Test Results :: Kalypso

1 - Plain, 2 - Plain (reduced), 3 - Over Peace (reduced & encased), 4 - Over Ink Blue Violet (reduced & encased), 3 - Over Copper Green (reduced & encased), 6 & 7 - w/ Peace, Ivory, Opal Yellow, Copper Green, and Tuxedo

Before I say anything, I want to write myself a great, big disclaimer. I am not a silver glass expert, and it has been pretty close to two years since I made anything nice with silver glass. I know for sure I have not figured this one out yet, and I am certainly not getting the beautiful colours out of it that other people are getting.

However, none of that is going to stop me from telling you what I think I learned about Double Helix Kalypso while I was making these beads.

The flame of my Minor is almost reducing enough to fully reduce Kalypso without even turning down my oxygen, but it doesn't do this with any other silver glass, so from that I conclude that Kalypso is particularly sensitive to a reduction atmostphere in the flame.

To get a good shiny reduction film on the surface of Kalypso, all I need to do on my Minor is take Kalypso out of the flame until it is cool, and then gently reintroduce it. If I do turn down my oxy, it is super easy to over-reduce Kalypso and get browns and yellows instead of pinks and blues.

All of these beads are reduced and encased, and I got blues with overtones of pink in most of them. From left to right, the Kalypso is over Peace, Ink Blue Violet, and Copper Green. The one over Copper Green is the one with the least amount of pink, but it was also the smallest bead because I got sort of lazy.

On top of Kalypso, Tuxedo spreads, You can see how the actual Tuxedo dots are much smaller than the hole they've made for themselves in the Kalypso surface reduction. I'm not sure how to exploit this reaction in a design, so I need to think about that a little bit. You can't really see Kalypso when it's used on top of Tuxedo, so it's sort of hard to tell if there's any reaction that way or not :)

Copper Green on top of Kalypso separates, going a concentrated dark turquoise in the center of dots and stringer lines, and looking almost yellowish in the outer band where it touches the Kalypso. When Kalypso is on top of Copper Green, there might be just the faintest light outline around it, but not much else. It does help keep Copper Green from going grey though, and that's a good thing!

Opal Yellow is extra neat on top of Kalypso because it separates so that there is a lighter band in the centre with its own outline, giving an almost ripple effect due to the extra demarcation line. On top of Opal Yellow, Kalypso spreads a little and there is no real point where the Kalypso stops and the Opal Yellow starts - it's a very gradual transition.

Ivory on top of Kalypso goes dark and dingy, but develops a really interesting pale outline. When Kalypso is used on top of Ivory, a dark line forms around the Kalypso, followed by an immediate inner light line and then finally the pink of the Kalypso for an interesting three-dimensional effect. Also, the Ivory all around the Kalypso fumes a dark greyish brown colour.

Peace on top of Kalypso goes yellow and separates in the same way as Opal Yellow but with less interesting detail visible because the reaction is more subtle. There's no real reaction visible between Peace and Kalypso when Kalypso is on top except that Peace fumes very yellow.

These fun beads all contain Kalypso. In a few of the beads it is sort of over-reduced, but I think that gives its own interesting effects.