Test Results :: Okey Dokey Artichoky

1 - Reduced & encased, 2 - Encased, 3 - Plain, reduced, 4 - Plain, 5 - w/ Khaos frit, 6 - As a floral, Slytherin core, 7 - w/ Elektra2/Kronos/Gaia frit, reduced, 8 - w/ Silver leaf, 9 - w/ Ivory, 10 - w/ Light Turquoise, 11 - w/ White, 12 - w/ Black, 13 - w/ Opal Yellow

I appointed myself an unofficial colour tester in October, and I got through two whole colours before I got sidetracked and started doing other things instead of working through the list I'd carefully compiled.  I'll get back to it.  Eventually.

In the meantime, I'd like to share my test results for Okey Dokey Artichoky, one of my new favourite colours.

Okey Dokey Artichoky rods are an unassuming ochre-y green that seem like they might melt and look somewhat like vomit. But au contraire, when molten, Artichoky looks like a blue-ish turquoise transparent instead.  That's its first trick.  The blue mostly disappears after you've annealed the bead except for the odd bit of streakiness. Unencased Artichoky, after annealing, looks like a soft blue-green, a few shades darker than CiM Dirty Martini.

The rods are a little bit shocky, but not as bad as some of the Vetrofond Odd Lots or even some of the other Effetre handpulled colours.

Stiffness
Okey Dokey Artichoky is a fairly stiff opaque 104 colour. On a stiffness scale where 1 is Opal Yellow and 10 is Black, it's probably  an 8.5 or maybe even a 9. I think this means it will be good for fine stringer work.  By "fine", I mean "not like the stringer work displayed in the test beads, above."

Under Clear
Okey Dokey Artichoky looks somewhat lighter and more blue when it is encased. (The first two spacers in the picture are encased, the second two are not) Encased Okey Dokey Artichoky reminds me a little of unencased CiM Dirty Martini.

Reactions
Okey Dokey Artichoky is very reactive with silver.  The surface fumes a yellowish brown.  Silver Leaf looks great on Artichoky.  (Beads 5, 7 & 8)  This means it will be fabulous in organic designs with silver and silver glass.

Okey Dokey Artichoky behaves like a turquoise/blue in that it forms a dark line reaction with Ivory. (Bead 9)

Okey Dokey Artichoky does NOT react with Black, White or Light Turquoise.  (Beads 10, 11, 12)

Okey Dokey Artichoky spreads and discolours slightly over Opal Yellow, and Opal Yellow on top of Artichoky seems to make it greener. (Bead 13) It doesn't really seem to separate or do anything else really interesting though.  It might be fun to use it in place of Copper Green in the classic Opal Yellow/Copper Green/Rubino match-up and see what happens.

Reduction
Okey Dokey Artichoky doesn't do anything useful when you reduce it apart from develop an ugly red patchiness similar to what happens when you reduce Effetre Light Turquoise or Sky Blue. (Bead 1) This means reducing it is a mistake that should be avoided, unless that happens to be the look you're after.

Colour Density

Although Okey Dokey Artichoky looks like a transparent when it's molten, it's dense enough that when used as flower petals, you can't even see through it a little bit. (Bead 6)

Here are some more Okey Dokey Artichoky beads. This colour is so much fun to use! These beads both have a base of Artichoky, with some silver glass frit and SiS. The bicone also has some fine silver mesh stuck to it. The nugget was rolled in Silver Foil.