Winter Colour Diet - Session 6

Session six of my colour diet wasn't exactly a shining success... but I did learn some stuff, and I made my test beads for Anise White (grrr) and Tamarind Unique #1 (yum) which I'll post sometime over the next few days.

I'll get right to the beads.  I experimented with some new-to-me colour combinations, and I'm not all that jazzed about some of the results.  There were some interesting surprises though.

This is CiM Mermaid with Striking Color frit and SiS scribble end decoration.  The ends are Adamantium.  I'm not telling you this because I want you to be able to reproduce this bead - I think it's better if that never happens.  I'm not really enjoying these colours all together like this.

This one is on a base of CiM Adamantium and I think I used some silver glass/mermaid twisties on it.  Frankly, it's hard to tell now since the whole bead went mostly black.  It came out way too dark.  I haven't done my tests for Adamantium yet, so I don't know how to predict its behaviour with silver glass.  I'm not really sure if the problem here is that I didn't strike the silver glass properly, or if there's something else going on.  Chances are the problem is mostly me, and I'll test Adamantium soon so I have a definitive answer.

Now this is more like it.  This is one of my new favorite colour combinations... one I've already talked about in other posts.  It's Seashell Swirl, rolled in silver leaf and then Striking Color frit, end-capped in Tamarind Unique, scribbled on with SiS and then swirled.  It got a brief bit of reduction before going into the kiln.

The inside of this bead looks awful, but I've come to terms with that and am now figuring out what more can be done with the way I've decorated the outside of it.  The swirling thing is getting really out of control, but I think I like it like that.  The decoration on the exterior is just Ivory and SiS.

I played with frit stringer last week after reading Dwyn Tomlinson's Blog, and I am addicted!  Although the bead is a bit of an eyesore, the frit stringer part of the core looks pretty neat, so I am going to continue to play with this.  The core of this bead is half Striking Color frit stringer and half TerraNova2 all over Light Brown Transparent.  It's encased with Pale Aqua and Clear.  The TerraNova2 didn't even try to strike, no doubt because I didn't get it hot enough.

Fortunately, not all frit stringer experiments are made equal, and I am really happy with how this one turned out.  This is frit stringer with the very last crumbs of my Striking Color frit with Light Brown, all over Light Brown, encased with Clear.  The end deco and the 'leaves' on the front are SiS, and the swirl on the front is overdotted with Pale Green Emerald.  I think I had more luck with this one because it's smaller than the monstrosity above.  I may take a break from making gigantic beads for a while.

In any case, the Anise White's stint in the palette was shortlived.  And do you see any beads here where I've made a point of saying that there's Anise White in it?  No... you don't.  And I'll tell you why when I post my test results about Anise White.  Since I don't have any more Anise White (oh darn) I'll be replacing it with CiM Khaki when I go back to the torch next week.

Here's the status of the palette heading into Session #7.

• EFF Red Copper Green
• CiM Adamantium
• CiM Tamarind Unique (-1)
• EFF Anise White CiM Khaki
• EFF Okey Dokey Artichoky
• CiM Mermaid
• EFF Copper Green
• EFF Dark Violet
• VET Seashell Swirl
• EFF Light Brown (Transparent)
• EFF Pale Green Apple (Transparent)
• EFF Pale Emerald (Transparent)
• EFF Pale Aqua (Transparent)
• EFF Pale Ink Blue (Transparent)
• Staples:  Clear, Black, Dark Ivory, Ivory
• Silver Glass:  Assorted Silver Glass Colours, rods & frit
• Metals:  Silver Mesh, Silver Wire, Copper Mesh, Silver Leaf, Silver Foil
• Dichro:  Dichro on Clear (various colours)
• Goldstone:  Gold Aventurine Chunks

I'm almost completely out of Dark Violet and Pale Aqua, and am pretty close to kissing Seashell Swirl goodbye as well, but what's left will last me at least one more week.  I'm trying to figure out what to replace them with.  If you have any suggestions, let me know! Some colours I'm currently contemplating as replacements are REI Mystic Grey Blue, EFF Tidepool, CiM Lapis Light Unique, VET Pajama Blue, EFF Bubblegum Pink and EFF Orion.  It's not an easy decision at all.

My Striking Color frit is completely *sniffle* gone.  No more.  Finished.

Since my test beads for Anise White and Tamarind Unique are done, I need a new testing plan.  Here's what I'll likely cover over the next few weeks:

1. Khaki
2. Red Copper Green
3. Adamantium
4. Whatever replaces Pale Aqua, Seashell Swirl and Dark Violet