Test Results :: White (Ornela)

Ornela Chalk White (PO0300) is a very soft white opaque glass with good opacity. It is less reactive than other whites, and a little more expensive than Effetre White and CiM Peace. Ornela is also known as 'Czech' glass, as it is manufactured in Czechoslovakia.

This is the first Preciosa Ornela glass colour that I've ever used. I had been hesitant to try Ornela because of all of the noise out there about its compatibility, and I guess I am still feeling cautious since this is only one colour, but I don't see anything to be nervous about in this one. Months after having made these beads, they're still all without flaw.

If you are in the market for some Ornela colours and you're in North America, Laura Walters imports it and sells it on her website, here: https://squareup.com/market/magpiesglasscache

Chalk White doesn't change colour when you reduce it.

Unlike other white glasses, Chalk White doesn't turn yellow with the addition of silver.

With my reducing silver glass frit, a bit of faint yellow fume appeared, but nothing very substantial. My striking silver glass didn't do much on top of Chalk White.

And this picture shows how inert this colour really is. There is a little bit of separation in it on top of Copper Green and Tuxedo, but even that reaction isn't very strong.

I didn't make any other beads with Chalk White, but I am definitely going to keep it in mind in the future. It will be useful that there is a White that is less reactive.

Test Results :: White (Reichenbach)

Reichenbach White (RL1200) is an opaque white glass that loses its opacity when used in thin layers. It's also a colour with compatibility challenges, because I did not manage in any of my testing to find a single colour that it does not crack with. The batch of it that I had is not compatible with Effetre Black, CiM Tuxedo, Double Helix Zephyr, or any of the other colours I've tried it with in these test beads. It's not very interesting reaction-wise apart from some pretty fuming with silver, and it's easily four times the price of Effetre White. You can make up your own mind, but I'll pass on more.

I did make and photograph these test beads, though, so I may as well show them to you.

Reducing this colour does not change it.

Like Effetre White and CiM Peace, Reichenbach White fumes a pretty colour of yellow when used with silver.

It's not evident in the picture, but the bead on the right, where I encased the silvered Reichenbach White, cracked. It cracked along the mandrel line, so at first I thought maybe it was a viscosity problem between the white and the clear layer. But then, a couple of weeks after I made these beads (and after my glass review article had been submitted to Glass Bead Evolution), I noticed that every single bead I made with this White and at least one other colour had cracked. To be fair, I didn't try it with very many colours -- just the ones seen here plus some beads I made with CiM Tuxedo and Effetre Black -- but every single one of the beads where Reichenbach White was not all by itself had tiny hair-thin cracks surrounding the other colour details.

The bead where I used silver with this colour but did not encase it was a survivor and is actually sort of attractive, so if you have any of this colour lying around and want to use it up, single-coloured beads with silver seems like a good, safe way to do it.

Silver glass reduced on this colour fumes the White a soft yellow. My TerraNova2 frit didn't do much on top of it. Neither of these test results matter much in light of the compatibility issues.

Reichenbach White is not very reactive, and there is really nothing to say about it here from that perspective, however you can see how much it loses its opacity in thin layers when you look at how it behaved over Tuxedo.

Test Results :: White

It's taken me more than eight years to get around to blogging about this very important staple colour. Effetre White is a very soft colour and turns transparent when it is heated to a molten state.

Reducing White does not alter the colour or surface finish of it.

Silver fumes White a yellowish colour.  Great if you want a yellow bead, sad if you want a White one. The silver takes on a greyish/pinkish appearance whether encased or no, although encasing it lightens the colour significantly.

I didn't get as much yellow fume in these silver glass beads as I did with the silver leaf tests, but there is a fair amount in the leftmost bead from when I reduced the silver glass.  White seems like a pretty indifferent base glass to use with silver glass, not really doing anything to enhance either the reduction or striking colours I tested it with.

When Tuxedo is used on top of White, the White separates underneath it and rises up around it in broad, subtle halos and makes the Tuxedo looks faintly bluish at its edges.  On top of Tuxedo, White spreads and looks faintly translucent. I also got some separation in the White right at the edge where Tuxedo meets Copper Green in the rightmost bead, but I think that is vestigial from the Copper Green and not due to the Tuxedo since it doesn't carry through.

Nothing in White prevents Copper Green from developing that army green sheen that it likes to get. When you use White on top of Copper Green, it separates and the Copper Green bleeds into it at the edges, making them a bit ragged.

There's not much else to say about the reactions here.  I should add that Peace and White, although both very "white", are not identically "white" - you can see Peace on top of White and vice versa.  My opinion is that the main differences between these colours are as follows:

• Peace is stiffer than White, and therefore a better choice if what you are doing is sculptural work.
• White is much less sensitive to flame chemistry and doesn't soot up in a reduction flame - if you are on a hothead, White might be a better choice if you're having trouble with Peace.
• White is less reactive overall than Peace, making it a less effective base for silver glass and a less volatile choice with other colours, but Peace has more interesting reactions with other colours.

I tested CiM Peace here, if you are interested in those results.

Here are some beads with White, although I think that some of them may have been made with Vetrofond White, which is not the exact same animal.  I am a sucker for a good deal and bought a lot of Vetrofond White when Mike Frantz had it on sale a couple of years ago.