reactive ice and blue

[jimsi7833]

I have had great success using the irid reactive ice with BE green, putting the irid side down, BUT, I just tried the reactive ice, irid side down and it turned the most beautiful black you have ever see. :>(

There was absolutely no evedince of "crackling"
If you look at the piece sideways, you can see that the irid is indeed on top of the blue.

Does anyone have any ideas?
Thanks
Jim

[Mary Kay Nitchie]

Hi Jim,

Can you post the production date of the sheet of reactive ice irid that you used?

If the irid piece you selected had a thinner coating (which is in the silver-gold irid color range) the barrier of the irid that creates the crackle is less effective.

I think that time at process temperature might also be a factor. Can you tell us about your cycle?

I might have more questions, but these should get us started.

Mary Kay

[jimsi7833]

Hi MarryKay.
Here is all of the info that I have for both the blue and reactive ice

First the blue.

part no.= 0146-30f steel blue,double role
date=11/14/08


The reactive ice.
part no.=001009-0031
man date=10/19/07

kiln=Paragon gl24
firing schedule
300 to 1250 hold 10
500 to 1420 hold 20
999 to 900 hold 30
100 to 700 hold 0.1
off


The piece was taken out of the center.

The colors from left to right are light grey, gold, blue, gold, and back to grey
And that is all i Know except the phase of the moon :>)
Jim

[Mary Kay Nitchie]

To follow up on Jim's experience with the reactive ice clear irid:

I understand that shortly after his previous posting, he brought his piece into the Bullseye Resource Center Portland, and they showed him a sample that they have that shows the Reactive Ice Irid fired face down on a number of opalescent colors containing copper. Turns out that Steel Blue 0146 actually OVERreacts to the Ice Clear Irid, and the irid barrier is not as effective as it is for other copper-containing colors.

Mary Kay

[johnmich]

I saw the sample at the Resource Center that used Reactive Ice Clear Rainbow Irid and Lt. Cyan and was inspired to give it a try. However, I had the same results as Jim--black.

Perhaps I did something wrong. Maybe the irid side was not down? I had a hard time determining the irid side on the clear. One side was shiny and one was dull. I put the dull side down assuming the shiny side was just the irid showing through the clear. The dull side had the product stickers on it. Did I do that wrong? Any tips for finding the irid side on clear?

I fired up to 1500 with a 20 minute hold (it was in the kiln with some other stuff). Was that too hot or too long?

Here is the production info off the stickers on the glass:
Reactive Ice Clear Irid Rainbow 1009
001009 0031
Half
10/15/09

Light Cyan 026
000216 0030
1047
07/02/10

Thanks!

John

[Mary Kay Nitchie]

Hi John,

I don't know your kiln, but 20 minutes at 1500 degrees F seems a little long. For two layers of 3mm sheet glass, we usually choose a fusing temperature high enough to get the job done in 10 minutes. Reactions do increase with increased heat history (time spent in the fusing cycle in the heating, process, and cooling phases).

It is possible that your piece was fused with the non-irid side against the Lt. Cyan. The irid side is the side with the production stickers, and that could be characterized as the "dull' side. (Exception: on heavily textured glasses, if the label won't stick we might stick it to the back of the sheet, but it is usually on the front.)

The irid side also feels less smooth when you run a fingernail across it. I don't know how to describe this exactly, but when I am using a transparent irid glass, I look at the edge, and with the irid surface up on the cold sheet, I can see where the irid surface ends and that this is above the cut, non-irid edge.

The "dull" side is the side with the irid, which acts as a reaction barrier. This needs to be against the cyan sheet.

If I were you, here is what I would try. Make a 4" square test tile. Make sure the irid surface is against the cyan surface. Same cycle, except shorten the process temperature to 10 minutes at 1500 degrees F. At the 10 minute mark, I would open the kiln door an inch or two to peek to see the piece was fused enough. If not, I would add time in 5 minute increments before continuing the to the cooling/annealing phases.

Can you try this and report back? Good luck!

Mary Kay

[Colleen1]

I haven't had very good luck with the reactive glass either. I fired the irid down on the baby blue (I can tell you which blue if you need me to). My results were mostly black except a corner on the plate did react like it was suppose to (when I held it upto the light it had a copper hue). When I called Bullseye they said I might have better luck with achieving a reaction with the irid in the middle of the glass sheet (I had bought a 1/2 sheet and started at one end). My full fuse schedule was outdated, so I need to change that too. I haven't tried it yet, since I'm not excited about wasting glass... What I saw as a sample at Bullseye was very cool!

[johnmich]

Yeah, I saw the same sample which inspired me to try it. I did another test at a lower time/temp suggested by Mary Kay but got the same result. Like you, I don't like wasting glass on testing, especially since is to so expensive and I won't likely be able to reuse the scraps. May try one more time at around 1300, maybe my kiln is hotter than the temp reads, though I have generally not had any problems with too much heat in the past and my kiln fires very evenly.

John

[joetotale]

Intriguing wee thread...
Anyone got any photos of the desired effect? I'm really excited about the idea of the irid on green or steel blue!
Jx

[Mary Kay Nitchie]

Here are some shots of some test tiles, including captions that explain which glass styles were used.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bullseyegl ... 66/detail/

Mary Kay