I more or less stumbled over the orange color scheme that's formed the series so far: I was given a bunch of scrap glass (much of it with somewhat questionable provenance as to coe) last Gathering when I helped clean the classroom/Open Torch area, and there happened to be a lot of striking red, a color I don't typically use much. I'd also made some blue cane I suspected was ugly (though in fact I liked it a lot) and figured even the ugliest of blue would like striking on its complement, orange. Of course, once I used it up, when I tried to recreate it, then I made some rather unsatisfactory blue cane, which you see here. I really like these buttons in that I get to practice my button-making skills, my twistie manufacturing and application skills, and my floral cane making and application skills, all at once. This way, all the various problems can compete with each other:)
So to give the orange more depth, I cased, that is, put a layer of transparent (but obviously not colorless) glass over the opaque orange that formed the base of the buttons. Then, to neaten up the edges of my uneven casing and make the button bigger, I added a twistie around the perimeter, which also acts as a visual stop, albeit one that shouts to the world just how much I have to learn with all this.
Effetre soda lime button, glass shanked, longest dimension 40mm. Mar06.
This button is another color scheme I like very much, and it's one more typically popular with my customers, but if you look at the edges you can see something rather subversive going on: bright acid yellow. Look on the other edge, just below that curving leaf coming off the top flower, and you can see the barest hint of the transparent glass, which is not green but aquamarine.
So by putting blue on top of yellow, I get a particularly vibrant green; and though I would like to take credit for this, I can't. I learned this trick from Kristina Logan, who still uses it on her classic “green” dotties with cobalt dots. In fact, there's no green glass used at all, as the base bead is yellow, the casing is aqua and dots are cobalt.
file created 11mar06
Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.
