Test Results :: Pimento

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

CiM Pimento is a vibrant orange-red opaque, and it is a limited run so it won't be around for long. The beads I made with Pimento are so bright and flawless, and seem almost to glow from within, the colour is so pure and beautiful.

While the colour is gorgeous, the glass was somewhat shocky, the end of my rod popping off unexpectedly at inconvenient moments and causing some minor panic. I also found that it is fairly easy to boil Pimento, although I was working out of my comfortable Minor/Oxycon element on a Natural Gas/Liquid Oxygen set-up, so it might have just been a 'me and heat control' issue.  The boiling seems not to be evident at all in the finished beads, so I guess it's not much of a concern.

When I reduced Pimento, the colour of it darkened a little. This could be because of the reduction, or it could be because Pimento strikes a little since I generally cool a bead off before I reduce it. Either way, it is an interesting effect so if you have more than a few rods of Pimento, you might want to play around with it a little. Encasing Pimento lightened the colour a little.

I was able to encase Pimento in both Bead #3 and Bead #5 with Reichenbach Crystal with no problems at all. Good news, because sometimes you want to encase red/coral/orange and I haven't had a lot of luck encasing the Effetre hot colours.

Silver leaf on top of Pimento turns a brownish, webby golden colour. I like this effect - especially when you add a little silvered ivory (like I didn't). When the reduction is subsequently reduced and encased, it sort of loses something and just looks dull and dirty under the Clear.

Here, I got sort of interesting results with my silver glass frit. The TerraNova2 frit struck, but it is pretty dark against the Pimento and a thick dark outline has formed around all of the little frit bits that sort of gets in the way of the colour. In the bead on the right, my reducing silver glass frit looks more interesting, having developed into pretty dark blues and greens with a mottled black and white outline interspersing the frit bits. I think it's safe to conclude that Pimento is nicer with the reducing silver glass colours, although if you make something beautiful with Pimento and striking silver glass, I'd love to see it.

Finally, here is Pimento with Tuxedo, Copper Green, Opal Yellow, Ivory and Peace. 

Pimento seems not to be a very reactive colour.  Here is a brief summary of the reactions I see:

Tuxedo - Pimento separates on top of Tuxedo, developing a thin, dark translucent line in the middle of the stringer lines and a blotchiness in the dots. Pimento is darker on top of Tuxedo than it is on top of Opal Yellow, Ivory or Peace.

Copper Green - Pimento seems to scare off most of the dark sheen that Copper Green likes to develop. It also develops a dark line reaction with Copper Green, both when used on top of it and when used under it, although the dark line is more pronounced when the Copper Green is on top. When Pimento is on top of Copper Green, the dots and stringer lines are darker than when used on top of Opal Yellow, Ivory or Peace.

Opal Yellow - This is sort of strange, but Opal Yellow seems to develop a dark line reaction around it when it is used on top of Pimento. There is also a dark line reaction when Pimento is used on top of Opal Yellow, but it is less vivid.

Ivory and Peace - Both of these glasses seem to curdle / separate a little on top of Pimento.  Pimento will spread out on top of both of these colours if it is superheated or smeared, and when that happens it looks more orange than red. My Peace went a little grey. Since I'm working on a set-up that I'm not accustomed to, it may just have been me not giving the bead enough oxygen, however it could also be a reaction. If you have some Pimento and are curious, give it a go.

I'm back into making beads, but I haven't got any fun beads to show with Pimento. However, as I ramp up and test some more colours, I'll be back in the swing of things.  The Pimento is gone, but more glass beckons :)