Opals

[menty666]

Do people really go ga ga over these things? My personal opinion is that I don't like them because they tend to just look like something shiny in an object just for the sake of having something shiny in there. But like my marketing teacher said, just because you don't like licorice doesn't mean you shouldn't sell it in your store.

[jr23]

every piece I put them on goes quick although I put them on my nicer stuff so Its a flawed system but I like em. I here a wide variety of things the shop owners say customers tell them and damn if that opal was not there I would buy this never come's up. But hey there might be folks that are not down with the man made opals. The Man is everywhere mang.

[Red Raven]

The thing with opals is they are shiny. Humans like shiny.

[SNYD]

I use them a lot in pendants and marbles and people really like them.

[glassdocnc]

Bling always sells. Hell, shiny and pretty is part of what makes glass great.

[dogmaw]

Heck, if I could embed cz's in boro, I would. My customers love the bling. The more the better.

[HAGSTROM]

dont use them then

[Glass Pyro]

Non-Glassblowing customers, don't know what we know. They just see some sparkley shiny thing, and they "know" it is cool and different than most pieces. Hell, not every piece has an opal in it, so they are right I guess, they are different. I like opals very much personally, especially the purple/black ones.

[spano]

where does everyone buy their opals?

[gremlinglass]

From what i've seen alot of people love the opals. Is there any truth to what I've heard about man made opals being "endangered"? Something about they can no longer be made because *insert reason here*. Anyone have more info on that or a link to a post where this might have been discussed already?

[Galaxie Glass]

grandpa's Profound Glass" <grandpa@profoundglass.com

[Swampy]

It's the magpie effect, like dichro in fused pendants, they always move quickest.

[Loïc]

some people are like fishes in a bowl, if it bling they will come and hit the window over and over again. . ....

[amanofmusic]

i agree with most of you, people like shiny things, i remember when i was younger i bought a very simple pendant soley because of the "shiny color thing" suspended inside, nowadays i realize it was just an encased opal with clear warts over... not complex but i thought it was so sick at the time... i still have it somewhere

[seadal]

Speaking of Grandpa at Profound I have not seen or heard of him in a long time. Where is he?

[Glacier_Arts_Studio]

for most people, they think it's exotic and
worth more, not really knowing they are
man made... i stick with dicro myself, more predicable...

..

[Jimi The Don]

personally could go without them, but people love them around my parts, raises the price of anything, and if they're nice enough i kinda dig them sometimes.

[vetropod]

Speaking of Grandpa at Profound I have not seen or heard of him in a long time. Where is he?

His website (http://www.profoundglass.com/) is still running - drop him a line!

[menty666]

Thanks, I ordered a couple to play with.

[Aymie]

Heck, if I could embed cz's in boro, I would.


ummm...you can. Real diamonds as well...though I don't know who would risk the latter. I once saw this marble with flowers that had little CZ centers...very blingin'. I have put CZs in things myself. I used to pick them up with a wad of cobalt and encase the whole thing in clear...looked like stars. You can get bulk lots of CZs in a variety of colors for pretty cheap. Cheaper than opals. I'm not sure how the color comes out as I have only tried clear. I haven't tried this in a couple years. Nice of you to remind me actually. I still have some super tiny little guys I ordered by mistake. They work really well and I have never had one crack something.

And I have heard the best opals come from some guy they call Grandpa here in Austin.

[Johan]

yeah...my customers love the opals. i like them a lot too...I love the fire orange color the comes with it.

[Ben Burton Glass]

I just wanted to say the latest batch of opals I got from Profound are BLINGY!!! Thumbs up on the current quality of opals!!

Aloha!

[menty666]

ummm...you can. Real diamonds as well...though I don't know who would risk the latter. I once saw this marble with flowers that had little CZ centers...very blingin'. I have put CZs in things myself. I used to pick them up with a wad of cobalt and encase the whole thing in clear...looked like stars. You can get bulk lots of CZs in a variety of colors for pretty cheap. Cheaper than opals. I'm not sure how the color comes out as I have only tried clear. I haven't tried this in a couple years. Nice of you to remind me actually. I still have some super tiny little guys I ordered by mistake. They work really well and I have never had one crack something.

And I have heard the best opals come from some guy they call Grandpa here in Austin.

How'd you encase the cz's? I was under the impression that the boro level heat burns them up and they were soft glass only.

[Aymie]

I read somewhere years ago that it could be done...probably here...I had no idea it was only a soft glass thing. I bought some tiny little buggers on ebay...smaller than I had expected. I think they were only 1mm. If one was going to burn up I would think it would be a tiny guy. I had no idea what I was doing...I was self taught and a completely useless glassblower back then. I tried them a variety of ways. Dropped a few down in a tube of 9.5 and encased them that way. Poked little divots and set them in the hole and dabbed clear on top. Heated up a blob of cobalt and smashed it on to a pile of CZs on my graphite then mashed a big wad of clear over that. Everything worked. Just like the opals and such, you can go small and use magnification to your advantage. You can see all the facets perfectly clear, though they don't catch quite as much light as they do on their own. They fuse to the glass seamlessly unlike tiger's eye or quartz that gets that spiderweb crackle on the surface of the rock itself. I will try to find what I have left, use them, and take some pictures later.

Other stones that can be encased:

HUGE WARNING:I have no idea about the health and safety concerns of encasing any of these rocks.

Moldavite-green (this is just one of many types of tektites...none of the others come even close to being as expensive as moldavite)

Tektites-come in a variety of green,brown, and black shades. They only come from a few places around the world but I believe we have two strewnfields here in the US...giving us cheap tektites. Super cheap black tektites come from here in Texas. Supposedly, with monster heat you can actually melt and rework the tektites...they are glass formed by the impact of meteorites. Georgia has green tektites. The North American tektites are the oldest...34 million years old...pretty cool thing to add to your art in my opinion. So far, every tektite I have used can be put inside or stuck on the outside.

Raw Silica (very silver and shiney)- stays a very dark metallic gray inside the glass. wash it and let it dry very well before dropping it down a tube and encasing it that way.

Tiger's Eye-I have yet to get this down but I know it can be done...it crackles on the surface but it doesn't seem to crack the piece. It changes color from gold to red.

Quartz Points- they need to be completely transparent (free from other minerals) and color doesn't matter. Clear is best because all the other colors change or go away completely when heated anyway. The trick with quartz points is to keep them at annealing point in the kiln until you are ready to bring it down super slow...super, super slow. If you don't do it slow enough both the crystal surrounding glass get a super concentrated but super fine webbing of cracks. You can still clearly see the natural faces of the point and it is still neat...just not clear. It takes practice but you can totally keep them clear. They are heavy and will "fall" out of the mass of clear you have them encased in if you aren't careful.

Mica- flake it off in thin sheets and treat it like dichro so it doesn't burn. Raw mica looks like natural dichro with tiny threads of rainbow metallic wonder...it looses this completely in the heat and looks like foil/gum wrapper/silver leaf. You can cut it in all sorts of shapes and designs. The thinner the sheet the better. It peels up in micro thin layers and the thicker sheets seem to burn up.

Labradorite-it has a rainbow holographic thing going on, kinda like opal. You need polished pieces with good fire (the colors inside) and they need to be washed and died well. They seem to be extremely porous and the water will muck them up just like an opal. This one is my favorite and the hardest to do nicely. They have to be polished and they have to be dry. Sometimes they lose the green and turn white/gray or red but they keep the fire. You can actually take a big piece of Labradorite and heat it in the kiln and stick glass right to the side and build out.

I tried pyrite once. It separates the iron (stays behind in the glass) from the sulfur, which burns in to a thick yellow smoke, which condenses in to a thick red liquid, which cools to yellow sulfur crystals. Very scary stuff...I don't do dumb shit like that anymore.

[menty666]

I read somewhere years ago that it could be done...probably here...I had no idea it was only a soft glass thing. I bought some tiny little buggers on ebay...smaller than I had expected. I think they were only 1mm. If one was going to burn up I would think it would be a tiny guy. I had no idea what I was doing...I was self taught and a completely useless glassblower back then. ...

Awesome info, thanks!!!

[Johan]

i heard cz's can be put in boro too...never tried it myself

[krisdaka]

Butterflybobs,
Have you encased Kyanite? does it keep it's color? I would like to but I don't want to end up with a white piece of rock in some clear.

[Aymie]

Never tried kyanite (Al2SiO5). I am pretty sure burning aluminum is toxic and that would be my only concern. However, wikipedia says it is used in ceramics, which leads me to believe it can withstand the temps. It does say it has some reaction at 1100 degrees that causes an expansion...I just don't know. I never try out new or unknown rocks without beefing up the ventilation. My old shop where I tried this was practically a wind tunnel.

[krisdaka]

thanks for the info!