Test Results :: Flamingo

1 - Plain, 2 - Reduced, 3 - w/ Silver Leaf, 4 - w/ Silver Leaf (reduced & encased), 5 - w/ TerraNova2 Frit, 6 - w/ Silver Glass Frit Blend (reduced), 7 - w/ Tuxedo, 8 - w/ Copper Green, 9 - w/ Opal Yellow, 10 - w/ Ivory, 11 - w/ White

General Impressions
Reichenbach Flamingo (RL6218) is beautiful, interesting and I think somewhat challenging to use. It's going to take me some time to really figure out how I want to deal with this colour. In a lot of ways, it reminds me of Effetre Sedona, which I have not tested properly yet, only without the devitrification.  Flamingo has its own issues though, as you will see.

In the rod, Flamingo is brown. I spent quite a bit of time staring at it and wondering about it before finally adding it to my palette, and had a long (and probably tedious) conversation with Holly about how unflamingo-like it seemed before I ever melted any.

Depending on what you use it with, it ranges from a dark dusty rose (i.e. Bead #10) to a dark pink with orange overtones (Bead #1) and then down the darkness scale to more medium tones of those colours and the colours in between. It changes colour with silver, not always for the better, and it is really, really reactive. It gets mucky like Rubino Oro if you overheat it (or have a little too much propane -- not sure here). Also like Rubino Oro and many of the Italian pinks, it doesn't play nice with Ivory AT ALL.  More on this in a minute.

Something went wrong (not sure what  yet) when I encased Flamingo with the new Double Helix Terra2, added some Double Helix CE352 and then encased it with Aether. There are compatibility cracks all through the bead. Either the Flamingo doesn't much like being deeply encased, it doesn't much like being combined with a lot of silver glass, or something less obvious is going on. This made me particularly sad because I got such great colour out of the Terra2 and the CE352, but it was sort of lopsided anyway, so maybe this is for the best.  *sigh*

I hope I don't have to lose too many beads before I figure out what the problem is. I'm leaning toward the deep encasement explanation for now, because this colour is very similar in other respects to the Italian pinks, which also don't really take kindly to being encased.

Overall, though, I am pretty intrigued. I'm hoping the weather holds up this weekend so that I can get some torch time in and play with it some more.

Reduction

One of the coolest, weirdest things about Flamingo is that when you reduce it, it goes a shiny dark pink. This reduction film is exactly like the reduction film you get on a silver glass like Triton, apart from the fact that it is pink. I've never seen a colour do this before, so I am totally in awe of it. The whole thing was sort of marred by the fact that for some unknown reason, the whole bead reduced except for a thin line down the middle. Not sure why that happened, really, or if it will happen again.

Reactions

Putting silver leaf on Flamingo was sort of a different experience. First of all, the silver made a really decided beeline for the middle of the bead, and second of all, it totally turned the bead a strange shade of orange. When I reduced and encased the silver in the bead on the right, the result is really interesting -- kind've mottled and lacy and weird. I used Effetre Clear for this test.

Silver Glass really likes Flamingo, so I'm hoping that it doesn't turn out that Flamingo is a silver-glass-hating colour.

I didn't get great colour out of my TerraNova2 frit, but it didn't completely tank either. The pink in the bead of the left is a beautiful colour that unlike in most of the other beads, is actually reminiscent of flamingos. Nothing looked flamingo-like when it went into the kiln, so I spent the seven hours waiting for my annealing cycle to finish up worrying that because there are no flamingos in Germany, the people at Reichenbach had named it without ever looking at one.  Sorry about that :)

In the bead on the right, the silver glass frit has vivid halos around each piece, which is cool all by itself. Even cooler, but not so visible in the picture because it didn't photograph very well, the Flamingo reduced right along with the silver glass and the whole surface of the bead is mirrored, some places with pink and some places with greens and blues. So neat.

There is no bleeding between Flamingo and Tuxedo, but the Flamingo does have a decidedly more yellowish hue on the right-hand side of this bead. Also, where the Flamingo is over the Tuxedo, it looks much paler than in the other beads, is semi-transparent and has developed a translucent line/dot in the middle of the stringerwork designs.

Flamingo is totally cool with Copper Green. The reactions here are so crazy they are not easy to describe accurately.

On the Copper Green side of the bead, the Flamingo has separated over the Copper Green so that it is yellow on the outside and pink in the middle. You can see some dark bits on the Flamingo where I overheated it, possibly with too much propane in my flame.

On the Flamingo side of the bead, the Copper Green has also separated, light and shiny on the outside of the reaction and dark in the middle, but in addition, a thin yellowish line has formed around it so that there are three layers of reactive effect.

Flamingo makes Opal Yellow angry. The Opal Yellow on the Flamingo side of the bead blackened a little in the middle of the dots and lines, turning almost sooty. I did not expect this since Opal Yellow never, ever does things like this. It also curdled and separated.

On the Opal Yellow side of the bead, the Flamingo totally spread out and went orangey and there is some blackening both in AND around those lines.

I'm not sure what to make of this really... I think I need to try it again with a cooler flame to really be sure what's going on here, but it's pretty interesting (if a little ugly).

Flamingo made Opal Yellow angry, but that was nothing compared to the black rage it caused in the Ivory. On the Ivory side of this bead, the Flamingo dots and lines look almost frayed. They're greyed out and the edges are jagged and the whole effect looks a little like dirty watercolours.

On the Flamingo side of the bead, the Ivory dots and lines have a dark outline that is wider than the Ivory that was allowed to survive the reaction.

The oddest thing about these two glasses together, though, has to be the weirdness in the middle.  The reaction is black and jagged, and it looks almost motion-blurred towards the Flamingo side, but it also seems to be emanating pink and purple smog.  I know there's a use for this reaction, I just need to figure out what that might be.

And finally, White separates and gets translucent in the middle when it's put on top of Flamingo. Flamingo looks slightly translucent and a touch more orange when you put it over white, and spreads a bit. You can even see in one place where the centre of a large area of Flamingo seems to have tried to BE white. There is some sooting of the Flamingo here as well.

I made a few beads with Flamingo, some of which I've already shown with other test results, but here they are again. More to come as I give Flamingo a few more workouts.

   

Test Results :: Hippo

1 - Plain, 2 - Plain (reduced), 3 - w/ Silver Leaf, 4 - w/ Silver Leaf (reduced & encased), 5 - w/ TerraNova2 Frit, 6 - w/ Silver Glass Frit (reduced), 7 - w/ Copper Green, 8 - w/ Tuxedo, 9 - w/ Opal Yellow, 10 - w/ Ivory, 11 - w/ White

General Impressions
Both in the rod, and in some of these beads, CiM Hippo is a little reminiscent of Tamarind Unique #2, but there are a few key differences, which I'll go through when I talk about the reactions.

I found my Hippo rods to be a little shocky -- not so shocky that I wanted to throw them or anything, but shocky enough that I lost some bits off the end every time I picked up the rod and reintroduced it to the flame.

On the whole, I really, really like this colour.  It's a great, neutral base colour, and the way the surface can be brought to a rich brown is particularly neat.  The way the silver turns blue on it under encasement also makes me really happy, and I think I'd really like it in organics with reduction frit, Silvered Ivory and Intense Black.

Reactions

On top of Hippo, Silver Leaf attractively scars the surface and turns yellowish, and fumes all of the surrounding Hippo area a dark chocolate brown colour. This fuming is very reminiscent of what I experienced with Tamarind Unique #2.

When you reduce and encase the silver (I used Effetre Clear here), the silver turns back to its natural colour... mostly. It also develops some really interesting blue tones.  The dark fuming of the Hippo is decreased a little by encasing it.

On Hippo, my TerraNova2 frit only sort of struck.  Hippo doesn't seem to be one of those 'magic' bases for striking silver glasses where no matter how badly you suck at it, it still works, but it seems like someone with more skill could have done better than I did.  (For examples of a couple of 'Magic' bases, see my results for Light Brown Transparent and Dark Grass Green Transparent)

I got great reflectivity and some really interesting fuming in the reduced silver glass frit bead on the right.

When used with Copper Green, the Hippo seemed to force the Copper Green to develop a fuzzy grey line around the Hippo stringer lines and dots I put on it.  This a little different from what I got with the Tamarind Unique #2, because with that colour the lines were much thinner and subtly shiny.

There is a little bleeding in the middle of my Tuxedo/Hippo test bead, but this is at least partially because of my beadroller incompetence. I kind've mushed this bead and had to reheat and reshape it, so this reaction is somewhat exaggerated. The Hippo lines over Tuxedo look sort of crackly and mottled.  I got a very similar effect from putting Canyon de Chelly over Vetrofond Black, although it looks different because of the colour of the Canyon.

On top of Opal Yellow, Hippo dots and lines develop a faintly pinkish-brown outline.  I wasn't testing with Opal Yellow yet when I did my tests for Tamarind Unique #2, so I can't really make any comparison here.

Hippo holds its own with Ivory, and seems to float just slightly on top of it, but there's not much else here in the way of interesting reactions.  It seems as though Hippo might be a slightly softer colour than the Tamarind Unique #2, because it didn't sink into the Ivory quite as much as that one did, and the Ivory didn't spread on it as much.

Hippo sinks into the softer white, as you can see on the left-hand side of this bead, and White spreads out a little on top of Hippo.  I wasn't testing with White either when I did my tests for Tamarind Unique #2, so I'm not sure how this is similar or different.

I managed to make a couple of other things with Hippo. Hopefully I'll find some more when I go to Frantz Art Glass for the Bash in August and can play some more.

Test Results :: Sherwood

1 - Plain, 2 - Plain (reduced), 3 - w/ Silver Leaf, 4 - w/ Silver Leaf (reduced & encased), 5 - w/ TerraNova2 frit, 6 - w/ Silver Glass Frit Blend (reduced), 7 - w/ Copper Green, 8 - w/ Tuxedo, 9 - w/ Opal Yellow, 10 - w/ Ivory, 11 - w/ White

General Impressions
When I saw the rod colour of CiM Sherwood, a few other CiM colours popped into my mind as things that might behave similarly. It is a blue-ish green, darker and greener than Celadon. It is greener and lighter than Mermaid, bluer and darker than Split Pea and both lighter and bluer than Elphaba Unique #2.

Sherwood, in spite of those comparisons (and all of the other ones I'm likely to make as I write this) is sort of its own animal. The annealed beads are somewhat lighter and brighter than the rod colour, which is always an interesting surprise, and the reactions with other colours weren't quite like any of the other greens I've tested, but I've got something nagging at me, telling me that when I test Split Pea this weekend I will see some of the same reactions. I did a little work with Split Pea last year, before I was doing this testing thing, and the reaction Sherwood has with Ivory in particular gave me a feeling of deja vu.

The consistency of Sherwood is stickier and less stiff than a lot of other CiM colours. It's not as soft as Poi, it's not gelatinous like Desert Pink, and it's not uber-stiff like Mermaid, Celadon, Adamantium or a lot of the other CiM opaque colours.

Sherwood is full of interesting reactions. It really bears more study, but sadly, I don't have any left.

I keep toting this picture out, and it doesn't have any Sherwood in it, but it's the only bead picture I have with Petroleum Green in it, so I need to show it again. The bead on the left is Mermaid and Copper Green, and the bead on the right is Mermaid with Petroleum Green. The reason I am showing it is to illustrate how much brighter and greener Sherwood is than Petroleum Green, because someone looking at these pics might otherwise think that Sherwood is just a new Petroleum green, but it's not really the same, either in colour or in how it feels when you work it.

Reactions

Silver balls up and disappears on the surface of Sherwood the same way that it did for me with Celadon and Mermaid (although Mermaid also discoloured, which Sherwood did not do). When I reduced and encased the silver, I got a little bit of yellowing. This was faintly reminiscent of my experience with Celadon, only far less dramatic. It's an interesting effect, and when combined with other kinds of encased elements might be really interesting.

Sherwood makes a surprisingly good base for Silver Glass. I say surprising only because my personal experience has not led me to expect greens to be really cooperative when used this way. I got great colour (for me) out of my TerraNova2 frit on the bead on the left, the halos that appeared around it are pretty cool.  I also really like the way the reduction frit spread out on the bead on the right. These reactions were a little reminiscent of what I got with Elphaba Unique #2, but better.

Sherwood isn't so nice with Copper Green. The Copper Green went all pinky-silver and strange-looking, and the Sherwood developed a thin dark line down the middle. This bead could probably be improved by etching the Copper Green yuck away though. Celadon and Elphaba Unique #2 made Copper Green do this too, but both had some redeemingly interesting reactions in the bargain which Sherwood didn't manage.

Tuxedo bleeds just the faintest bit when it's put on top of Sherwood. You can see some halos around the stringerwork on the right-hand side of the bead. Sherwood does that thin green line separation thing on top of Tuxedo. Sherwood, on the whole though, holds its own against Tuxedo, where Celadon let more of the Tuxedo in, and Elphaba Unique #2 rolled over and let the Tuxedo dribble all over it.

Sherwood is the first colour I've tested to do this weird thing with Opal Yellow, but I wasn't using Opal Yellow in my baseline when I tested Mermaid or Celadon. The Opal Yellow on the left side of the bead has developed a neon green outline, and in the centre of the bead where the two colours meet, there is some decided webbing. You can see on the right-hand side of the bead, too, where there is a small amount of bleeding of the Sherwood into the Opal Yellow -- just the faintest green halo around some of the lines.

On top of Ivory, Sherwood does a couple of interesting things. First, it got an olive green webby line around the lines and dots that I put on. I am accustomed to a brown line reaction, or a black line reaction, or even a grey line reaction, but this is the first time I've managed a green line reaction. On top of Ivory, Sherwood also got that dark green line down the centre of the stringerwork.

On top of Sherwood, Ivory separates and develops a thin, translucent line down the centre, and goes dark around the edges, but that darkness just looks like a deeper green without much in the way of discolouration. The Sherwood did, however, get really streaky underneath the Ivory.

The best part of the reaction between these two colours has to be the odd, olive-coloured webbing in the centre of the bead. I like this reaction an awful lot.

And finally, on top of White, Sherwood does that dark-line-in-the-middle thing. White on Sherwood isn't all that interesting, but the way the two webbed in the centre of this test bead certainly is.

I managed to make a couple of fun things with my Sherwood last weekend, and here they are.