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.