CiM, Zim and silver part IV...notes on Obsidian ltd run

This is the fourth post in my CiM/Zim series but instead of posting up a few recipes and examples I have decides to focus on CiM Obsidian from Messy Color as I have a bit of a crush on this glass.

This large focal bead has been made with CiM Obsidian ltd run and Zimmermann Z8911 light pea green frit.

First I made the bead using CiM Obsidian then let it cool a little and wrapped it in silver leaf, burnished the leaf on and then burnt it off in the flame then added a little frit. I love how the silver has broken up into little droplets on the surface of this bead.

These next images show where the real magic with obsidian happens and show why I am so smitten with this ltd run glass.

 I used the same recipe as the focal bead above to make this bracelet bead duo but this time I wafted each very quickly in a propane rich (reduction) flame and the resulting reaction is this beautiful peacock shimmer which is so hard to capture in a photograph.

This last experiment was to see if I could capture that peacock shimmer under encasement. The trio of beads shown here were created in exactly the same was as the bracelet beads above but without the addition of frit. I then encased the focal bead with Effetre 006 clear glass. As you can see the peacock colour is lost entirely under the clear layer. The streaky brown you can see in the encasing layer is down to my not setting the flame back to neutral before encasing.



Jolene x

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