Tiger stripes & a crazy pink

[Janz]

Hi all,

I checked in the archives and didn't really find any info so here tis'

How do you prepare the twistie to coil over the base bead to make a tiger stripe. I made such a great one by accident the other day, and now I can't duplicate it.
I think it's got something to do with my twisted stringer....do I pull it with a few long twists in it, or do I twist it up really tight?
I'm getting good at laying the stringer over the bead without distorting the pattern, but I can't seem to get that tiger-ish look again.
Grrrrr.

I had been making a set of funky colored tigers...one was lime green and pink, but this PINK!
It came unmarked in a mixed moretti pack. It's what I'd call a dark dusty rose. Turns grey/purple in the flame.
Whenever I make a bead with it, it looks like I used 10 diffrent colors, the pink never comes out pink, it has streaks of grey/purple, brighter pink, even a wispy white-ish.
It's such a freak.

Anyhow, tiger tips would be appreciated!

Thanks,
Janz

[margi]

This crazy pink you're describing, Janz, is undoubtedly what we all call EDP, or Evil Devitrifying Purple, # 254. It has qualities that no other color has--it does strange things itself, it causes other colors to do strange things, it can cause your whole bead to devitrify (go matte finish), it is a thing unto itself! I call it Magical Devitrifying Purple, and I love the stuff, but it definitely has a life of its own. WHen you learn to "tame the beast", you can have a lot of fun with it. I won't tell you a whole lot more about it--if you do a search or look in the archives under EDP, you'll find more than you ever wanted to know about it!

Tiger stripes--well, the way I make them myself is to make twisties that are irregular--I'll make them tight in one small section and then larger and looser in another. Then I wrap them around the bead and voila--tiger stripes! I often make them in black and white or ivory and white, and then use dabs of transparent colors on top--in fact, I'm wearing a bead right now which is black & white tiger with purple on top of most of the twisty, and with hand-made gold aventurine stinger applied between the wraps of tiger twisty.

Hope this helps!

Margi

[Janz]

Thanks for the tip!
I'll keep trying. If it happend once it'll happen again, and I'll have more tigers.

Now...to learn more about this Evil Purple I've heard about.... *shifty eyes & rubbings hands together*

Thanks again,

Janz

[margi]

Hey Janz--Did a bit of tigering around a couple of nights ago, with EDP and other things, and here are a couple of results. The first one was an EDP/black twisty on an opaque pale turquoise base, with some gold aventurine stringer, and the second was black and white twisty, with dabs of transp. amber and purple on top of that, then dots of fine silver wire, then a heavy encasing of Lauscha clear:

http://www.petemacko.org/PicORama/Pi...m=2&p=534&a=35

http://www.petemacko.org/PicORama/Pi...m=2&p=535&a=35

These don't look as obviously "tigery" as some I've made, but they get the general idea across...

Margi

[margi]

Oh, and here's the one I'm wearing--I forgot about it. Tiger bead at the top, and the bead at the bottom doesn't scan well, but it's pretty cool--has pieces of very fine copper mesh melted into that bluish grey, with some custom-blended pale coral stringer in it too. It's much brighter than in the picture:

http://www.petemacko.org/PicORama/Pi...m=2&p=536&a=35

Margi

[kaia]

Margi- Great beads, as always ... I've been wanting to play with copper mesh -- I've looked at my local hardware store, Rio, etc., but can't find any. Where do you get it?? Thanks!

Kaia.

[Janz]

Wow, those are really nice.

My beads just don't seem classy enough next to those....rrrr why can't I just make perfect beads without the practice!

Just kidding....Margi, your work is actually really inspiring.
I want to run to my torch but I'm out of gas for now.....uhhhg, torture.

Copper mesh sounds neat...I had tried using really tiny copper threads in my beads. I like to make little hearts and coils and put them in cabs. I thought I could do the same with a bead but it didn't happen.

Janz

[PegM]

I have seen different size meshes of copper screening at craft stores lately as people are using it to make sculpture. Try Michaels or Ben Franklin. Peg M

[SadiesJewels]

You can get a variety of meshes - and other wonderful metal things from Metalliferous ... the catalog is a pdf I think (I hate those, but at least you can get the idea of what they have).

www.metalliferous.com/catalog.html

Hope that helps!

Sadie

[justk]

If your stripes don't look so hot when you first lay them down, don't give up-try raking a bit with a craft knife tool: my new favorite! and I find that when I finish laying down the twistie, I get a fun spiral effect by twirling or spinning it to cut it off. Looks quite animally!
Kim