at Craftweb to at all times
keep your head lower than the chief's. It is also considered a great
insult to look him in the eye. Just receive your wisdom, and back out
of the room with your head bowed.

Good luck!

No, you don't want to make colors. The chemicals are poisonous and the=
=20
results are variable, especially the COE. It will certainly be more=20
expensive than buying. The only reason for doing it is getting exact=20
control over the shade of coloring that you want. Pete is a great source=
of=20
moderate advice and he will be offering a week long course in making =
glass=20
color this winter, (about $1500)
If you want to make color for pyrex glassblowing, it is even worse, but=
=20
the technique for coloring individual tubes is given in "Contemporary=20
Lampworking" by Dunham.

--=20
Mike Firth
No more levees
Bury old Orleans
Raise New Orleans up if it is worth saving
--
"Glass Blower" wrote in message=20
...
Hi,

I am trying to make Blood-Red, Blue and Orange colors for Glassblowers.

I know there are lot of commercial suppliers of glass colors but I want
to do them myself as I can't afford the cost of comm. ones nor are they
available in my country.

Can someone please help me here.

Somebody told me that W. A. Weyl's "Coloured Glasses" is a good
resource but I can't even get hold of that.

Thank you for your help in advance.

J.

The main reason studio glass blowers make their own color is to gather
it.That eliminates overlays and opens a greater range of design
options. If the only reason you want to make color is to save money
you're barkin up the wrong tree. That's like trying to save money by
building your own car. Also, making your own color is an environmental
and health nightmare. Frankly, its a wonder to me that some of these
meatheads are still alive. You gotta be pretty smart--no strike
that--you gotta be highly educated as well as a near genius to make
color safely and consistently. And believe me, no one we've mentioned
fits that description. Experience is great, but if your life experience
reads like a Harold Loyd film of endless ****ups and near death
experiences, I'm not impressed. The thing is lots of these guys who
came up in the 60's and 70's merely happened to be in the right place
at the right time. They don't neccesarily have any talent for it, just
a bunch of experience trying to grab the bar of soap.

One option if you need to gather color is to buy Spectrum cullet; it is
reasonably priced and the fit is dependable.

I am looking for colors for borosilicate glass.

How do I produce the Orange color ?

"Digit" wrote in message
...
I am looking for colors for borosilicate glass.

How do I produce the Orange color ?

Practice

Speaking of toxicity, orange is one of the worst colors you could try
and make, since it involves cadmium, a deadly toxic heavy metal. In
fact, even the large glass maker Spectrum had to halt production of its
orange in Washington state because of environmental issues. So if you
take the last guys advice and "practice" making orange, probably take
out a life insurance policy. More than a few guys have been killed by
cadmium.

If however you are the production manager for a chinese glass dildo
manufacturer, be advised that American women do love orange and yellow.
Don't forget to toss some rhino horn into the batch.

wrote:

Speaking of toxicity, orange is one of the worst colors you could try
and make, since it involves cadmium, a deadly toxic heavy metal. In
fact, even the large glass maker Spectrum had to halt production of its
orange in Washington state because of environmental issues. So if you
take the last guys advice and "practice" making orange, probably take
out a life insurance policy. More than a few guys have been killed by
cadmium.

If however you are the production manager for a chinese glass dildo
manufacturer, be advised that American women do love orange and yellow.
Don't forget to toss some rhino horn into the batch.


Spectrum also turned their Red over to Uroboros. They halted the Terra
Cotta but I don't know if that was for environmental reasons.

--
Jack

Plonked by Native American

bobo1148atxmissiondotcom


http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/xmissionbobo/

On Thu, 08 Sep 2005 07:11:42 GMT, "Glass Blower"
wrote:

Somebody told me that W. A. Weyl's "Coloured Glasses" is a good
resource but I can't even get hold of that.

See
https://secure.societyofglasstechnol...ch.cgi?button=
=3Dyes&itemcode=3Dca&sessionid=3D38291105&searchst art=3D1&searchend=3D25&=
search=3DBook

or go to http://www.sgt.org and click on "Books".
--=20
Terry Harper
URL: http://www.btinternet.com/~terry.harper/

Kudos for wanting to try your own colors and break out of the (crayola) box.
And save a dime or two, and run colored bits without having to roll in
powder/frit, and blowing or sculpting actual colored non-cased work.

There's a lot that can be done with a furnace of color sculpturally and
there are several colors that are safe and sane. I have bought color rod but
certainly not any in the manganese purple or the range from copper or cobalt
blues.

A tank full of copper glass can achieve a range of effects.. reduction and
with a little magic struck to an interesting variety of especially after
three strikes. Also safe and sane are the iron and iron/copper greens.

Mixing and remelting certain frits using different atmospheres in your
furnace, keeping as best a record as you can.... all characteristics and
innerness/soul stuff going into the self therapy of why you might be working
in this medium.

Melting cullet with colors .....using frit helps a lot to homogenously
introduce oxides, and can be done wet versus sprinkling dry powder on each
shovel.

Stiring and keeping the melt at a point where its "wet" or covered all the
time helps keep the chems in ($) but more importantly a better chance for
repeatability.

Melting colors using batch presents an opportunity for self annihilation if
you want to tumble the entire batch with the oxides. First pretumbling a
small bit of batch and oxides before the whole thing. Plenty of breathing
/spreading dust from breaking up those nice pellets. I used to use a
covered cement mixer. Preferred is wet(well drained) frit with the oxides
dumped inside a covered five gallon bucket kicked around on the floor for
several minutes.

If you are currently mixing your own batch to work glass with then you are
probably aware and taking due precautions with whatever HAZ/MAT is being
used and not using the same triple beam for the barium as for the weasel
dust. Read up on whatever chemicals you are using.

Frit can color batch too, either wicked strong colored frit, or mixing
oxides with the frit and adding sprinkles to each shovel or bag of batch
being tossed in.

I am convinced a lot of "ancient lost colors" were "remelts" of various
frits and/or combinations of frits and oxides in their batch melts.

Melt a tank of color to blow out of, or melt a tank to pull your own rod or
frit. I f you have cheap/free running water the whole fritting thing and
seperating with screen boxes is a scene in itself. Or blow some pull some.
Often the color is stronger at the very bottom even if you rake and stir at
breaks.

I don't know about orange... the right sugar yellow transparent cased over a
certain shade of copper red transparent.

If your melting apparatus is in good shape, and the refractory of suitable
formula go for it. Remember switching back to clear often is streaky for a
melt. Rinse with a bit of clear to get the stuff out of the bottom.
Especially a well used brick furnace, a cracked tank furnace or cracked
(invested) pot furnace will trickle back in color, especially noticeable is
cobalt.

Not searching and trying some color experimenting might be leaving a inner
void. Can one be more satisfied drinking out of a glass cup they made
instead of a plastic cup?

Of course.

A similar logic entails justifying your search to melt your own shades.

Some folks are picky about their shades.

For instance there could be seven different layers of "white" cased to
create the right shade on a piece inside your face at this moment. There is
in mine.

A minimum of three layers on a gold cap.

Usually more.

;-)




"Glass Blower" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I am trying to make Blood-Red, Blue and Orange colors for Glassblowers.

I know there are lot of commercial suppliers of glass colors but I want
to do them myself as I can't afford the cost of comm. ones nor are they
available in my country.

Can someone please help me here.

Somebody told me that W. A. Weyl's "Coloured Glasses" is a good
resource but I can't even get hold of that.

Thank you for your help in advance.

J.