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New Lampwork Beads—Rubino Oro???



The 9x6mm rondelles are now for sale in my Art Fire Shop.

There is a glass, "Gold Ruby", "Ruby Gold", "Cranberry Gold", among others, and, of course, "Rubino Oro" (which translates to "gold ruby").

It has been long known in the glass and crystal world that to get a red or ruby color to glass real gold must be added, which pretty much explains why this glass is so freakin' expensive for me to buy!

Rubino Oro is also a very finicky color and changes depending on how, and how much, heat is applied.

I am in love with the rich transparent ruby color of this glass and decided to make a number of small beads with it and got unexpected results. These beads were completely cooled then batch annealed, which means they were slowly heated up again then slowly cooled to relieve any stress within the glass. As a result, these beads took on an interesting color that is a little darker and a lot less transparent than actual rubino oro. They went dark and transucent, not the transparent I was going for.

However, these beads have an interesting property. They "color change" depending on the light. This could be a designer's dream or a designer's nightmare depending on the desired effect. In bright light these beads are transparent, like looking at the sun through a glass of fine red wine. In fluorescent light, they are dark, mysterious, translucent, and almost purple, like a garnet. The effect is really interesting!

I probably won't make any more rubino oro beads like this, I will likely put them directly from torch-to-kiln in the future to get a more transparent effect.

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