Chalet true red colour glass

[vanvol]

I was reading an article on the web the other day about the making of different colours of glass. In this article it was explained how true red glass is made. To be able to achieve this colour there had to be gold added which is also used to make cranberry glass.
Would anyone have comments or info regarding the making of true red glass?
Wildrose had seen a beautiful red swirl bowl which was etched Chalet while she was in Ft Langley British Columbia. I have a Chalet piece that appears to look red at a distance but looking at it up close it actually is a very deep reddish orange colour.

Richard

[langhaugh]

I thought gold was used to make a ruby red or pink, but that antimony sulphide and selenium also make red. I think the use of any of these materials would result in a true red, just different shades. Wouldn't an orange be created by adding to the red something that created yellow, cadmium sulphide, for example.

David

[vanvol]

David
I was reading more on how red glass is made.
First of all we know that Chalet used 24% lead in their glass mixture to make their lead crystal glass and also added for a period of time uranium to the glass they made. The cranberry glass Chalet made had a red tag attached to each piece that said that this cranberry glass is made by fusing solid gold with lead crystal to produce this suble colour. In North America this type of glass is usually known as cranberry made glass and in other parts of the world it is called ruby gold or ruby red glass. The more gold that was added to the glass mixture would make it a deeper red colour cranberry glass.
Now getting back to the Chalet red glass piece that Wildrose had seen (which I stand to be corrected). Substance used in the making of colour glass. Uranium used in a very high lead containing glass will produce a deep red colour. Using gold would be more expensive to make it. Chalet has made clear crystal glass pieces that have part of these pieces with a pink colour added. My guess would be that uranium was added to a very high lead glass mixture and that would make the pink colour part of these pieces. These pieces also could have gold added to create the pink colour but that would also have been more expensive to make these pieces. It would be very interesting to see these pieces under black light. I have a Chalet spike and curl bowl that the bowl part is a blue colour and the upper three curls and a spike are cranberry. I collect cranberry glass that is made by different glassmakers and I think I know when I see cranberry glass.
I have had the opportunity to see two glass studios that were making hand blown art glass. After seeing the glass being made it sure made me appreciate the glass that I have collected.
This may be of some interest to Chalet glass collectors.

Richard

[Wildrose57]

Did you see the picture of the red chalet bowl? As I said, it was very very early in our Chalet collecting, and we only purchased pieces with the Chalet etching on the bottom, so I am sure it was marked.

I would say that we should have Deborah ask the masters, but the formulas for the colours were closely guarded secrets!

[Wildrose57]

Thought I knew how to post links, but the last one didn't work!

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[deborah]

Hi David, Richard and wildrose,

Gold was not used in making the true ruby red in Chalet - they strictly reserved the use of gold for their cranberry pieces and it was widely marketed as such. Recipes were a very closely guarded secret - I was told that Sergio Pagnin carried them around in a book that was for his eyes only and guarded like a briefcase filled with gold.

I agree that most red pieces are red/orange when you get up close and personl with them. Your bowl Wildrose - truly red. As are the pieces on the site. BUT take a look at this composite picture - the bowl in the background is stickered Chalet. There is so much light from my photographer that it looks red ornage BUT is BROWN red - much more like the colour of dried blood. I know sounds gross but true. I don't know for sure the origin of the other 2 pieces but would say the basket Murano and the stretch cneterpiece Chalet. They are 3 of my favorite pieces. Here are some other ruby red pieces - as I am a designer I am very strict (Darlene would laugh here) when I use the term "red" - has to be ruby or garnet red for me to consider red. In my home, my red pieces are in a stand alone area, the orange/red in another, my orange in another and that weird red/acid yellow mixed in with my amber.
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Deborah

[deborah]

Hi again,

Thought you would like to see an example of 2 very different colours of chalet cranberry - both have hang tags. I know these are big images but thought would be the best when talking degrees of colour.

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Deborah

[deborah]

Hi Richard and Wildrose,

I had an amazing afternoon - spent it in Cornwall at the home of Gianfranco and Vivian Guaranieri - meeting Maestro Gatto. I will post tomorrow about that but wanted to let you know I had doublechecked re the question of gold being used in anything other than the Canadiana Cranberry line.

The gold was purchased in liquid form from the U.S. before it got so expensive - in fact the cost of the gold became a problem for Chalet in the later years as the cranberry line became too expensive to produce vrs the dollars it could command. It was only ever used to produce the true cranberry colour - other recipes were used to derive red.

Purple was much more common than true amethyst - very very very few purple but even less amethyst. If you can find a signed amethyst - pay anything you need to as you will probably never find another!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Chalet did do lime green but usually not in crystal-the small baskets and swans that people think "Not Chalet" are not crystal - just "coloured" glass. Very rare to find a lime green Chalet in the heavy leaded crystal pieces and usually done on a whim or as an experiment. Definitely never a production run because of an order.

Am brain dead - between teardown and today - on the road to Cornwall (4 hours driving each day) 5 days straight - worth it but my posterior is asking me - what the heck? Glassman is snorting about nowLOL

Deborah

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