Reichenbach Multicolor Dark (RL6206) is a reactive striking colour. It is relatively easy to strike. The rods are a reddish purple colour, they go transparent when heated, and then turn green as they cool, then striking to blue, purple, and sometimes even a reddish colour.
You can see here that reducing the Multi Dark doesn't make it shiny and doesn't cloud it up the way Raku behaves when reduced. Here, it just advanced the colour of the glass into the purple hues.
I have noticed that in order to strike this colour, you need to let it get fairly cool and then give it a thorough, deliberate reheating. I was not able to screw it up -- no matter how I did it, I still got great colour, so that's a huge point in its favour.
I've now had two different versions of Multi Dark - or at least they seem different based on the appearance of the unmelted rods.
Both of the goddesses below are solid Multi Dark. The top one was made with the darker rods and the bottom one was made with the older, paler-rodded variety. Maybe the newer, darker-rodded batch gives more deep blues, but it's also possible that these two beads received a different amount of heat, were cooled a different number of times, etc. This is a seriously beautiful colour, and no matter what batch of it you have, it's great glass.
On top of Multi Dark, silver disperses such that it's not really apparent on the surface. In so doing, it seems to inhibit the natural colours of the glass, or maybe just cover them up. When the silver is reduced and encased, it forms a solid layer through which you cannot see much of the base bead.
Copper Green, Opal Yellow, and Peace all separate on top of Multi Dark, and Multi Dark does not inhibit the sheen that develops on top of Copper Green.
Ivory forms a dark line reaction and turns a dark greyish brown around the edges of the dots and stringer lines when used on top of Multi Dark, and it also seems to separate. When Multi Dark is used on top of Ivory, it gets a dark outline and fumes the base ivory a brownish colour.
Here are some other beads made with Multicolor Dark.
Hello Melanie
ReplyDeleteWow
What great results from RL-6206 .
Could you please give a bit more info on just how to
get the glass to strike ..... my efforts still give a dull
result, not much color .
Thanks !
Ken
Hi Ken :)
ReplyDeleteI am not sure how to help your specific problem, but here is what I know about striking this colour.
First, I work on a Nortel Minor and I have my oxygen set at 8lpm. I work fairly hot, and super-heat the glass until it's completely transparent. Then I let it cool outside of the flame, just flashing it to keep the ends warm and the heat even in the piece.
To strike this colour in smaller beads, once the surface is cool, go back into the flame and heat up just the surface until it glows, then remove from heat again. It should turn dark brown. Once you have the brown, you've started the striking sequence and each subsequent heating will give you new colours as long as you've let it cool first. If you are having trouble getting the brown layer, you are either not letting the piece cool enough, or not reheating it hot enough. Try to focus your flame across the surface of the glass and just heat the top layer - getting the whole piece molten will not serve you.
In larger pieces, I find this colour strikes naturally as the piece is being worked, since there is cooling and reheating as part of letting some areas cool while working on others and then reheating the cooler parts to make sure the whole piece stays more or less evenly hot.
Hope that helps!
Thanks for your quick reply .
ReplyDeleteI have no problem getting to the dark brown stage but
how to bring out color from that point ?
You said let it cool then back it the flame ? At this point I'm
having the problem of getting color ......
Sorry for this posting but I would like to give it one more try !
Thanks again,
ken
After you've gotten the dark brown colour, it's a matter of letting it cool and then reheating just the surface, and repeating that until you see some change. It's not always apparent that you've struck it until it cools significantly, so you need to make sure you aren't keeping the bead too hot.
DeleteThank you Melanie,I will try it again tomorrow .
DeleteAnd I've just seen your test results from many Manuf.
and colors ad I'm very impressed you've gone to so
much effort ...... its very useful to me,thanks again.
Ken
Napa Valley