Best Boro colors

[Megan_in_BK]

I've used most of the old tried & true Northstar colors in the past, but now I've been wanting to expand and try a bunch of new/different Boro colors. It's usually trial & error figuring out what colors really work the best. So instead of instead of spending $ first - I would like to hear some opinions about the favorite colors - rod and frit- any brand.

Thanks!

[Arcane Glass]

Some of my favorites.

TAG:
Elvis
Blackjack
Slime
Heavy Blue Leprechaun
Mai Tai

Momka's:
Exotic Citrus Grapefruit
Silver Beach
Amazon Night
Blue Lightning
Sparkly Thunder

There are more but I can't remember them off the top of my head. Wish I had more money to spend to play with more colors and experiment a bit. Oh well.

[Greymatter Glass]

There's no good way to answer this in list format...

Get a sample pack and use them all. None of us can tell you what to use or what will work for you.

If there's a color you like but have trouble with we could certainly give advice on working with that color... but telling you what color's you'll like isn't going to get you too far....

I could list every color for you, and still miss one, and it might be the one you end up liking the most.

[mer]

nile.

[bildo]

buy seconds from tag, momkas, and occasional from ga. You will get a good idea at 1/4 the price. TAG purple sable, caramelo light and black or dark red elivis were my favorite. Momkas stormy weather is one of my best colors smooth and super colorful. triple passion from ga is incredible I just got some occasional quality and it seemed great to me. beautiful purples. I try to mess with mostly striking colors. but the heavy blue leprechaun from tag is great.

[craignog]

best or favorite colors are dependant on what kind of work i'm doing. for example, for implosions i like china white, obsidian, experimental green, indian green and silver creek. my reds i like for other apps are elvis and cherrywood strike. for black i like black violet. black frit = raven. butterscotch is sweet dotted over black and encased.agua azul, peacock, twilight and really teally go good together and are creamy. g.a. amazon colors are full of silver and will produce earthy browns when over reduced. i also recomend buying odds and occasional quality glass.

[Megan_in_BK]

Cool - thanks everyone. I'm excited to try some new colors!

[Master Yoda]

I notice that 2nds and odds can have some really odd striking abilities. I got a round of ns ice blue that strikes like a ruby, I actually love that

[SNYD]

buy seconds from tag, momkas, and occasional from ga. You will get a good idea at 1/4 the price. TAG purple sable, caramelo light and black or dark red elivis were my favorite. Momkas stormy weather is one of my best colors smooth and super colorful. triple passion from ga is incredible I just got some occasional quality and it seemed great to me. beautiful purples. I try to mess with mostly striking colors. but the heavy blue leprechaun from tag is great.

Buying Seconds and Occasionals isn't the best way to try colors out. Yea it will save you cash but you will not be getting the right idea of how the color is in first quality. I had forgotten how nice some of GA's colors where simply because I had a bunch of occasinals that are garbage, but in reality the first quality ones are amazing.

Buy a sample pack or some 1/4 lbs and play around with the first quality glass, that way you know what the color really is like.

[bildo]

In the seconds and occasionals I can mostly see what a color is gonna do. example ga tequila sunrise. it does not strike as brilliantly but the effects are still there. I know what I am working with and that helps me see what I could be working with. I was just trying to offer a cheap solution to a very expensive and taste driven question. I wish I could have experimented with first quality, and there are prob colors I will not use because of this testing system, but there are many that are great. I am a cheapskate and I know it.

[SNYD]

I get what your saying bildo, and I was just offering another point of view. The last batch of occasionals I got where terrible for trying stuff out. The last Tequila Sunrise I got occasional and it didn't strike at all, after two months in the kiln it barely turned piss yellow, so if I didn't already know what the color was like I never would have bought it again. Same with seconds, I got some onyx seconds I though would be great for backing pendants and all it did was look really green or crack, but first was a whole different game.
Just my .002

[S.HY.]

get a sample pack of firsts and experiment. glass alchemy's colors have been easy to work with in my experience and boro bars have some excellent colors and once your used to them are great (however boro bars react a little bit differently than standard rod because they are pressed color and clear and if you aren't careful you will ruin the color)

[bildo]

I am a convert, I see what yall are saying. I was just using some mai tai seconds I got and they really dont do much. I need to look into sample packs. sometimes frugality can hold you back, sometimes it can help you get rich. I have always been a gambler and seconds are definitely that. However to anyone reading this so far after about 200 lbs of seconds the gamble seems to have paid off, however (as yall will see from my upcoming progression thread) I am not making headies so some problems with the glass have yet to fuck with me. I dont mean to thread jack, but this convo seems sorta relevant, maybe.

[Shatner]

I also advise to get a sample pack from all of the color manus. Or if you're on a tight budget, the one or two you're most interested in. It's impossible to tell you "the best colors". They're different for everyone.

TAG has some nice stuff lately.

[Grape]

exp greeeeeeeen

[dOprah Winfrey]

holy shit bildo, 200lbs of seconds and your only about a year in, I'm looking forward to seeing this progression thread.

I'm going to have to agree with everyone suggesting a sample pack of firsts. I'm not sure how well you understand color chemistry as far as how to work particular colors as well. I would also suggest the "alchemist guide to boromax chemistry" by Glass Alchemy. It explains how to get the most out of the major color groups. You very well might know whats up though, and not need it.

For what its worth, I use tons of silver creek, silver bullet, jamboree, amazon lagoon, amazon night, persimmons strike, exotic citrus grapefruit, turbo cobalt, borostix white, exp green, caramel luster amazon lagoon and dark multi. They all have applications there good and not so good at.

Best of luck with the color journey, theres a ton of good stuff out there.

[bildo]

Crescent Fresh, 200 might be a slight exaggeration I started with 30 lbs of momkas shorts and 15 lbs of her seconds. When I was in portland I stopped at tag and bought 70-80 lbs of seconds. I bought 30 Lbs of ga occasional and another 16 of momkas seconds. I think that is it. I am learning flame chemistry and have had good success with 85-90% of the strikers. The only cadmiums I have are tag and have worked nicely so far. The momkas shorts were extra bad and I still have a lot of all this color, though I have used every different color that I have. I have never bought first quality glass. I would have a thread already but I am prodo (financially driven) and am scared of Jankyglass ripping the shit out of more prodo. I have yet to do a tube pull. The only iso piece I have had check was a tag green sparkle( dont remember which one) but they warned me about deep encasement. I bought the ga flame chemistry handbook recently. I already knew about most of what it said. The flame striking was very useful info to me, and I still am not great at achieving the luster. When I said I thought it was a good way to find colors I was just putting my cents in. I figured somebody who hasnt tried that many colors might be about where I am in the game. I am no expert just a wind bag that has too many opinions. Sorry about the long paragraph.

[Julian]

What color types are you familiar with, and what do you like?

Each company has their own formulas for sale in each category, usually several variations. Perhaps if you like amber purple from North Star, you might want to experiment with Silver Creek, Mai Tai or Triple Passion. Or maybe you'd rather try something new?

As noted it's a pretty broad question, so to start I'd split all colors into different categories, creating a taxonomy to classify offerings from each company.

Broadly, one can look at boro colors as two sets: WYSIWYG and striking/reducing colors. You could divide it into opaques and transparents, but I don't think that's as important a distinction. Glass Alchemy has a great color classification system, but of course that only applies to their color.

Distinct color families include

for strikers/reducers, which often include silver and copper


amber purples (silver + germanium)
rubies (reduced copper +germanium)
Faux ivories and other silver colors (butterscotch, silver strike)
exotics/amazons/polychromatics (copper/cobalt/manganese+silver)
colors from the WYSIWYG family with added silver
transparent greens that reduce to red (copper)


for non-changing colors


opaque green/blues - chromium + cobalt
crayons - opaque red-yellow. cadmium
cobalts
rare earth transparents - purple,pinks
manganese transparents (black violet)
sparkle colors - chromium like M. Moss, Green Sparkle or disco/steel wool
Whites
Whites with tints (periwinkle, lapis, cranberry)

[gn0me]

Also, Mai tai is a wonderful color but it takes a ridiculously intensive cycle to strike. I had to take it to 1125 for 2 or 3 separate 20 minute cycles for really vivid strikes... don't even think about trying to flame strike. Also helps to get it well below 1050 between cycles.

[Greymatter Glass]

um...

seconds are cheap for a reason. They're not representative of the quality and color consistency of the colors they were supposed to be as firsts. In fact they're not even guaranteed to be fully compatible, use at your own risk!

Cheap color, but in no way should be mistaken as "good" until you know the difference. Basically they're a way for color companies to recover their loses rather than throw away stuff that works, even if it's not very good or not a part of their regular pallet.

Occasionals and Odds are generally "safe" colors, but have flaws either in size/shape of the rod or inconsistent color, in which case they shouldn't be used as a metric by which to judge their first quality counterparts.

caveat emptor, and all that....

-Doug

[Aymie]

What torch you are working on makes a huge difference here too. For instance, a premix red max makes mOst fumet colors lOok like blue moon or butterscotch. Whereas my herbie keeps amazon night black like onyx.

My favorite is gypsy caravan. It's jamboree over white. The occasionals have varying thicknesses of both colors and get all kinds of results.

However, I have to agree that sample packs are the way to go to find your favorites.

[Julian]

[...]

Occasionals and Odds are generally "safe" colors, but have flaws either in size/shape of the rod or inconsistent color, in which case they shouldn't be used as a metric by which to judge their first quality counterparts. [...]


I should note about the terminology - for NS : GA,

Odds : OT (out of tolerance),
Seconds : OC (occasionals).

So you mean OT and Odds I think.

[bildo]

I agree occasionals from ga are seconds and odds mixed together. I think they just dont want or need to differentiate