Beadbijoux

Ever since my shipment of Reichenbach glass arrived on the scene I have been on a mission to master this glass. My Type A personality would not allow me to sit idly by and let this glass win. Nope. I had to figure it out and make it work. I would not rest until I made beautiful beads with this glass that was near close to driving me away from the torch forever out of sheer frustration. Pearly Pillows - made with Mystic Pink and Mystic Beige My previous post was a good start. I figured out how to avoid the devitrification for the most part but I was still unsatisfied. I knew the glass could give me more and I wasn't happy with only pressing once or twice. I always need to tweak it a little here and there to get the shape just right. Simply Pink - made with Mystic Pink Then it dawned on me. Maybe this glass likes to be encased. Duh! Should have thought of that weeks ago before I wasted a few rods making ugly devitrified and generally unappealing beads. So here is the magical secret

Being married into a German family I've been hearing for years just how superior the Germans are at just about everything [eyeroll]. I figured they must make some pretty spectacular glass too so I went ahead and bought myself a sampler pack of Reichenbach 104 to try it out. Although I have seen many a marvelous beads made with this glass, my experience was not the elated euphoria I was hoping for. I was instead met with devitrified disappointment. All of the 'Mystic' glass rods I used devitrified and formed a pitted, bubbled, white chalky residue on the surface that was anything but the "shampoo" sheen I was anticipating. I scoured the Internet for all the information I could find on staving off the evil devitrification monster and stumbled upon Pat Fratz's blog post about working the famed EDP ( Effetre 'Evil Devitrifying Purple' ). So I went back to the torch armed and ready with new information and a totally different approach. Much success ens