When I receive a new glass shipment I will go through this series of steps.

For glass is malleable when heated, it can be wound, pinched, blown and molded.  Some types of glass are appealing to glass artists for certain qualities,  Italian soft glass likes to slowly be heated, while German soft glass can be tortured in the flame and never show signs it's not happy.  Once I determine the nature of the glass as I work it in the flame, some of the things I have to decide are:

• What shapes work best for this glass?
• Does light allow the color to transmit easily?
• Does this glass react to any other glass I have?
• Can I add anything to this glass to make the glass stand out?
• Is it possible to take anything away to allow the glass to stand out?
   

Meet "Ludia", the bead on the left, who proves that glass has other properties than just being hard and shiny.  Some colors absorb other colors or if reversed, those same colors float & spread. This Lauscha Cocoa base color is an absorbing color - which leaves echoing ghostly trails of the applied color, making for finer lines and more intricate designs.
 

Portal Bead (shown below) - do you think beauty is as appreciated if viewed all at once? Are view snippets, revealed through small viewing portals, a better approach? To "allow" the view & "guide" the viewing.