First Dragon pendant????

[Red Dragon]

After seeing Fiona's Dragon pendant and Emma's Oil Dragon, thought I would have a go ......  but it just grew......



Think I need to start smaller in future??? 

[ruth]

This is fantastic, my grandson is wondering how long did it take to make it?

(I think you have to count all the time you have been lampworking to achieve this skill level.)

Please make it a long time or he will expect me to have produced one by lunchtime.

Ruth

sewnthings

[Bubblebeads]

Wow that is a great dragons head keep up the good work 

[JKC]

Looks good, well done.

[Pat from Canvey]

Think I need to start smaller in future??? 

No keep them that size. I guess it makes it a bit easier to add facial features. Great work.

[GaysieMay]

Love it Bob! 

[Princess Peggy (Priscilla McGirr)]

Brilliantly scary Bob!

[Red Dragon]

Thanks all, I have another smaller one in the kiln so will have to see how that turns out!

[Vikkijayne]

He's great Bob, love it 

[liquidglass]

That's really good Bob, love the colours.

[Red Dragon]

And this is the smaller one  but I broke off one of his fins as I was about to photograph him so the right fin is held on with blue tac??
So will have to repair him before my wife can wear him!  Hes got a right dippy eye as well so claimed for the household(we seem to collect misfits/rejects etc in this house!!!)



I am also quite pleased with the "Rose Nebulae" pendant on show in the gallery!
But the flower paperweight (in gallery) fell off its punty and ended up with a big thermal crack in it which I managed to close up, except for one small bubble in the middle, but the green leaves cracked as well and now look silvered with bubbles!!!
Dont know if this is typical for TAG Leprechaun  but the leaves have cracked on another pendant as well which had a similar thermal crack (repaired)but the petals were fine?

[Steampunkglass]

Nice work, shame about the cracks in the pendant though  I don't think leprechaun is as bad as others but many of the boro sparkle colours are known for causing cracking when encased. From what I understand it's the chromium thats used to make the sparkles, it can cause areas of coe 55 to form around it when garaged and annealed, especially on long garaging, that might be why its cracked, or it just might be bad luck 

[Elements Glass]

Nice work Bob!

The fine cracks in the TAG leprechaun look like checking caused by the chrome separating out and changing the COE of the glass around the colour, also known as phase separation. This is something that can happen at varying degrees to sparkly colours and colours with chrome in if your not careful.

A reducing flame will cause the chrome to come to the surface before its even encased or imploded so a nice oxy rich flame is really important.

It happens slowly at 565*C and over so avoid leaving pieces in the kiln for too long or for multiple cycles. I would recommend setting your kiln to garage at 510 - 526*C and then ramp up to 565 to quickly anneal at the end of the day.

Working quickly in the flame and avoiding long soaks will also help. Even after doing all this, some colours will still check on you if you encase them under too much clear.

Josh

[Red Dragon]

Glen/Josh  Many thanks..... Yep thats obviously whats happening, as it seems to be the sparkly ones that have cracked, and the fact that my encasing is quite deep?  It just happened tonight when i went to play with my new Midrange, and did an implosion pendant with silver blue and quite deep encasing, all ok but when I left it on the fibre mat to cool, it cracked across the width from leaf to leaf? so it looks like I will have to find some chrome free green opaque to use as leaves.     and keep my encasing a bit shallower?

[Steampunkglass]

I think alot of greens are made with chromium oxide (it's quite easy to make, although it does crack really easy if you make your own so I wouldn't advise it  ) but the sparkly colours are worse and the ones to really avoid/be careful with when encased because they have such large bits of chromium in them to make the glitter. I've used NS forest green without too many problems, I use it quite thinly. I think some people encase yellow with another colour (might be blue) to make a green but I've never bothered trying that. It's all practise though and finding the colours that work for you, there are some colours I've had problems with then gone back to them a year later and found they work like a charm, and others I find work really well for me that other boro-heads hate!