Having a few more hours in the day has allowed me to get a little extra time to try some more difficult materials and techniques. One of these has been to play with an unusual glass called 'Unobtainium!' This has a fabulous pearlised/metallic blue finish, but it's not without its problems.
Although it's been around before the film 'Avatar' I think most people know the name from that film (I know fellow geeks will also remember in 'The Core' it's what their ship was made of too) and according to Wikipedia it's any mythical material that can't be made. It does look like it's not glass, looking more like metal with it's sparkling shine, so I guess that's why Northstar gave it this name.
One downside of it is that it does have alot of metals in it, which sometimes can cause compatibility problems., and they recommend not deeply encasing it. Of course that's the first thing I did! I've played with it a few times, but this week I wanted to really give it a hard test to see if it really was that temperamental, I'd certainly had it cause cracking before. I did everything wrong, used loads of it, deeply encased it, let it cool outside the kiln - and it was fine! I even tried this with small samples I have of it's related big brothers 'Super Unobtainium' and 'Silver Unobtainium' and they were fine too! Then typically I made one last night that figured would be fine and it's cracked badly! Ho hum!
One other thing I've been trying again is Jellyfish. Jelly's and mushrooms are two of the first things most boro people seem to make, but I'd never really tried them very much as they always seemed to lack detail. Having seen some different techniques (plus inspired by one of those shock-horror TV documentaries 'Killer Jellyfish Swarms' or some such terror title!) I tried again. I can't get them as deep or large as I'd like, but I'm starting to really like the effects. I even tried putting a couple into a shaving brush handle, which they seemed made for! It's really at the top extreme of size that I can make with my present setup but I think once I can afford to upgrade to a more powerful torch I'll be able to make them more reliable and the jelly's bigger and deeper.
Although it's been around before the film 'Avatar' I think most people know the name from that film (I know fellow geeks will also remember in 'The Core' it's what their ship was made of too) and according to Wikipedia it's any mythical material that can't be made. It does look like it's not glass, looking more like metal with it's sparkling shine, so I guess that's why Northstar gave it this name.
One downside of it is that it does have alot of metals in it, which sometimes can cause compatibility problems., and they recommend not deeply encasing it. Of course that's the first thing I did! I've played with it a few times, but this week I wanted to really give it a hard test to see if it really was that temperamental, I'd certainly had it cause cracking before. I did everything wrong, used loads of it, deeply encased it, let it cool outside the kiln - and it was fine! I even tried this with small samples I have of it's related big brothers 'Super Unobtainium' and 'Silver Unobtainium' and they were fine too! Then typically I made one last night that figured would be fine and it's cracked badly! Ho hum!
One other thing I've been trying again is Jellyfish. Jelly's and mushrooms are two of the first things most boro people seem to make, but I'd never really tried them very much as they always seemed to lack detail. Having seen some different techniques (plus inspired by one of those shock-horror TV documentaries 'Killer Jellyfish Swarms' or some such terror title!) I tried again. I can't get them as deep or large as I'd like, but I'm starting to really like the effects. I even tried putting a couple into a shaving brush handle, which they seemed made for! It's really at the top extreme of size that I can make with my present setup but I think once I can afford to upgrade to a more powerful torch I'll be able to make them more reliable and the jelly's bigger and deeper.
Gorgeous - the unobtanium is spectacular. Loved the jellies - I caught that show too, really interesting.
ReplyDeleteIs there also a type of glass known as Adamantium?
ReplyDeleteNo Adamantium yet that I know of, although I do have some 'Alien Blood' - makes lovely off white flowers, plus some Sylme!
ReplyDelete