Val Cox Painter’s Series - Sunflower Fields
Originally published at Two Glassy Ladies. You can comment here or there.
Sunflower Fields
A blend that transforms in the flame to produce vibrant spring brights. If you think you’re not a “yellow” person, this one may surprise you.
Painting by Deryk Houston, Amy’s dad.
Buy this frit blend at ValCoxFrit.com
Amy’s notes: Obviously this blend has some special significance to me, being as it was created based on one of my dad’s paintings. Sunflowers are my favourite flower too. It’s one of dad’s older pieces, but one that I have always loved. I am so very honored that Val Cox frit has made a blend based on this painting and that it is a part of the Painter’s Series! It has felt in some ways that I am “painting” with dad’s colours in glass, which is really cool.
Now, because of the large amount of yellow in this blend (I believe), it really didn’t do well when I tried to encase it in Lauscha - I had lots of cracking issues. So I wouldn’t recommend that. It does look beautiful encased in clear, so probably sticking with a 96 COE clear would be your best bet. It looked great with many colours in the 104 pallette (and no cracking issues when it was on the surface), although the ones I really wanted to use it on - yellow and orange/red - it was just too muddy to show up. So this actually led me to figure out a “new” technique (certainly not something I invented, or even something I had not done before, just something I hadn’t thought of in a while). I put a layer of clear in between the base colour and the frit, and that way I got to see the lovely frit blend against those backdrops that I so wanted it to work against. This opened up in my head a whole new array of frit using possibilities. Sometimes necessity really is the mother of invention!
Anyway, here are my results…
Val Cox Sunflower Fields frit encased in Lauscha clear - note that most of these beads developed stress cracks shortly after this pic was taken - so I am not recommending this frit blend be encased in Lauscha clear.
Val Cox Sunflower Fields frit encased in Lauscha clear with silver foil - again, note that most of these beads developed stress cracks.
“Harvest Swirls”
Val Cox Sunflower Fields frit swirled in and speckled on Moretti 004 Transparent Clear
“Blue Skies and Sunflowers”
Val Cox Sunflower Fields frit on Moretti 224 Pastel Light Sky Blue
“Sunflower Fields”
Val Cox Sunflower Fields frit on Moretti 204 Pastel White
“Perfectly Fresh”
Val Cox Sunflower Fields frit on Moretti 031 Transparent Pale Emerald Green
“Artfully Inspired”
Val Cox Sunflower Fields frit on Moretti 428 Special Light Red/Orange with a layer of Lauscha clear in between
“Sunflowers”
Val Cox Sunflower Fields frit on Moretti 412 Special Dark Yellow with a layer of Lauscha clear in between
“Sunflower Swirls”
Val Cox Sunflower Fields frit on Moretti 026 Teal and Moretti 266 Opal Yellow
And finally, here are my paddle tests of this blend. It doesn’t demonstrate the 104 palette in full by any means, but gives a pretty good idea of how the blend reacts with a variety of colours.
