Fuchsia Dotties,

difficult and in demand

Probably the most popular color I make (or possibly neck in neck with vintage garnet, another striking color from the check glass line)...

hollow dotties in check sodalime. Tourmaline pink with capri dots.

Dotties are typically $9 and $11 for 10–13mm and 14–17mm respectively. And, depending on mood, I charge up to $2 extra for the fuchsia ones. Don't want to pay the outrageous price of up to $13 (or more for bigger sizes) for your fuchsia dotties? Well, here's exactly how I make them:

Equipment: lynx torch, running on concentrator.

Method:

Adjust candles so middle is about 3mm long, blue
02 should be adj. so that #1–4 have ~ 0.7mm whitish yellow tips
make bead slowly (never above med. orange) w 2.5–3mm coils
let cool 45 sec[onds]
reintroduce to flame about 6–8” up
strike till color ‘orangish pink’ appears (45 sec)
total [strike time] 1:30
add dots

Simple, no?

Well, ok, this glass is a pain to work with. The above is a transcription of my notes after I really nailed exactly how to get this glass to strike in a hollow bead. The ‘1–4’ candles are just some of the six outside candles, which I numbered for the drawing—which I suppose if I ever find it, I'll photograph it and up date this post. Like, 2010, if you're lucky. Honestly, it's not that important, except for folks into primary sources. The ‘make bead slowly’ is the important part for preventing streaks of unstruck color, and making these beads a little thicker-walled also helps. The other biggie, besides not overheating the glass to begin with is that long, long long cooling period. sometimes I was able to get the cooling down to 30 secs, but absolutely no less. But, hey, I understand Bullseye has a new fuchsia pink (technically this color is called tourmaline pink in the check glass line) and it's probably easier to use.

I suppose I'll have to try some of it, which I probably bought 12 or 18 months ago, sigh.

photo 10may07, file created 24aug07. More material, 09oct07.

Sylvus Tarn

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