Gold and Silver work the best for fuming. Some have used platinum and copper, but copper can be a little dangerous.
Yes, this is possible. It is like a sock flip
Not saying it does not exist, but we do not know of it. Tempered glass would NOT hold up to heat and cold transitions, so it would not make a good smoking pipe. Tempered glass is designed to break into small glass parts that are harder to cut you.
Yes, for instance, Timber is a mix of cobalt and canary. Many blowers will hand mix colors to make their own colors
The color can be applied by blowing in one color into a tube of another color. That is called a blow-in. Or one can coil pot color around a tube of color, or even strip it down like we make butter.
Sometimes it is what you start out with. But the blower can press it and condense the glass to get it thicker or blow it out to make it thinner. Learn more about glass terms here.
All butter colors are easy really, the most difficult is the sexy butters.
No, glass is glass. Elev8 Premier does use Shott glass, which is made in Germany. The reason for this, is the Germans have some of the best tools for making glass and the tubes come straighter than any other brand.
Each blower has their own technique that they have developed over time. It issue usually spun with butterscotch, or other fummy colors along with black. It is then many times reversed to get the lines to go the other way, but the blowers keep this to them selves
No, only coming into the Elev8 Premier glass studio can one acquire seconds. We do not really sell seconds as it is our brand and reputation that is at stake.