Test Results :: Dark Ivory (Vetrofond)

I apologize in advance for blogging about a colour that, unless you've been lampworking for a while, you've had no opportunity to try.  I am probably going to be doing a fair bit of this, so I'll try to spread it out a bit. I have a bit of a stash of older colours that I want to use, and I want to make the test results available to other people who have the colours hanging around.  Thanks for understanding!

1 - Plain, 2 - Plain (reduced), 3 - As Silvered Stringer, on self, 4 - w/ Silver Leaf, 5 - w/ Silver Leaf (reduced & encased), 6 - w/ Silver Glass Frit (reduced), 7 - w/ TerraNova2 Frit, 8 & 9 - w/ Tuxedo, Copper Green, Opal Yellow, Ivory & Peace

Note: The picture above has an error. Bead #6 is made of Effetre Dark Ivory, not Vetrofond. I made the same error in the Effetre Dark Ivory test results. I no longer have the beads, so I was unable to retake this picture, but the problem is now corrected in the body of the post, below.

Vetrofond Dark Ivory is a bit of a surprise. The rods are smooth, and almost opalescent. In thin layers, this colour has a really nice translucency to it, but in thick layers it is utterly opaque and somewhat streaky.

I will be posting about Effetre Dark Ivory in a week or two -- I need a picture of one of the beads I made and picture-taking day and my need to blog didn't really coincide. I planned to post the Effetre results first, but this is just the way things are panning out.

The principal differences between Vetrofond Dark Ivory and Effetre Dark Ivory are as follows:

• Some batches of Effetre Dark Ivory do not have a lot of reticulation, but for the most part, Effetre Dark Ivory tends to curdle, while Vetrofond Dark Ivory (or at least this batch of it) seems not to do this unless it is reduced with silver glass.
• Vetrofond Dark Ivory has less colour variation than Effetre Dark Ivory, and has less of a 'caramelization' reaction when fumed with silver.
• Vetrofond Dark Ivory is stiffer, and less 'creepy' -- unlike Effetre Dark Ivory, the Vetrofond version does not try to take over when used with other colours.
• Vetrofond Dark Ivory does not make SiS as nicely as the curdly batches of Effetre Dark Ivory do.
• Vetrofond Dark Ivory is less violently reactive than its Effetre cousin.

When silver leaf is melted into the surface of Dark Ivory, it turns brown and grey and silvery, and the reaction covers almost the entire surface of the bead. When this reaction is reduced and encased, much of the brown tones are eliminated, and what is left is a lacy, shiny, silvery crust under the clear.

Vetrofond Dark Ivory makes an interesting base colour for silver glass. I like it better than Effetre Dark Ivory for this because it is less inclined to try to swallow my frit. I got good colour from both my reduction frit and my striking frit on top of Vetrofond Dark Ivory.  Weird, brown webbing surrounds my bits of frit on the left-most bead, and the frit has developed an interesting double outline of black + silver in a lot of places. Because I reduced the silver glass, the Ivory has caramelized and looks much darker than it does on most of the other test beads.

If you look at the bead on the left where I used the Vetrofond Dark Ivory over Tuxedo, you can see its translucency. Vetrofond Dark Ivory seems to be another colour that makes Tuxedo bleed a little bit, and the Dark Ivory has separated a little on top of the Tuxedo as well.

Vetrofond Dark Ivory and Copper Green have a mutual dark line reaction.

On top of Opal Yellow, Vetrofond Dark Ivory has an all-over greyish hue to it, and a faint grey outline. When Opal Yellow is used on top of Dark Ivory, the grey outline is much darker and much more pronounced and the Opal Yellow develops a weird, crinkly outline.

There's not much to say about the reactions with Peace and Opal Yellow.

Here, I've used Vetrofond Dark Ivory as the base colour (under Vetrofond Light Aqua) and as the ground colour, and then I've used silvered Vetrofond Dark Ivory stringer to make the mushroom. I think I might have used Vetrofond Dark Ivory in one of the vine canes on this bead, too, but I can't remember which one. I was going for the Total Dark Ivory Experience.