WarmGlass.com

Hello

I have a sculptured vase ready for casting. I would like to use colorless crystal and add frit to crystal pieces to obtain a colored vase.
So far, i had a good chance with light and dark blues and greens . Reds and yellows turn grey because of the lead content of crystal. Have you ever experimented with other frits? and what brand ?

Maggie, you should be able to use whatever red lead crystal that manufacturer makes. Gaffer, for example, makes Orange Red. Which crystal are you using?

Hi and sorry for the late reply

I wish it was easy to use Gaffer but the weight and custom duties are very prohibitive. I used a local brand of clear lead crystal,(crystal Asfour) and added my own frits from Bullseye.
Red lead crystal was successful but was not transparent enough.

The reds are going to be a problem unless formulated for the prolonged firing of most casting. They tend to opacify (and can sometimes turn brownish). I've tried casting with Bullseye's standard transparent reds and had them go opaque. Typically I'll use Burnt Scarlet Striker or Ruby Red Tint, both of which hold up much better. The issue is that they're not the really pure, solid red you might be looking for--Burnt Scarlet has a lot of red, Ruby is very magenta. Both are lead glasses so they should eliminate the reaction problem.

But your crystal is compatible with Bullseye? The lead crystals I've used are pretty soft with a low viscosity; I haven't tested specifically with Bullseye, but I would wonder how that would work.