Test Results :: Light Brown Transparent

1 - Plain, 2 - Plain - reduced, 3 - Over reduced Black and silver leaf, 4 - w/ Terra frit, 5 - w/ Khaos frit, 6 - w/ Frit blend (Gaia, Nyx, Elektra), 7 - As a floral, over Ivory, 8 - w/ Copper Green, 9 - w/ Ivory

I'm not really sure why, but ever since I started lampworking I've been a little intimidated by transparent colours. I'm feeling just about over it, now, but for a while I really had to bear down and force myself to use them at all. 

Well, Light Brown Transparent sure as heck doesn't scare me, and after making these beads, I don't know how I can live without it. I'm going to cry a little when the five rods I have left are all gone and my stupid colour diet rules make me switch to another colour in its place.  What an awesome colour, in terms of how it enables silver glass performance... and it's reactive, so it is sure to do way more fun things than I've been able to discover in such a short time.

General Impressions
Light Brown Transparent is somewhat lighter than Pale Topaz and a little less saturated. It looks almost pink when it's hot, but it gets over it and settles back to brown when it cools down. It clearly has lots of interesting metal content, because silver glass absolutely loves it. It doesn't react strongly with Ivory, making it a perfect colour to add a little interest to Ivory in floral designs.  (Bead #7)

This is really the first transparent colour I've used on this little journey of mine other than Clear and Great Bluedini that I would give a rating of 'indispensable' to. Because the colour of it is so neutral, I imagine it can be used with just about anything... and because it is so fun and reactive, I fully intend to try it with as many different colours as I can manage as I move forward with the knowledge of how totally awesome it is.

Reactions
If you put Light Brown Transparent over silver, you will turn the silver a rich gold colour completely out of proportion to the native 'goldness' of the light brown glass. If you happen to have used a base of Effetre Black rolled in silver leaf and then reduced lightly before encasing it with the Light Brown, the result will be both gold and a strange, organic green. (Bead #3)

Silver glass on top of Light Brown Transparent is gorgeous. (Beads #4, #5 & #6) The Light Brown accelerates and enhances the silver glass in a way that really made me happy, and it clearly helped to mitigate some of my uselessness in striking the silver glass colours that need to be struck in a neutral flame.  People like me need colours like this.

Additionally, not long ago I used Light Brown Transparent to encase a bead I had done some stringer work on with Sasha's Silver.  The bead is sort of embarrassingly ugly, but it's really interesting how the Light Brown Transparent turned the Sasha's Silver lines golden and shiny.  I can't tell you not to look at it as that would sort of defeat the purpose of posting it, but you could look at it with compassion... it's not an easy world for a bead as sad-looking as this one.

And finally, look what it did to Copper Green! (Bead #8)  I like the woody yellow-green colour it turned and fully intend to do this in a floral next weekend.  The Copper Green over Light Brown Transparent is equally interesting, but sadly not nearly as attractive.  But I'm sure there's a use for that bicolour metallic striping in someone's designs.  I need to noodle it and see if I can think of an application for it that I think will look nice.

Here are some other beads that have Light Brown Transparent as one of the core ingredients.  You can't always see it, but it's in there doing its thing.