Test Results :: Woodie

1 - Plain, 2 - Plain (reduced), 3 - w/ Silver Leaf, 4 - w/ Silver Leaf (reduced & encased), 5 - w/ Silver Glass Frit (reduced), 7 & 8 - w/ Tuxedo, Copper Green, Opal Yellow, Ivory and Peace

Effetre Woodie is a pretty neat colour of brown. It's sort of strange to use - it's not grainy at all like some Effetre opaques, and it is smooth and almost buttery to melt. It's fairly transparent while hot, but when it cools it is as opaque as opaque can be.

Want a sort of washed out, streaky brown? Great, then don't strike or reduce it. Want instead a reddish, rich, chocolaty brown? Then just strike it by giving it a dose of reduction flame and be pleased with yourself for knowing it does this.

You can also strike it naturally in a neutral flame to darken it, but that doesn't give it the reddish hue. The next beads show its darker-yet-not-red aspect.

When silver leaf is used on top of Effetre Woodie, it lays flat on the surface and acquires a touch of a golden hue. You can also see around the silver leaf in the bead on the left that a subtle, darker line surrounds the silver. When the silver leaf is reduced and encased it turns a snowy silver colour with hints of blue.

Silver glass likes Woodie, too. My reducing silver glass frit got nice shine on it, and my TerraNova2 frit developed some nice colour.

And here it is with some colours. In these beads, the Woodie is not very well struck, and has a sickly yellowish hue to it. This glass is a chameleon, for sure.

On top of Tuxedo, the edges of Woodie look sort of bubbled and three-dimensional. No reaction is evident when things are switched around and it is the Tuxedo that is on top.

There's no obvious reaction when Woodie is used on top of Copper Green, however on top of Woodie, Copper Green develops an interesting three-dimensional-looking outline.

Woodie doesn't have any reactions with Opal Yellow or Ivory apart from a little bleeding/feathering with Ivory when it is used on top which is less of a reaction than it is a viscosity thing.

Finally, Peace separates on top of Woodie just like it does on just about everything else. you can see a faint outline inside the Peace dots and stringer lines in the bead on the right.

I made some fun beads with Woodie, too, but I made them so long ago that I can no longer tell which ones they are. Sorry about that! I am almost caught up with posting the test beads that I made in September, so I'll have more interesting stuff to show soon.

Test Results :: Dark Silver Plum

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

Effetre Dark Silver Plum is a colour that requires some practice to get right, I think. I was not able to get the gorgeous rainbow oilslick colours that I have seen other people get with this colour, although I did get some hints of it in my goddess (see the bottom of this post). I haven't tried Dark Silver Plum in shard form, and a lot of the really beautiful things I've seen other people do with it have involved blowing it into thin shards and applying those to the bead.

Regardless, I did make some interesting discoveries about Dark Silver Plum, which I will share with you.

In the bead on the left, I applied silver leaf to the bead, burnished it in and then melted it off. Where the silver leaf touched the bead, the metallic sheen on the Dark Silver Plum is a markedly lighter colour of pinkish purple, and in some places has turned an orangey pinkish colour. This is sort of a cool development.

When the silver leaf is reduced and encased, it forms a pale lavender blanket over the Dark Silver Plum and retains some of its shininess under the clear.

My reducing silver glass frit got beautiful colour on top of Dark Silver Plum, and I got pretty neat results from my TerraNova2 frit as well although it's so dark that it's hard to see it properly. Dark Silver Plum seems to be a decent base for silver glass colours.

Dark Silver Plum is a surprisingly unreactive colour, however there are some interesting take-aways from this set of tests.

• When Tuxedo is used on top of Dark Silver Plum, a webby outline forms around it, that is bounded by a dark line.
• When Copper Green is used on top of Dark Silver Plum, a dark outline forms around it. On top of Copper Green, Dark Silver Plum seems to separate slightly.
• When Peace or Ivory is used on top of Dark Silver Plum, a dark line develops around the dots/lines and the Dark Silver Plum shininess coalesces into a silver coating around the edges of that dark line. This is by far the most interesting reaction.

Here are some fun beads with Dark Silver Plum:

The goddess bead is all Dark Silver Plum. I didn't get so much of the rainbow effect that some other people get, but I did get some hints of it. The glass is curiously matte-yet-shiny.

Here, I've used Dark Silver Plum as the border/edguing for this bead.

Pantone Colours - Spring 2013

For those of us who are fashion-conscious (and I don't think that anyone who knows me would put me in that camp) the people at Pantone predict the fashion colours ahead of the designers and sweatshops creating the clothes that we will end up buying.  Even if, as beadmakers and jewellery designers, we don't care about being fashionable ourselves, it never hurts to know what colours are likely to coordinate with what our more fashion-savvy customers might like to buy next year.

So, I've taken a stab below at matching up glass colours to the Pantone 2013 women's and men's fashion palette.  Enjoy!

These are the Pantone colours, from the Pantone website. I've taken the liberty of combining the two images here so that I can talk about them together. The top set of 10 colours are the women's fashion colours, and the lower set of 10 colours are the men's colours. For expediency, I will deal with them all together, and because it pleases me, I'll do it in rainbow order.

This is a gorgeous palette. I love almost everything in it, with the possible exception of the eye-bendiness of the Emerald. I'll add to this as more options occur to me!

Poppy Red

• CiM Maraschino
• CiM Vermilion, which was previously known as Lipstick Unique #2
• CiM Scarlett, which was previously known as Lipstick Unique #3
• REI Strawberry (work it cool, and with enough oxygen, or it will be more like Alloy)
• EFF Carrot Red
• Effetre Medium Red
• KUG Coral Red

Nectarine / Vibrant Orange
These are similar enough to me, in terms of how precise I can even get with glass colour, that I'll just deal with them together.

• REI Opal Orange
• EFF Striking Orange
• EFF Hallowe'en
• VET Tangerine Sparkle
• CiM Peachy Keen (a little light, but really one of only two light orange transparent options)
• LAU Peach (a little light, but really one of only two light orange transparent options)

Sunflower

• LAU Orange-Yellow Opaque
• EFF Venetian Sunrise Coral
• CiM Ghee (heavily struck)
• CiM Stone Ground
• EFF Light Topaz
• REI Amber

Lemon Zest

• CiM Daffodil
• CiM Ghee (lightly struck)
• CiM Lemon Drop

Tender Shoots

• EFF Green Olive
• EFF Pale Green Apple
• EFF Nile Green
• CiM Key Lime Pie
• CiM Elphaba
• EFF Light Grass Green
• EFF Kiwi

Grayed Jade

• CiM Celadon (although it's a bit bright)
• EFF Copper Green
• EFF Pale Green Emerald
• CiM Dirty Martini (although it's a bit light)

Emerald

• CiM Sherwood
• CiM Moana
• CiM Sea Foam
• EFF Light Teal Transparent
• CiM Galapagos

Dusk Blue

• EFF Bonnie Blue (although it's a little on the bright side)
• CiM Fremen (more than a little on the bright side)
• EFF Medium Blue Transparent (although it's a little on the purple side)
• EFF Sky Blue Opalino
• VET Pajama Blue
• CiM Caribbean

Monaco Blue

• CiM Ink Blot
• CiM Leaky Pen
• EFF Ka-Bluey
• LAU Steel Blue

African Violet

• CiM Evil Queen
• EFF Lavender
• EFF New Violet
• EFF Light Violet Transparent

Linen

• EFF Silver Pink
• CiM Sepia
• CiM Butter Pecan
• CiM Ginger
• CiM Peaches & Cream

Tidal Foam

• EFF Light Brown Transparent
• CiM Sand Dollar
• CiM Zombie (keep silver away from it or it will turn brown)

Alloy

• CiM Twilight
• EFF Dark Steel Gray Transparent
• REI Grey Transparent
• VET Medium Grey

Test Results :: Supernatural

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

Effetre Supernatural is a very interesting colour. All by itself, it's a little boring - just streaky grey and white. However, reducing it, using it with silver and using it with other colours can change its appearance. I think I like it best reduced and with silver leaf. You'll see why, below.

It's not evident in the test beads, but superheating Supernatural brings out turquoise streaks, I'm assuming because it makes the copper in the glass separate from the rest of the colour. You can't see that in my test beads, but it is evident in the goddess bead at the end of this post.

You can see here in the spacer on the left the whiteish grey streakiness of Supernatural. When supernatural is reduced, it develops a translucent pinkish red coating.

When I used silver leaf on top of Supernatural, it fumed the Supernatural a yellowish colour. Additionally, the silver has turned a blueish colour. It's rather pretty, actually. When the reaction is reduced and encased, most of the prettiness goes away and it just looks like a whiteish coating surrounded by yellowish and pinkish patches, which is way less appealing.

When I reduced silver glass on top of Supernatural, I gor a brownish, yellowish fuming from the Supernatural, all around the frit. This is a pretty neat effect. On top of Supernatural, my striking silver glass frit got an interesting strike - I'm not thrilled with the amount of strike, but I am intrigued by the fact that each bit of frit seems to have developed colour in little patches. This makes me want to try it again, for sure.

Supernatural is a streaky colour, so in most cases above, it's not easy to see if there is a reaction. However, a few things come through loud and clear:

• Copper Green turns darker and pinkish when Supernatural is used on top of it.Supernatural gets a brown line around it when it's used on top of Opal Yellow. This line does not seem to appear when Opal Yellow is used on top of Supernatural.
• There is a reciprocal dark line reaction between Ivory and Supernatural. This dark line appears regardless of which colour is used as the base.

Here are some fun beads with Supernatural:

Supernatural's streakiness and its tendency to reduce even in a more or less neutral flame are both evident in this goddess bead. You can see the deep, turquoise streaks, the grey mottled streakiness of the glass itself and the patches of brick-red reduction here.

Here, I've used Supernatural both in the core of the bead under transparent light aqua and silvered, in the mushroom cap and stem.