New Mexican Boro?

[mkultra23]

Josh Simpson is one of my favorite glass artists and his work was what first got me interested in glass blowing. The technique that really blows me away is his "New Mexico" glass particularly the fractal patterns that he produces. My question is: Is this tech adaptable to borosilicate. I saw some random video at Penland where Josh gives the exact formula to produce this effect (needless to say I didn't quite catch it at the time), so I'm guessing he's not the only one who understands the process. Cobalt glass and silver (maybe silver nitrate) is as much as I know. Anyway any input or guesses anyone has would be appreciated.

[3 rip min]

how about a pic??

[FiredDesires]

http://www.joshsimpson.com/site/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=30&sel_groupmenu=15

[harpentuan]

The really are alot of facets to glasswork. excuse the pun. There's specific things that interest some and and none. Some are into one aspect but not another.
....some make marbles and some make pipes

[Julian]

I don't understand, from the story there, is it 'New Mexico Glass' because it is the color of the ' sky on a perfect summer night', or is it named in 'honor' of New Mexicos place in nuclear history?

Interesting, what he says about deposting silver with careful attention to atmosphere. You could get something like that effect from silver fuming a piece of cobalt boro; the coating (or whatever) in the picture there looks 'thick', and is a very nice blue, which would be tough to keep in the torch the longer you work the piece. Um, not that I've fumed anything lately...

[GlassAce]

I'm not familiar with Josh's techniques, but it looks to me like he's making his own form of dichroic by applying the silver to flat soft glass and then slumping. If that's the case, recreating it on the torch is going to be a challenge. Cool looking though. wish i had furnace.

[gotglass?]

i believe he puts some form of silver right in his gather....

[Greymatter Glass]

From the description it sounds like he's maybe floating molten silver in the bowl and then sloshing it around, and then pours it off.

Dunno how hard that would be honestly... keeping the silver at the right temp would be a trick.

You can alway give it a try.

-Doug

[Utopian Brain]

i used to make a kind of dichroic coating by heating a section of cobalt tube or like the back of a marble, just about an inch by inch section and pushing it into a metal file. I then fume that section heavily, which creates a shiny coating, heat a 19 mil solid rod up and while holding it in the outerpart of the fire just for a sec to heat it a little and apply that clear and it will produce a poor mans dichroic effect, i figured this out on my own trying to reproduce the Kevin o grady dragon scales, and get my best effects when i fume alternating layers of gold and silver. im sure someone else has done this but i havent seen it. but the idea of different chemichal pockets on the surface of the glass is a neat one. when i tube encase irrid and the amazon series especially, if there are ever any air bubbles on the initial encasementthey will create neat fractallike chemical streaks, that look like aging or antique fractures. I have had such nice effects with this i have used just that encasement for a jar or perfume bottle. people love it. and it really is limitless waht you can achieve with htose encasemments
Paul Farley

[NUBBLET]

I have run silver around a hot piece before . It creates some interesting effects , you just need to get the hang of keeping the silver molten and rolling , at the same time the glass is hot , but no let it melt in . The same goes here with the atmosphere , the flame style will effect it greatly from reducing to oxidizing or neutral all have their own "flavor" , quenching different aspects of the glass and silver .