Test Results :: Adobe (2nd Batch)

1 - Plain, 2 - Plain (reduced), 3 - w/ Silver Leaf, 4 - w/ Silver Leaf (reduced & encased), 5 - w/ TerraNova2 Frit, 6 - w/ Silver Glass Frit (reduced), 7 & 8 - w/ Tuxedo, Copper Green, Opal Yellow, Ivory, Peace

This second batch of CiM Adobe Limited Run is similar to the first batch, but has enough differences that for me it is not really the same glass, although the colour is very similar.

Compared to the first batch of Adobe, the colour of this second batch is a little lighter and a little cooler.  The first batch of Adobe pinkened, darkened and sheened up when reduced, but this one does not. Regardless, I am thrilled that there will be more Adobe in some form or another. When a colour is this appealing, I'd far rather have it be slightly different from batch to batch than not have any of it at all.

This 2nd Batch of Adobe is not as reactive with silver as the first batch was, but silver leaf still fumes Adobe a darker colour of brown.  When the silver leaf is reduced and encased, it forms a sort of ethereal blanket over the Adobe.

This batch of Adobe seems a little more silver glass-friendly than the first batch.  My TerraNova2 frit doesn't have thick, dirty halos around it the way it did in my test results for the first batch, and it seems to have developed more colour as well.

 



Tuxedo: When Tuxedo is used on top of this batch of Adobe, the Adobe pops up around it with little 'halos'.  The colour of these halos is the same as the colour of the rest of the adobe, but it is interesting nonetheless because of the faint tranlucent rings and lines that result from the reaction.  Tuxedo does not seem to bleed into this batch of Adobe the way it did the other one, although I did not super-heat this bead so I may just not have gotten it hot enough.

On top of Tuxedo, the Adobe separates a little and becomes slightly translucent.  This is much different than the effect I got with the first batch, because that batch got a silvery line surrounding the dots and lines I made with it on top of Tuxedo but this one definitely does not do that.

Copper Green: Copper Green stays a much lighter colour with this batch of Adobe than it did with the first one, and a faint brown line develops between the two colours that is paler than the brown line that developed between Copper Green and the first batch of Adobe.

Opal Yellow: On top of Opal Yellow, this batch of Adobe seems to float just above the surface of the bead, much like what I got with the first batch. However, Opal Yellow doesn't have nearly the same tendency to spread out on top of this batch as it did the first one.

Ivory: My Ivory got much spreadier (is that a word?) on top of this batch of Adobe than it did on top of the other one, and where my Adobe stringerwork seemed to have a little spiky bleeding to it on top of Ivory with the last batch, that reaction is not evident at all with this one.

Peace:  When I tested the first batch of Adobe, I was using Effetre White, but now I am using Peace.  So... no useful comparison to make here, and not much reactivity either.

Test Results :: Pink Champagne Unique #1

1 - Plain, 2 - Plain (reduced), 3 - w/ Silver Leaf, 4 - w/ Silver Leaf (reduced & encased), 5 - Over Silver Foil, 6 - w/ TerraNova2 Frit, 7 - w/ Silver Glass Frit (reduced), 8 - w/ Silver Glass Frit Stringer, 9 & 10 - w/ Tuxedo, Copper Green, Opal Yellow, Ivory, Peace

"What?", you exclaim indignantly. "I am positive you said up there in the title of this post that this colour was called Pink Champagne Unique #1, which really sort of implied that it would look at least a little bit pink."

Sure, that's true.  I did say that and it does... just not under white or flourescent lights. Here is another picture of these test beads taken under the dim incandescents in my kitchen, on my kitchen counter. Sorry for the picture quality... couldn't be helped.



So, depending on the lighting, CiM Pink Champagne Unique #1 looks either quite pink or quite grey. In either case, it has a definite lavender bent to it.

I found this colour pretty easy to work with, and not especially boily/bubbly, although it was difficult not to get at least some microbubbles. I haven't used the regular Pink Champagne yet, so I'm not really sure if the observations I'm making in this post are applicable only to the unique or if they'd hold water for the regular batches of Pink Champagne as well.

When silver leaf is applied to Pink Champagne Unique #1, the silver disperses and forms a sort of webby film on the surface of the glass and causes the glass to discolour to a golden brown colour, which is much more noticeable under white/flourescent lighting.  If the silver leaf is subsequently reduced and encased, the silver layer appears thicker, with a faint blue tinge to its edges.

Pink Champagne Unique #2 turns silver to a gold colour when you put it over silver foil and heat it gently enough that the silver stays intact under the encasement.  Under incandescent lighting, because the encasement layer looks quite a bit pinker, the result is an odd, superbright orange.

There is nothing especially exciting about using silver glass with Pink Champagne Unique #1.  I was sort of disappointed, because I had high hopes for the frit stringer test.

 

There is not really much to report on in terms of reactions here, although I feel certain that if this colour were more saturated there would be a lot of weirdness.

Copper Green develops a light outline when you use it on top of Pink Champagne Unique #1.

My Ivory dots look sort of mottled on top of this colour, but I'm not sure if that is because of the Pink Champagne Unique #1, or if it's because my most recent batch of Effetre Ivory is just more prone to mottling than the last couple I've had. The Pink Champagne Unique #1 developed a sort of dirty stripe down the middle of some of the stringer lines I made with it on top of Ivory, and in places also developed a faint brownish outline.

Peace separates and gets a translucent line down the middle of stringer lines when used on top of this colour.

And this is a fun bead with Pink Champagne Unique #1.  I used it as the base colour in the middle of the bead and also as the encasement layer.

Test Results :: Cornflower

1 - Plain, 2 - Plain (reduced), 3 - w/ Silver Leaf, 4 - w/ Silver Leaf (reduce d& encased), 5 - w/ TerraNova2 Frit, 6 - w/ Silver Glass Frit (reduced), 7 - w/ Tuxedo, 8 - w/ Copper Green, 9 - w/ Opal Yellow, 10 - w/ Ivory, 11 - w/ Peace

CiM Cornflower is a rich, vibrant medium blue colour, and quite a bright  colour so of course I went into the testing thinking that we weren't going to get along at all.  As it turns out, I have a lot of respect for this colour, and as long as I use it in an organic way, the massive brightness of it can't touch me.

On Ming and Cornflower
People have reported that Ming and Cornflower are very similar, and you will see that feedback when you go to the CiM page for Cornflower. However, my experience is that these colours are not the same at all. The only thing they really have in common is that they are both a bright, medium blue.

If you look at my test results for CiM Ming, you will see that in terms of how the two glasses react with other colours, they are very different in every single test that I performed.

Personally, I like them both.  I'd be sad if CiM decided to stop making one of them because other people thought they were too similar.

Onwards

On top of Cornflower, Silver Leaf sinks in and makes the Cornflower greener, resulting in a mottled surface that in places looks more akin to Lauscha Steel Blue, in other places has a greenish gold silver haze over top of it, and then, where not much silver stuck to the bead, Cornflower being itself.  This reaction is awesome! And then, when you reduce and encase the silver, you get this odd cloudy spray of silver whiteness between the Cornflower and the Clear.  The Cornflower here looks more like a navy blue underneath all of the action.

I didn't get much in the way of colour out of my TerraNova2 frit, but as we all know, that's sometimes my own stupid fault. What's interesting about this bead is the light blue halo that's sprung up around the fritty bits. In the bead on the right, I got awesome colour and shine out of my reduced silver glass frit, and love the way reducing the silver glass frit fumed the Cornflower at the ends of the beads to a more navy/greenish hue.

When Cornflower is used over Tuxedo, it develops a shiny outline around dots and stringer lines.  When Tuxedo is used over Cornflower, the Cornflower curdles a little and sends a light blue halo up to surround the Tuxedo stringerwork.

There isn't much in the way of a reaction between Cornflower and Copper Green, but the Copper Green on top of Cornflower looks decidedly redder than the Copper Green on the left-hand side of the bead.  Also, Copper Green develops its muddy patina when you use it with Cornflower.

There is not much reaction between Cornflower and Opal Yellow.  Maybe just the smallest amount of bleeding into the Opal Yellow from the Cornflower and a slight thinning around the edges of the Opal Yellow stringer work on top of the Cornflower.

On top of Ivory, Cornflower looks a little floaty, like it is sitting on top of an invisible, ultra-thin layer of clear glass and separating slightly so that it has a somewhat lighter blue outline to all of the stringer lines and dots. On top of Cornflower, Ivory dots and lines thin out a bit at the edges and take on some of the blue hue from the Cornflower.

Cornflower bleeds into Peace in a gentle way, turning the Peace a light-blue colour in subtle patches. On top of Cornflower, Peace looks somewhat translucent, letting the blue of the Cornflower seep through.

Here is a fun bead with Cornflower.

 

Test Results :: Sapphire

1 - Plain, 2 - Plain (reduced), 3 - Over Clear, 4 - w/ Silver Leaf, 5 - w/ Silver Leaf (reduced & encased), 6 - w/ TerraNova2 Frit, 7 - w/ Silver Glass Frit (reduced), 8 - w/ Silver Glass Frit stringer (encased), 9 - w/ Tuxedo, 10 - w/ Copper Green, 11 - w/ Opal Yellow, 12 - w/ Ivory, 13 - w/ Peace

CiM Sapphire is much darker once it's in a bead than it is in the rod.  This is Sapphire's first trick -- as you will see, it's a fairly tricky colour.  It's a joy to work with though -- I was expecting Sapphire to be a boily colour, since Leaky Pen boils and so do a lot of the Effetre blues.  Not so with Sapphire.  I found that as long as I didn't park Sapphire in the flame that I got very little bubbling or scumming, and most of the scumming that did appear was not visible in the bead after annealing even though I could have sworn the same beads looked like hell going into the kiln.

Sapphire is a dark blue, slightly on the grey side, which makes it less vibrant than Effetre Ink Blue or Effetre Intense Blue.  Over clear, it is still fairly dark -- somewhat deeper in colour than Effetre Medium Blue.

Putting silver on top of Sapphire makes it even darker.  The bead on the left here looks almost black, with smudges and sprays of silver wandering over its surface. When this combination is reduced and encased, the Sapphire lightens back up so that you can see through it again and the silver takes on all kinds of attractive blue colour.  Pretty.

Sapphire is a brilliant base for silver glass, but doesn't do that fun thing with silver glass frit stringer that I was hoping for. My TerraNova2 frit looks awesome on top of Sapphire, and so does the reduced silver glass frit.

This one made me do a double-take. Why does Sapphire look like an orangey-brown colour on top of Copper Green? This is one of the weirdest things I've seen in a while.

Where I used Sapphire on top of Copper Green, in addition to the odd colour that the Sapphire turns, something funny also happens underneath. The Copper Green does not get its metallic patina, and separates into two different colours of turquoise.  On top of Sapphire, the Copper Green develops a turquoise outline and then the insides of the dots and stringer lines look faintly pinkish.

On top of Opal Yellow, Sapphire looks sort of purple, and the Opal Yellow doesn't seem to like being underneath it because it's gone all smeary and developed some pinkish fissures.  On top of Sapphire, Opal Yellow seems to lose its yellowness and take on some of the blue from the Sapphire.

On top of Ivory, Sapphire looks faintly greyish, with a purply colour being visible at the edges of the Sapphire lines and dots. On top of Sapphire, the Ivory thins out a little at the edges, but not that noticeably.

On top of Sapphire, Peace separates and looks sort of three-dimensional.  You can barely see the Sapphire on top of the Peace in the picture above because of my terrible photography, but there isn't much to report on there in terms of reactions, so it doesn't matter all that much.

I was sure that I made some fun beads with Sapphire, but now I can't figure out definitively which ones they might have been, so nothing to see here!  There are some great examples of beads that other people have made with Sapphire on the CiM Sapphire page.

Test Results :: Azure

1 - Plain, 2 - Plain (reduced), 3 - Over Clear, 4 - w/ Silver Leaf, 5 - w/ Silver Leaf (reduced & encased), 6 - Over Silver Foil, 7 - w/ TerraNova2 Frit, 8 - w/ Silver Glass Frit (reduced), 9 - w/ Silver Glass Frit stringer (encased), 10 & 11 - w/ Tuxedo, Copper Green, Opal Yellow, Ivory and Peace

CiM Azure is a brilliant, saturated blue. Over Clear, it lightens up just enough so that you can see through it more easily without losing any of its richness. It seems bluer to me than any of the Aquas (until it's used in a thin layer, that is) and it is beautiful to work with. I didn't have any trouble with this colour boiling or scumming up at all.

Azure is not very exciting with silver, but it is pretty nice with sliver glass and has fascinating reactions with other colours. I'm not really sure if the reactions I encountered are common to all bright, yummy blue glass or if they are unique to Azure, but no doubt I will eventually find out.

On top of Azure, silver leaf sort of sits in wisps on the surface without seeming to do very much, but if the silver is subsequently reduced and encased, it takes on a strange dirty solidity that is a little puzzling. The colour of this odd reaction is silver, but interspersed with gold and pink. Silver Foil can be encased (without reducing it as I did with the leaf in the centre bead) with Azure without changing colour.

On top of Azure, my silver glass frit got some interesting results (although I realize these beads are hideous to look at.  I had a bad bead day when I made these, and they touched each other in the kiln and just about every other bad thing that could happen, did happen).

The bead on the left with TerraNova2 frit bloomed fairly nicely, but stayed in the purple ranges.  The reducing silver glass frit has acquired an interesting mosaic pattern when used on the surface of Azure, but when used as frit stringer over Azure and then encased, more or less disappears except for the odd bit of streakiness.

 

Tuxedo: You can't see Azure on top of Tuxedo, which I'd already predicted, but the anal retentive me couldn't let it go. Tuxedo does not exhibit any odd behaviour on top of Azure.

Copper Green: When Azure is used on top of Copper Green, it gets a bizarre double outline of Copper Green around it, the first layer being a light turquoise band surrounding the Azure, and the next layer being a greyish-pink patina. When Copper Green is used on top of Azure, there is no sign of the greyish-pink face of Copper Green, and the dots and stringer lines develop a slightly lighter outline. Because this effect in the Copper Green is so strong, it almost gives the feeling that two separate lines/sets of dots have been drawn on top of one another.

Opal Yellow: Opal Yellow floats up around Azure dots and stringer lines in a lighter yellow halo. On top of Azure, Opal Yellow separates in much the same way Copper Green does, only less dramatically.

Ivory: On top of Ivory, Azure turns a deep, brownish teal colour with a brown outline. It also seems to do something to the Ivory underneath it, because there are fine lines in the Ivory in my test bead that are emphasized by the way the reaction seems to create lighter paths through the Azure dots and lines. On top of Azure, Ivory develops a mottled brown outline.

Peace: This reaction is really cool. When you put Azure on top of Peace, the Peace floats up around it in a bright white halo. This is sort of similar to what happens with Opal Yellow, but with the Peace the reaction has more contrast, and the Azure, with its white outline, seems to float on top of the Peace base. On top of Azure, Peace exhibits the same outlining as I mentioned for Copper Green and Opal Yellow, almost as dramatically in its own way as the Copper Green on Azure. The Peace looks faintly translucent and blueish around the edges, with a more solid line/dot in the middle of the stringer lines/dots.

Here's a fun bead with Azure.

Test Results :: Rainforest

1 - Plain, 2 - Plain (reduced), 3 - w/ Silver Leaf, 4 - w/ Silver Leaf (reduced & encased), 5 - w/ TerraNova2 Frit, 6 - w/ Silver Glass Frit (reduced), 7 & 8 - w/ Tuxedo, Copper Green, Opal Yellow, Ivory and Peace

CiM Rainforest, depending on how you use it, ranges from a medium teal semi-opaque to a dark green opaque with blue overtones and some really interesting behaviour.

I was talking to someone a few weeks ago about this new colour, and the words they said to me about it were, "I'm not going to order any Rainforest - it looks just like Mermaid, and I already have a lot of Mermaid."

Well, I guess this colour and Mermaid can look approximately the same hue of teal, depending  on how much the Rainforest has been struck, but that's really where the similarity ends.  Where Mermaid is stiff, pasty and streaky (and beautiful in its own way), Rainforest is soft and buttery, and because it is a semi-opaque, has a sort of inner glow to it. Rainforest also has much more interesting reactions with other colours than Mermaid does.

Reducing Rainforest results in a darker colour, and over-reducing it results in an unattractive dark blotchiness.

On top of Rainforest, silver leaf melted into the surface sort of disperses into tiny little droplets and more or less disappears from view.  When this non-reaction is reduced and encased, it looks like a dirty force field cloaking the Rainforest under the clear glass.

I didn't get great colour out of my TerraNova2 frit on top of Rainforest, but my reduced silver glass frit looks freaky, webby and yummy on top of it.

 

Tuxedo:  There is no obvious reaction between Tuxedo and Rainforest. On top of Rainforest, Tuxedo dots and lines stay nice and crisp. On top of Tuxedo, Rainforest is barely visible due to its semi-opacity.

Copper Green:  On top of Rainforest, Copper Green separates, with a darker turquoise line/dots coalescing in the centre of the stringer lines/dots. Underneath Copper Green, Rainforest webs a little, developing fine darker lines. When Rainforest is used on top of Copper Green, the Copper Green separates into light and dark turquoise again, with the lighter colour next to the Rainforest. Some odd, mottled, brownish 'smut' has also shown up on the light turquoise part of the separated Copper Green in this bead.

Opal Yellow: On top of Rainforest, Opal Yellow separates so that a fine, translucent line/dot is visible in the centre of the stringer lines/dots. The real weirdness happens when you put Rainforest on top of Opal Yellow. The Opal Yellow curdles, light yellow halos springing up around the Rainforest, and the Rainforest thins out and webs on top of it.

Ivory: Rainforest turns Ivory brown, but in a different, webby sort of way from a lot of other greens/turquoises. On top of Rainforest, the Ivory separates so that it has a fine translucent line/dot in the middle of dots/lines and the edges darken. The appearance of the Ivory over Rainforest is mottled and aged. On top of Ivory, Rainforest looks greener and browner, and it causes a frizzy brown webbing through the Ivory base glass.

Peace: The reaction between Peace and Rainforest is very subtle.  Peace separates on top of Rainforest, and when Rainforest is used on top of it, it curdles gently. This is similar to what happens between Rainforest and Opal Yellow, only much less dramatic.

In both of these beads the Rainforest has struck to a very deep green.  These are not very attractive beads, but that is not Rainforest's fault.

 

Test Results :: Poison Apple

1 - Plain, 2 - Plain (reduced), 3 - w/ Silver Leaf, 4 - w/ Silver Leaf (reduced & encased), 5 - w/ TerraNova2 Frit, 6 - w/ Silver Glass Frit (reduced), 7 - w/ Silver Glass Frit Stringer (encased), 8 - w/ Tuxedo, 9 - w/ Copper Green, 10 - w/ Opal Yellow, 11 - w/ Ivory, 12 - w/ Peace

I tried this colour as a challenge to myself, because my fear of very bright colours is still very much alive and well. As it turns out, CiM Poison Apple is awesome.

It doesn't have a lot of spectacular reactions, but just the fact that it (and I love this about CiM Kryptonite as well) is one of those colours that basically gets along with everyone else in the colour sandbox makes it a really valuable tool.  Most greens either react like a turquoise and have a dark line reaction with Ivory, or behave like Ivory and turn black when used with silver.  It is always exciting to find a colour that doesn't do either of these things; especially one that is green or turquoise.

Melting silver leaf into the surface of Poison Apple disrupts the surface of the Poison Apple and turns it sort of curdly and veiny, like little crystals have formed just under the surface of it.  Reducing and encasing this reaction makes the Poison Apple appear considerably lighter, and the silver looks sort of light and snowy with a subtle dark line surrounding it under the clear in the bead on the right.

Poison Apple is not a strong contender in the 'best base for silver glass' category, but silver glass doesn't hate it, either.

This is a fun experiment I tried.  I dipped a gather of Poison Apple into reducing silver glass frit a couple of times and used the resulting frit stringer to encase a base of Poison Apple and then covered it with Effetre 006 Clear.  The streakiness is pretty fun, although I prefer the effect I get when I do this with certain transparent colours (e.g. Light Brown Transparent, Pale Green Apple, Mojito)

Nothing exciting to see here.  Just some translucency to the Poison Apple when used on top of Tuxedo, which is normal since it's a semi-opaque colour.

Poison Apple has made my Copper Green take on that reddish shiny patina, and the Copper Green lines on top of Poison Apple look curiously precise, like they've developed a fine, darker outline.

Poison Apple curdles Opal Yellow - you can see underneath the Poison Apple dots and lines that the Opal Yellow is floating up in halos around the stringer work.  On top of Poison Apple, Opal Yellow separates a little and gets a fine, translucent line in the centre of the dots and lines.  The Opal Yellow looks particularly yellow in the middle of this bead, where it touches the Poison Apple.

On top of Poison Apple, Ivory stringer lines seem to float a little above the surface, and like Opal Yellow when used with Poison Apple, separate and develop a fine, translucent centre line.  On top of Ivory, Poison Apple just looks sort of translucent and green.

I have started using Peace as my test white to try it out, so a lot of posts (but not all of them because of the convoluted order I'm posting things in) from here on out use Peace instead of White as the test white.  The reaction here between Peace and Poison Apple is pretty much identical to the reaction between Ivory and Poison Apple.

Here are some fun beads with Poison Apple.  The twisties used on all of these beads had a base of Poison Apple, with 104 Raku, Copper Green and Triton.  The base colour of the heart bead, and the colour used for the mustard-coloured dots is Effetre Yellow Ochre (aka Mustard).