Test Results :: Twilight

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

CiM Twilight is a beautiful dark grey colour, and is both darker and bluer than Effetre Dark Steel Grey which has more of a greenish cast to it. It is very similar in hue to Charcoal, only it is less saturated and its reactions with silver and other colours are more subtle.

I believe that Twilight is the result of one of my (and no doubt lots of other people's) requests for a transparent version of CiM Adamantium, and while it does not meet the "need" I expressed when I requested it (I want a dark brownish grey) it is a very nice colour to work with and has some good reactive properties. I love neutrals, as I'm sure you have been able to determine through reading this blog, and no matter how many browns and greys the glass companies make, it will never really be enough for me. I still want the transparent dark brownish grey.

Twilight is very nice to work with, and isn't especially prone to bubbling, although it's not a good idea to tempt fate by parking it in the flame. I didn't experience any unpleasant shocking or splintering at all while making these beads.

On top of Twilight, silver leaf spreads out and sits on top of the bead, blushing blue in places. When the bead is subsequently reduced and encased, the blue is much more evident. When Twilight is used to encase silver foil, the silver foil mostly stays silver but can yellow in places.

Silver glass and Twilight is a happy story. Reduction frit looks beautiful on it, and I got fantastic colour out of my TerraNova2 frit, although you sort of have to enlarge the picture to see it. I even enjoyed moderate success with my frit stringer test.

While Twilight is pretty reactive with silver, it seems not to be very reactive with any of these other colours I tested it with. Below is a summary of the few notable reactions I observed in these beads:

• On top of Twilight, Copper Green develops an interesting border around itself, looking almost three-dimensional.
• Ivory and Peace both separate on top of Twilight, a fine dark line appearing in the middle of dots and stringer lines.

A fun bead with Twilight
(note: the blue bits at the tips of the wings are Caribbean - I don't remember mixing them, but I guess I must have)