Test Results :: Aiko

CiM Aiko (CiM468) is a light teal transparent colour, very similar in hue to Effetre Light Teal. It's a bit stiffer than Light Teal, and I found it easier to boil than Light Teal until I got the hang of giving it a bit less heat than my normal.

After doing these tests, I would choose Light Teal Transparent over this colour if I were going to be encasing with it, but if I was planning to use it with Silver or with other colours in combinations where I wanted to minimize any angry reactions, then I would definitely go with Aiko instead.

Here you can see that as I eased into these test beads, I didn't have a great feel for how hot I could get Aiko without it bubbling. This is not a particularly difficult colour to use, and it's easy to avoid these bubbles if you work up a bit higher in your flame.

Reducing Aiko doesn't change its colour at all.

Here I've sandwiched Aiko between Serenity and Light Teal. You can see that it is only very slightly darker than Effetre Light Teal and a bit lighter and quite a bit greener than Serenity.

Silver beads up and disperses over the surface of Aiko. When you reduce and encase the silver, it is a greyish blue. This is quite different from the result I got when I encased silver under Light Teal, because in that combination the silver turned quite yellow.  I wonder what the difference is chemically?

Silver Glass is pretty nice on top of Aiko, both the reducing kind and the striking kind.

There are no significant reactions in these test beads apart from a very minor amount of dark line reaction when Aiko is on top of Ivory. There's maybe a tiny bit of separation in Peace, Copper Green, and Ivory when used on top of it, but it's very, very minor.

I am always excited when I find teals, turquoises, blues, and greens that are not very reactive because they are more versatile than their more volatile cousins. This colour is like a paler and greener version of Serenity, with fewer and less dramatic separation reactions with other colours.

Here are some other beads made with Aiko.