Striped Pink: Episode II – The Pinkening

Remember those Striped Pink beads I made that were more purple than pink? Well, a friend gave me a tip-off that Tuffnell Glass had Striped Pink glass for sale at last weekend's Flame Off. I was all "YES!" and it wasn't listed on their site so I emailed Martin and asked if I could get in on that Striped Pink goodness and by Friday I was the excited owner of ten rods of the stuff.

Except what I stupidly forgot to factor in was Effetre's ever-varying glass production. Those magical glass conjurers work in mysterious ways and there's a reason why odd-lots are odd-lots. They just can't reproduce glass one hundred percent perfectly all the time and I totally understand that; I can't perfectly reproduce beads (one of the reasons I don't do remakes) because this glass malarkey is not an exact science and there are so many variables which make consistent results really difficult to achieve. Some glasses vary from batch to batch. For example, batches of Opal Yellow, EDP and Rubino seem to be affected by what phase the moon was in and what colour pants and socks the Effetre warlocks were wearing on the day the glass was made.

The first thing I noticed about my new Striped Pink was its colour. I only had one rod of it to play with last time and that rod was more purple. The one I got the other day is way more pink.

The newer (to me) Striped Pink is on the left. See? Much pinker.

Clearly these rods were from two different batches. Same basic principle, though. Something EDPish with a core of most-probably-Rubino.

When heated, the pinker rod goes the most gorgeously rich pink with subtle hints of the stunning purple that was present in the rod I used last time.

I made plain spacer beads again; I think you would struggle to do anything else with this glass due to its devitrifying nature. With the previous Striped Pink, I wound the bead, heated it, rounded it up and stuck it in the kiln. With this one, I wound the glass on and the result was a pale grey-pink bead in need of striking. I waited a good few seconds and reheated the bead in the cool part of the flame, working from one hole to the other and then back again, heating out any devit that had occurred, then stuck it in the kiln. The result is something that actually is striped pink.

I ended up with beads that are pale pink around the holes (*Tim from The Office style glance to camera*) blending into purple-pink, with a band of delicious, blushing, almost Barbie pink around their centres.

Pretty, huh? The effect is reminiscent of what you can achieve with Reichenbach Purple Rose, but in a more pink way, if that makes any sense.

So, having Googled about and glass-faffed, I'm assuming that Effetre made more than one batch of Striped Pink 253 and that I've been fortunate enough to play with two versions of it. The version Tuffnell Glass currently has is nothing like the one that I showed you last time. That was much more purple and it did that gorgeous pink-glowing thing. This one makes beads that are more opaque. You do get a hint of the pink glow when held up to strong light but not to the extent that you do with the more purple version.

I'm more than happy to have this pinker Striped Pink 253 in my stashette. It makes gorgeous spacers and I reckon I can feel a bracelet-o-pink coming on.

You can grab some of this Striped Pink for yourself over at Tuffnell Glass.

My previous, more purple Striped Pink posts can be found here and here.

Behind the glassy times: Effetre Striped Pink

I've never been one for hoarding glass. I never buy it in 'bulk' and my glass stash is relatively small compared to a lot of lampworkers' stashes. Mine's more of a 'stashette'. This is mainly because I don't have the money to buy up tonnes of glass, and also because I'm one of those people who refuse to rush for stuff, including new glass. I never run for the bus, even if I can see it coming. I've never queued for a shop sale in my life and I hardly ever rush to buy tickets for concerts and shows. I have a kind of relaxed "If it's meant to be, it'll be" attitude to most things in life.

This all means that I don't have many 'fancy' glasses. I once bought a pound of a particular Effetre coral because I loved it and I knew it wouldn't be around for long. It lasted me for nine years. I think that's it, though. I only really buy glass that I need when I need it, and glass that I love when I can afford it.

Recently, someone very kindly gave me some glass rods and included were some fancy colours that I'd never seen or used before, and in some cases, never even heard of. (That's what I get for being a bead hermit and mostly keeping my beadself to my beadself. In case you hadn't figured it out, I'm weird, OK?)

It's an utter delight to work with these new-to-me glasses and yesterday I made beads with the couple of rods of Effetre pastel Striped Pink 253 that were part of the lovely glass gift I was given. A bit of Googling told me that that this glass dates from about 2009 and is now mighty rare. Effetre pastel Purple (AKA Evil Devitrifying Purple, or EDP) is number 254 and the Striped Pink is number 253 and is very similar to EDP. In rod form, it's a gorgeous purple-pink, but unlike EDP it has a core of something that is pretty much, and most probably is, Rubino Oro. I know the rod looks like a hollow tube but trust me, there's a core of transparent pink there.

My Google-about brought up several forum threads about how Striped Pink devits and misbehaves, much like EDP does. (For the record, I love EDP as I've said before here and here. You just have to know its quirks and work with them and you'll get on with it just fine.) I took note of this because I only had two rods of the Striped Pink to play with and I didn't want to waste it. So I made spacers with it and I didn't work the glass as I think you're 'supposed' to do. I didn't strike the glass, or reheat it or faff with it; I just made little plain beads and annealed them.

The result was the most beautifully purple beads. They're just so wonderfully purple. And shiny. They look opaque, but they're not; they're more translucent, I guess.

When you get them in the sunlight their Rubino Oro hearts just glow. Look at that cranberry pink gleam. It's like someone lit a pink fire of pinkness inside each bead.

I couldn't find much technical information about Striped Pink 253, like how you're meant to work it, and there are very few photos of beads made with it. I know I worked the glass 'wrong' but if these purple-but-they-glow-pink beads are wrong then I'm happy to have not worked the glass 'right'.

I realise that I'm mighty behind the glassy times with this Striped Pink post, but maybe someone has some in their stash and perhaps they might stumble upon this blog if they ever have a Google-about looking for information about this beautiful glass.

'Evil' Purple

Today I've been playing with Effetre 254, also known as 'EDP' or 'Evil Devitrifying Purple'. It's a tricky glass to use but I wouldn't call it evil. Temperamental maybe. Sensitive, even. It feels the cold, poor thing, and likes to be kept nice and warm - the warmer the better. Be patient with it, treat it nicely and it'll blossom into soft purples and rich orchid pinks. Yum!

I made this bunch of test beads to pin down a colour combination to make a batch of beads with. All feature EDP over bases made from different 'reactive' colours. I particularly like the ones with a green base so expect to see more of those soon.