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I have been using Bullseye 90 and dichro to make jewelry pieces. I have sheets of irid that came in a Bullseye pack that I now want to use. I am so accustomed to the flashiness of dichro that the irid sheets seem very palin. I would appreciate comments on using irid in design. How shall I approach this? Thanks so much.

ruthpowers wrote:I have been using Bullseye 90 and dichro to make jewelry pieces. I have sheets of irid that came in a Bullseye pack that I now want to use. I am so accustomed to the flashiness of dichro that the irid sheets seem very palin. I would appreciate comments on using irid in design. How shall I approach this? Thanks so much.

You can resist, cut, and blast, or dremel, designs into the irid on top or bottom, or both sheets of a sandwich of a dark irid and a cap of clear irid.
Brock

here's a wall installation i just did using this technique



the picture didn't come out as well as i hoped, but i found it hard to get a good picture of a flat surface that was mostly dark.

Nice piece Charlie. Isn't photographing irid fun? Brock

Here is a link with some pendants using Brock's technique. The effect may be more subtle than with dichro, but is very elegant. They are hard to photograph, and look richer and with more depth in person.

Steve

http://www.clearwaterglass.com/pendants_irid.htm

OK, I got it. The answer is simple. I need to get some etching creme. Charlie and Steve--I have appreciated your work and your responses to other questions. Thanks for the inspiration.

ruthpowers wrote:OK, I got it. The answer is simple. I need to get some etching creme. Charlie and Steve--I have appreciated your work and your responses to other questions. Thanks for the inspiration.

Nope! Etching cream won't work. Sandblast or Dremel. Brock

You can resist, cut, and blast, or dremel, designs into the irid on top or bottom, or both sheets of a sandwich of a dark irid and a cap of clear irid.
Brock[/quote]

When I try this technique (with BE90) my irids always come out really, really dark. The piece seems to have no sparkle unless a light is shone directly on it. There are no obvious signs of overfiring or underfiring on my pieces...why do my irids lose their life when fired?

C.

Carol wrote:You can resist, cut, and blast, or dremel, designs into the irid on top or bottom, or both sheets of a sandwich of a dark irid and a cap of clear irid.
Brock

When I try this technique (with BE90) my irids always come out really, really dark. The piece seems to have no sparkle unless a light is shone directly on it. There are no obvious signs of overfiring or underfiring on my pieces...why do my irids lose their life when fired?

C.[/quote]

Ya got me. Shine a bright light on it!

Man goes to a dentist.
Dentist says ya got yellow teeth.
Man says what'll I do?
Dentist says, wear brown suits.

R. Dangerfield

Carol wrote:You can resist, cut, and blast, or dremel, designs into the irid on top or bottom, or both sheets of a sandwich of a dark irid and a cap of clear irid.
Brock

When I try this technique (with BE90) my irids always come out really, really dark. The piece seems to have no sparkle unless a light is shone directly on it. There are no obvious signs of overfiring or underfiring on my pieces...why do my irids lose their life when fired?

C.[/quote]

do you put the irid sides together? the irid surface also has to be cleaned very well. i use a plastic dish scrubby to remove the sand blaster dust.

i had your experience when using uro90 irid, especially the uro90 black irid. it doesn't appear as colorful as b.e. after fusing in a sandwich imho.

also, the larger the piece, the more color it seems to give off. parts of the irid sheet if you're using rainbow aren't as colorful as other parts. usually the center seems to be brighter, although i found the blue parts to be nice too. the gold and silver are usually darker in a sandwich ime.

Steve Immerman wrote:Here is a link with some pendants using Brock's technique. The effect may be more subtle than with dichro, but is very elegant. They are hard to photograph, and look richer and with more depth in person.

Steve

http://www.clearwaterglass.com/pendants_irid.htm

Tres bien, Steve! Loverly.
Did you fuse in the finding (or whateveryoucallit loop thingee)?

Thanks,
Barbara

charlie wrote:here's a wall installation i just did using this technique

Nice, Charlie!

I could be wrong, but does Sara Creekmore make something similiar to this in dichro? Hey SARA... you out there?

BB

these are 10"x20" panels standing proud of the wall about 3". sara makes maybe 1"x1" runestones, and bowl. i haven't seen anything on her site for large items.

charlie wrote:these are 10"x20" panels standing proud of the wall about 3". sara makes maybe 1"x1" runestones, and bowl. i haven't seen anything on her site for large items.

Couldn't tell the size, I guess... but I was thinking about the technique... I think hers are trays or bowls or plates.
BB

Brock wrote:Nope! Etching cream won't work. Sandblast or Dremel. Brock

What tool bit you using with the dremel to actually grind/blast off the irid? I use a flexshaft daily in the studio on my jewelry with a variety of brushes, burs, grinders and what-have-you. I've yet to use it with glass, so need to know what I should be using to create patterns in the irid. As long as I'm asking, what are good vinyl resists to use?

If this is covered elsewhere, just point me in the general direction.

Thanks in advance...

What tool bit you using with the dremel to actually grind/blast off the irid? I use a flexshaft daily in the studio on my jewelry with a variety of brushes, burs, grinders and what-have-you. I've yet to use it with glass, so need to know what I should be using to create patterns in the irid. As long as I'm asking, what are good vinyl resists to use?

If this is covered elsewhere, just point me in the general direction.

Thanks in advance...

I sandblast mainly, and use a Dremel for touch-ups and some detail work.
4 mil vinyl is plenty for the light sandblasting needed to remove irid. Brock

http://www.clearwaterglass.com/pendants_irid.htm
Tres bien, Steve! Loverly.
Did you fuse in the finding (or whateveryoucallit loop thingee)?

Thanks,
Barbara

Barbara,

Merci.

No, I use epoxy to hold the "bail" in place. You can get bails at
http://www.ugotglass.com/findings.htm

Steve

Thanks, Steve...
BB

Brock wrote:I sandblast mainly, and use a Dremel for touch-ups and some detail work.
4 mil vinyl is plenty for the light sandblasting needed to remove irid. Brock

Brock &/or Steve --

If using the Dremel for detail work such as seen in Steve's pendants, what type(s) of cutters, burs, wheels, stones or combination thereof do you use? I have found references to tungsten carbide cutters. diamond wheel points and silicon carbide stones. I'm intrigued ... but lost. Guidance welcome.

Again, if this process is described elsewhere, a gentle point in the direction would be appreciated A quick search of the archives didn't help.

Thanks again -
Robyn

Robyn,

Mine are all done by sandblasting off the irid coating using a sandblaster with aluminum oxide abrasive (as taught to me by Brock). I haven't tried using my dremel tool for this application, but my guess is that any diamond tip will work, but you don't need (or want) to go too deep.

Steve