Test Results :: Yellow Ochre

1 - Plain, 2 - Plain - reduced, 3 - w/ Silver foil, 4 - w/ Silver foil - reduced & encased, 5 - w/ TerraNova2 frit, 6 - w/ Elektra frit - reduced, 7 - w/ Copper Green, 8 - w/ Vetrofond Black, 9 - w/ Opal Yellow, 10 - w/ Ivory

Because Vetrofond Yellow Ochre is an 'odd lot', batches of it vary.  I have two different kinds of Yellow Ochre -- I have some rods that are more yellow in colour, and smooth, and then I have some rods that have a rough texture to them and are more greenish.  I have a slight preference for the greenish variety, but I like both and they aren't really much different in terms of how they behave. I tested the more yellow variety here.

General Impressions
Yellow Ochre, like Ivory, is a pretty soft opaque colour.  On my imaginary scale where Opal Yellow is 1 and Black is 10, I'd put Yellow Ochre at around a 2 or a 3 to describe its 'stiffness'.  It's a pretty flexible colour in that while (again, like Ivory) it is sort of violently reactive to silver, it seems to behave somewhat normally around other colours.  It's a little bit streaky, which can be fun.

I didn't try it this time around, but this colour makes interesting silvered stringer.  It is also good as a base for organic designs when you want a colour that will 'pop' a little more than Ivory.  I have also really enjoyed it in vine cane with some of the other Vetrofond odd lots like Swamp Moss and Lemongrass.  This is another colour I am hesitant to encase too deeply.

Reduction
Reducing Yellow Ochre by itself does not have any apparent effect on the colour or texture of the bead.  (Bead #2)

Reactions
Yellow Ochre behaves very similarly to Ivory in a lot of ways.

Silver sort of blackens (greyens isn't a word, right?) Yellow Ochre, and sits flatly on top of it. This is almost identical to how silver behaves with Ivory. (Beads #3 & #4)

Like with Ivory, the reduced silver glass colours tend to pop more on Yellow Ochre than the ones that require striking in a neutral flame. (Beads #5 & #6) I got some colour in the TerraNova2 frit, but because of the reaction with the Yellow Ochre, the little frit bits all have a black outline that sort of obscures the colour.

With Copper Green, Yellow Ochre develops a black outline. (Bead #7) I'm going to be a bit of a broken record and point out how similar this reaction is to how Copper Green behaves with Ivory.

  

There are no real reactions between Yellow Ochre and Black, Yellow Ochre and Opal Yellow or Yellow Ochre and Ivory.  There's a tiny amount of colour bleed between Ivory and Yellow Ochre, and that's just about it.

Here are some fun beads, some of them new and one a year old, made with Vetrofond Yellow Ochre: