Using up scrap and exploring Stellar Flash

I am going to a Bead Meet on Saturday and leading a session on UTEE jewel enamel using the melt pot so I have been playing with a few different techniques.
I always end up with quite a large pot of scrap enamel in a gunge colour and have been wondering how to use it up. I also have a new cabochon mould with a variety of different sized cabochons so I thought I would try out the mould and see if I could use up the scrap.
First of all I wanted to try out a new texture sheet so I poured the mix into a leaf shaped cutter laid onto the sheet. I rubbed Versamark onto the cutter as a release agent which works very well.

the scrap mix poured into a cutter on a texture sheet with added gleams

I have used stellar flash in the past but not really been impressed with the results however this time I decided to sprinkle to flash into the mould before pouring a dark colour over the top.

My scrap gunge colours ranged from a murky grey through to a red tinged brown with some dark steel thrown in too.  By adding some scrap to a larger amount of diamond clear and a small amount of navy blue alcohol ink I was able to produce a colour mix that was more translucent than the scrap with an even dark colour which showed up the stellar flash well.
I created a few cabochons including a dinky pair of earrings with a definite opal look about them.

I really like these earrings which are about 8mm

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I have also been playing with  a three hemisphere mould which has slits for headpins or wire and produces a pendant.

Here are three different pours using this mould - I have used the scrap and stellar flash mix  plus a faux lapis look with gold sprinkled on and then heat polished carefully and one of the black metallics with added bronze. I quite like the effects produced

I used up the last of the scrap mix with a lovely tear drop shaped mould

TRUE BLUE

I have been struggling to produce a really true Santorini blue with my UTEE jewel enamel and the melt pot. I have created some lovely teals and greens and turquoise but that wonderful deep blue has been quite illusive.

However I have discovered alcohol inks which give a wonderful clear colour and so I set up some experiments to find that blue.
As I was starting with clear base which can go amber after a while when heating I decided to use small amounts which can be quite tricky so rather than use the whole melt pot I used small foil pie trays with different amounts of ink in each

It didn't take too long for the UTEE to begin to melt

and it was easy to top up and dilute the deep blue

I used a range of silver bezels to create some great shapes

Once cooled the UTEE will easily pop out of the bezel which can be used again

this one is made in the large hearts bezel with a portion of texture added while still warm

I also poured onto texture mats and cut some discs for pendants

I then created a bright fuchsia pink

and a deep ruby red

Using the pie trays meant I could make very small amounts of colour and indulge in some colour mixing

Once everything was set I used gilding wax to highlight the textures

I am very happy with  these results.

The discs will be made into pendants on seed bead threading and the other shapes will have bails glued on.

watch this space for the results