The arrowhead shard and the stringer stayed true to color but, as in the first piece, the two small squares were strikers and changed colors. Once again, the glass provides an "in your face" reminder that it is all about the chemistry!
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| Scrap pendant using two known strikers after full fusing. |
In the art world, we were taught that color is all about reflected light. The water lilies of Monet and the olive groves of VanGogh provide impressionistic examples used by teacher after teacher, beginning early
in the elementary school art room (thank God we had an art ROOM! with an ART TEACHER.)
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| Scrap pendant using two known strikers after full fusing. |
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Although I took a year of honors chemistry in high school, about the closest I got to color was when I grew crystals for a project about molecular structures. The part about glass strikers that is still unclear to me is - why doesn't the glass change to its' final color the first time it is in a molten state? Almost all of the sheet glass that is available to glass artists has been heated, poured and rolled into sheets. Why doesn't the entire sheet "striker" the final color at that time?
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| Scrap pendant using two known strikers before full fusing. |
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The color of the striker is actually different, depending on the firing temperature. The yellow square in the piece above, for example, would be a bright yellow (the color of the stringer,) when fired at 1150 degrees F (a low-slump temperature), be pumpkin orange when fired at 1375 degrees F (a tack fuse temperature), but turn a scarlet red when full-fused at 1480 degrees F.
There is truly more to glass than 'meets the eye!"
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