Pulling Dichroic Stringers... Tutorial needed!!!

[Vicki.White]

Hiya, so I bought some dichro on clear and I thought I know how to pull it into a stringer, but when I looked at the stringer I had pulled it was less like shiny lovely dichroic glass and more like specs of grey/silver glitter in the glass (I have totally encased the foil and it looked fine until I pulled it out - nothing like what it should look like!!!!) So please could someone point me in the direction of a tutorial on it... or tell me how.. Thank you, you lovely people

Vicki xxx 

[Lush!]

I've never tried to pull stringers from dichro, I've only either bought it as stringer already, or used the strips, which I believe you apply direct to the bead.

[Steampunkglass]

I don't think you can; the dichroic coating is only a very thin film on the surface, so when you pull out the glass that will probably start breaking up. However I know Sean at Off-mandrel has got Bullseye dichoic stringers, but they are COE 90 so probably best used with bullseye glass only. They aren't 'pulled' like normal stringers but are plain stringers that have had the dichoic film added.

[littlegiggles]

What you got was what you would expect from a self made dichro stringer... sorry. 

The only way to get lovely thin lines is to do what the others are saying  get some pre bought stuff.  If you use the bullseye sparingly like you would do frit you should be ok.  given that frit is often about COE 92-6.  There are also other places in the states where you can get COE 104 but for the life of me I cant remember where they are... any ideas guys

[garishglobes]

You can coat the coating with clear (make sure it is completely covered), then pull.. you get a stringer with sparkle this way, but it isn't at all the same as a dichro stringer because the sparkles are much more spread out.
Mary Lockwood has a dichro twisty tutorial which is done a bit like this:
http://www.marylockwood.com/files/borealistwistytutorial.pdf

[Mary]

Julie, I had some disasters trying to use Bullseye, thinking it was close to the frits. Seems that furnace glass frit has lead in it, which somehow helps it to work when it shouldn't. Did you have better luck than me using Bullseye, or was I just doing something wrong?

[Jolene]

I think that Beadysam has some 104 dichro in stock..........

[Warm Glass UK]

Lots of lovely dichroic CoE 104 here:

http://www.warm-glass.co.uk/Shop/CategoryProducts.aspx?CategoryId=66
including 2mm Moretti dichroic rods or a mix of dichroic stringers (Bullseye) here:

http://www.warm-glass.co.uk/Shop/CategoryProducts.aspx?CategoryId=20

Pippa

[Trudi]

when I saw Sarah Hornik make it - she had a layer of clear -followed by two good layers of dichro - then encased. This was then pulled into stringer. It will be a more subtle sparkle then just applying dichro on - I guess it depends on the look you're after. Anna (Beads on Toast) gave me some fused stripes she got from the States. I haven't used it yet - but the coating on it looks a lot thicker then on the stuff I've bought from Martin - so I guess it would hold up better in the pulled stringers.

I have successfully used some of the bullseye from Off-Mandrel on Effetre

this was the thin stringers - I was happily adding it on forgetting the difference in COE - till I finished. And I fully expected it to crack, but it didn't!! I guess in the overall scheme of things - there wasn't that much in it. But be careful when buying the thin stringers - they are round and not flat and it's quite difficult to tell what is the coated side!

[Redhotsal]

As the others said it will be more spread out as it breaks up- but the real reason you're getting the grey colours/ashy look is because you're going a little too hot. Slow it down and go gently and you'll get the sparkle. (It'll be as shocky as helll though!) Hope this helps 

[littlegiggles]

Julie, I had some disasters trying to use Bullseye, thinking it was close to the frits. Seems that furnace glass frit has lead in it, which somehow helps it to work when it shouldn't. Did you have better luck than me using Bullseye, or was I just doing something wrong?

Yeh the lead makes a huge difference in helping out the compatibility issues.  I annealled it really carefully holding and both strain points for a while which seemed to make the difference... I still have the bead somewhere so I will go see if it is still in one piece.  Time may have killed it.  I normally use 104

[Vicki.White]

Fantastic guys!!! So are we saying that the dichro strips from warm glass are the way to go... cuz thats what im thinking after reading everyones comment!
xxx