Purple seed beads--glass limitation?

A question for the glassworkers and seed beaders: Is it possible to
make deep purple seed beads? The Czech purples are rather weak. I've
seen shiny dark purple delicas and some japanese seed beads, but those
are all dyed, I believe. I'm trying to satisfy my recent purple
craving, but I'm worried about the color fading over time.

--
Lindsey
http://artwork-by-lindsey.blogspot.com

Purple has been the elusive color in seed beads for
many years....
Purple opaque is apparently difficult color to produce
chemically. Even in lampwork glass -
getting good purples (other than transparents)
is always an iffy proposition and many are
difficult to work with, the famous "evil devitrifying
purple" being the best example. There have
been a few new attractive lampwork purples introduced
in the past 18 months (silver plum, etc) but all
of them have little idiosyncracies. I suspect
that by the time you chemically mix the chemicals
necessary into the glass to get
that "perfect" purple - it becomes a batch
that is difficult to work with, or has other problems,
and is not compatible with the machinery
and processes necessary to produce seed
beads.....
Cheryl
www.dragonbeads.com
wrote:
A question for the glassworkers and seed beaders: Is it possible to
make deep purple seed beads? The Czech purples are rather weak. I've
seen shiny dark purple delicas and some japanese seed beads, but those
are all dyed, I believe. I'm trying to satisfy my recent purple
craving, but I'm worried about the color fading over time.

--
Lindsey
http://artwork-by-lindsey.blogspot.com

I have been wondering the same thing too. A few years ago I made a
beaded ring from a kit, and left it in the window sill once...I was
disappointed to see that the sun had faded all the purple beads. Do the
beads fade naturally over time, or is it exposure to the sun that does
it?

Best,
Christine

Depends on the bead, some fade in sunlight and some will fade with
chemical exposure like dry cleaning fluid. Sunlight tends to bleach
most things and if you like something I'd try to avoid leaving it on
the window sill for long. It never works when you want it to though ;-)
I have been trying to fade some overly dyed jade for a few months now
though I haven't tried the dry cleaners yet.

In the case of Japanese beads you can find the information on the mfg
websites such as (http://www.tohobeads.net/) and
(http://www.miyuki-beads.co.jp/) about which will fade under what
conditions. You may need to use babelfish or similar to translate the
pages. I have seen copies of the info at other websites but they often
have a mistake or two in them.

Ingrid
http://www.mermaidscove.com