Fuchsia Dotties,

difficult and in demand

Probably the most popular color I make (or possibly neck in neck with vintage garnet, another striking color from the check glass line)...

hollow dotties in check sodalime. Tourmaline pink with capri dots.

Dotties are typically $9 and $11 for 10--13mm and 14--17mm respectively. And, depending on mood, I charge up to $2 extra for the fuchsia ones. Don't want to pay the outrageous price of up to $13 (or more for bigger sizes) for your fuchsia dotties? Well, here's exactly how I make them:

Equipment: lynx torch, running on concentrator.

Method:

Adjust candles so middle is about 3mm long, blue
02 should be adj. so that #1--4 have ~ 0.7mm whitish yellow tips
make bead slowly (never above med. orange) w 2.5--3mm coils
let cool 45 sec[onds]
reintroduce to flame about 6--8'' up
strike till color `orangish pink' appears (45 sec)
total [strike time] 1:30
add dots

Simple, no?

Well, ok, this glass is a pain to work with. The above is a transcription of my notes after I really nailed exactly how to get this glass to strike in a hollow bead. The `1--4' candles are just some of the six outside candles, which I numbered for the drawing---which I suppose if I ever find it, I'll photograph it and up date this post. Like, 2010, if you're lucky. Honestly, it's not that important, except for folks into primary sources. The `make bead slowly' is the important part for preventing streaks of unstruck color, and making these beads a little thicker-walled also helps. The other biggie, besides not overheating the glass to begin with is that long, long long cooling period. sometimes I was able to get the cooling down to 30 secs, but absolutely no less. But, hey, I understand Bullseye has a new fuchsia pink (technically this color is called tourmaline pink in the check glass line) and it's probably easier to use.

I suppose I'll have to try some of it, which I probably bought 12 or 18 months ago, sigh.

photo 10may07, file created 24aug07. More material, 09oct07.

Sylvus Tarn