Experiment! More on Encasing Red Glass.

I guess I never got the memo. So you can’t encase red? A while back Otter blogged about listening to the advice of other lampworkers, but then experimenting and learning on your own. The example he gave was encasing transparent red; he had been told it couldn’t be done, but he successfully did it anyway.

I have not had opportunity to take classes, and while I do read tricks and tips on internet forums, my main way of learning is through experimentation. I like red, and as you can see I encased it… and pressed it and cooled it in my crockpot of vermiculite then batch annealed it….and here it is months later, completely intact. I guess I’m glad I never got the memo about not being able to encase transparent red.

On the other hand, a while back I encased a brown opaque with transparent red. I really, really liked the shade of red this combo created. But sadly, most of them cracked! So now I’m phobic about encasing brown with red… but is it the brown or the red that’s the problem. I don’t know, as I haven’t done the proper experiments to determine, which glass, if any, is the problem.

Maybe it wasn’t the glass, maybe it was me and the way I was working that day. So I won’t be sending out any memos. I’m with Otter, I think experimentation is the best way to find what works for you!

Linda beads and blogs from her home in Salt Lake City, Utah!