Test Results :: Spanish Leather

1 - Plain, 2 - Plain (reduced), 3 - w/ Silver Leaf, 4 - w/ Silver Leaf (reduced & encased), 5 - w/ TerraNova2 Frit, 6 - w/ Silver Glass Frit (reduced), 7 & 8 - w/ Tuxedo, Copper Green, Opal Yellow, Ivory, and Peace

Effetre Spanish Leather is a streaky, stable dark reddish orange colour. It reminds me a lot more of ripe tomatoes or hot chili peppers than leather -- if the name had led you to believe that this colour was in any way brown, it has tricked you.

Spanish Leather behaves fairly predictably as compared to other reds and corals, although the consistency is a little stiffer than Coral and the texture less 'grainy' if that makes sense to you. It is a bit of a striker, and when it is allowed to heat and cool repeatedly, it can turn quite dark. You can see this on the ends of some of the beads as you look through the rest of this post.

Spanish Leather does not develop any noticeable effect from being introduced to a reduction flame.

Silver has a very interesting appearance on top of Spanish Leather, turning blueish in some places and yellowish in others, and hazing a little on the surface. When the silver is reduced and encased, the interesting effects are lost and you are left with just a silvery net effect on top of the dirty brown Silver/Spanish Leather reaction.

Silver Glass likes being on top of Spanish Leather. In both beads, a strong brown/black line has developed around the fritty bits. You can see in the bead on the left that I got nice pinks and purples from the TerraNova2 frit. It's too bad it sort of clashes with the Spanish Leather itself and that the colours don't gel better.

In the bead on the right, the reducing silver glass also developed colour nicely and because the blues of the silver glass has good contrast with the base, looks quite nice on top of Spanish Leather.

When Spanish Leather is used on top of Tuxedo, a shiny, greyish line appears around the dots and stringer lines.  This line is lighter and shinier than the line that pops up around it on top of Copper Green.

Spanish Leather and Copper Green have a reciprocal dark line reaction between them.

Ivory spreads out a little on top of Spanish Leather, but apart from that not much of interest occurs between Spanish Leather and Opal Yellow, Ivory, or Peace.

This sculptural goddess bead was made with Spanish Leather, and illustrates the richness and streakiness of the colour.

And here are some fun beads made with Spanish Leather:

 

Winter Colour Diet :: Session #1

As a result of going to an Astrid Riedel demo a couple of weeks ago, I can't stop making wigwags. So far, they look more like gnarly, crazed swizzle-branches than the beautiful, even, magical thing that Astrid showed us in her demo, but I'm guessing I can't aspire to that until my 50th or 100th attempt. As a result of me not being able to stop making wigwags, and in order to not have a gnarly-cane accumulation in the studio, I've had to start using them, and these beads have a fair amount of wigwagginess to them.

I'm just getting back to the torch and barely starting to feel comfortable there again after a pretty dry two years, so my beads feel a little shaky and I'm having trouble with heat control and knowing what I want to make. So, I am just pushing through it and putting things together randomly knowing that if I keep that up, I will come through on the other side with better comfort and better beads.

This bead is silver glass frit stringer in an Ivory jacket. I made this bead at the beginning of the session, before I got hypnotized by the wigwags and all the pretty colours.

Wood makes a really good base for surface florals, as it's very reactive. Here, I used encased stringer to overdot the Wood flower petals, which has resulted in some pretty reactions in the petals. I'll do this again for sure. The base of the bead is cane made from layering Mint Lozenge, Shrubbery, and Slytherin. The wigwag is up the sides of the bead.

I can't really explain the construction of the rest of these beads since I was just winging it in the studio and didn't really make notes about which colours I used in which beads. What I can tell you is that they are a mishmash of wigwags, Spanish Leather, Apple Blush, Shrubbery, Slytherin, Mint Lozenge, Evil Queen, Copper Green, and the odd little dash of Raku.

And that is what Session 1 brought me. I feel lucky that I was able to attend Astrid's demo because it helped me envision a way to use these colours together that I had not been naturally inclined to. It woke up "possibility", and now I am full of ideas.

Test Results :: Wood (Legno)

1 - Plain, 2 - Plain (reduced), 3 - w/ Silver Leaf, 4 - w/ Silver Leaf (reduced & encased), 5 - w/ TerraNova2 Frit, 6 - w/ Silver Glass Frit (reduced), 7 & 8 - w/ Peace, Ivory, Opal Yellow, Copper Green, and Tuxedo.

Effetre Wood (Legno) is a weird colour. Legno is the Italian name, and Wood is the translation, although some vendors are calling it by both names, e.g. Wood Legno, or Wood Wood. Its rods are Ivory in colour, so you expect certain things from it on first use that simply don't materialize. While Wood is a reactive colour, it is not reactive like you would expect an Ivory would be. It's more like a pink or a brown in terms of how it behaves, and I'll walk you through how very odd it is, below.

In these beads you can see the plain Wood spacer on the left, and then the reduced version on the right. Reducing fumes this colour an orangey yellow colour.

When silver is used on top of Wood, it turns a dark copper colour and mashes itself into a narrow band. You can also see strange brownish smears over the bead where the silver has made the Wood react. In the bead on the right, I reduced and encased the silver reaction which resulted in a strange, pinkish green ethereal effect under the clear that is interesting but not very attractive.

And while Wood is not very beautiful with the silver glass in either of these test beads, it is clear that it is a highly reactive colour from the way it has retreated from the fritty bits and formed pale bands around them.

When I used Wood on top of other colours, it without exception has turned a beige colour, but not uniformly.

On top of Peace, Wood looks almost like a pale clay colour, which I find really attractive. The dots and stringer lines are a little mottled but still nicely defined. Peace (like both Ivory and Opal Yellow) spreads out on top of Wood like crazy.

On top of Ivory, Opal Yellow, and Copper Green, Wood separated into two different shades of beige with the darker shade lining the middle of the dots and stringer lines. It looks more brown on top of Ivory, is a dark pinkish beige on top of Opal Yellow, and a mellow beige with larger separation rings on top of Copper Green.

Opal Yellow separates into two different colours of Wood (brighter with a pale border) on top of Wood. When Copper Green is used on top of Wood, a faint halo of pale beige rises up to surround the dots and stringer lines.

On top of Tuxedo, Wood separates as well, but it develops the darker part of the separation reaction on the outside of the dots and stringer lines which makes the reaction looks sort of out of place next to the reaction on top of Copper Green. It's like the line gets turned inside out on top of Tuxedo. The exterior of the reaction line on top of Tuxedo is also weirdly shiny.

As a result of all the excitement in the leftmost bead, I was expecting a set of similarly interesting results in the bead on the right but what I found instead is that while Wood rose up in a subtle halo around Copper Green and Tuxedo, its main influence on all of the colours I tested it with was to make them spread like heck. The dots and stringer lines all look obese, considering the stringer I applied them with was no wider than the one I generally use, and very similar in girth to the one I used in the bead where the Wood is on top.

In this goddess bead, you can see the streakiness of Wood and the colour variation you will experience from it in scultpural work. It has struck yellowish in some places, pinkish in others, and then the streaks are a dark brownish colour.

These beads all contain Wood: