Test Results :: Opal Raspberry

Reichenbach Opal Raspberry (RL6219) is a bright, dark pink colour. It might be the only consistent dark pink opaque colour in our palette that doesn't devitrify like my dog's life depends on it. It's also a really odd colour, both in terms of behaviour on its own and reactions with other colours. The reactions are a lot like the reactions I've observed from Sedona, EDP, Rubino Oro and Reichenbach Flamingo, so there's a whole category of pink and purple colours that are this strange.

In the bead on the left, you can see how Opal Raspberry mottles and streaks and develops separation lines with itself that look almost like cracks in the surface of the bead, although that's just an illusion. In the bead on the right, I reduced the Opal Raspberry resulting in a dark burgandy, shiny reduction film. The mottled surface of the bead shows through the reduction film - you can see it in the middle of the bead.

When silver leaf is melted into the surface of Opal Raspberry, it turns the pink to a vivid shade of yellowish orange. The silver settles into veins on the surface of the bead. When the bead is reduced and encased, the silver forms an interesting, lacy pattern over the discoloured Opal Raspberry. You can see its yellowish orangeness peeking through the 'holes' in the silvery lace coating under the clear.

Opal Raspberry is a beautiful base for silver glass colours, both striking and reducing. In the bead on the left, I got beautiful shine and variation from my reducing silver glass frit, and then in the bead on the right my TerraNova2 frit has struck to blues and greens very nicely.

Reaction-wise, quite a lot is going on in these beads.

When Opal Raspberry is used on top of Tuxedo, it looks not quite opaque and develops separation lines in the centre of dots and lines that are sort of messy in appearance.

On top of Opal Raspberry, Copper Green separates into a lighter and a darker, brighter version of itself. This is the same as the reaction Copper Green has to Lauscha Cocoa, Lauscha Steel Blue, Lauscha Cocoa, Effetre EDP, Effetre Sedona, and Reichenbach Flamingo, to name a few. When Opal Raspberry is used on top of Copper Green it separates the Copper Green underneath it so that a lighter line appears directly around the pink but then the darker, vivid turquoise remains between the dots and stringer lines. This reaction is not quite as attractive as the reaction with, say, EDP because the Opal Raspberry does not thin out enough around the Copper Green and lose enough of its opacity to really make the reaction work.

On top of Opal Raspberry, Opal Yellow takes on a decidedly orange appearance, especially around its edges. The separation lines that Opal Raspberry gets here are around the edge of the Opal Yellow instead of just down the middle, resulting in a sort of three-dimensional illusion of a crack wandering around the edges of some of the stringer work and a divot appearing in the centre of my dots. When Opal Raspberry is used on top of Opal Yellow, it causes the Opal Yellow to separate from itself and instead of the crack-like appearance, it looks rather like the base bead of Opal Yellow had a dot of clear and then another dot of Opal Yellow on top of it underneath my Opal Raspberry dots.

Ivory develops a serious dark black-brown line around it on top of Opal Raspberry. When Opal Raspberry is used on top of Ivory, because the Opal Raspberry is not completely opaque the entire line takes on a brownish purple appearance with smears of pink wandering around on top of it.

With Peace, the reactions are much less evident. When Peace is used on top of Opal Raspberry, it develops faint separation lines in the stringer work. When Opal Raspberry is used on top of Peace, it thins out to a semi-opaque appearance in an uneven, mottled way.

Here are some fun beads with Opal Raspberry. I had a bit of a fingerpainting session when I tested this glass, wanting to see if anything good would come of using Opal Raspberry in place of the EDP in the classic OY/EDP/CG reaction. Those beads also have some Periwinkle in them.

The goddess is self-coloured Opal Raspberry. Opal Raspberry is weird glass, but pretty!