Test Results :: Medium Topaz

 

Effetre Medium Topaz (EFF014) is the colour of amber or maple syrup. Some vendors call it Root Beer.

This colour is part of a small family of topazes, which we can all appreciate because it is very nice to have a series of 3 or more tranparents that are all the same hue but at different saturation levels. We have to be more inventive to create this kind of graduated effect with other colours. I wish someone could do this with reds and oranges.

Because all of the great colours have more than one name, this one is also sometimes called Root Beer, so if you're looking for Medium Topaz and can't find it, that could be part of your problem.

Reducing Medium Topaz doesn't have any effect on it's colour.

In the rightmost bead, you can see Medium Topaz sitting smack between it's two cousins, Light Topaz and Dark Topaz.

Medium Topaz is a very vivid colour with reddish overtones, which is very appealing but maybe a little frustrating if what you really want is a medium brown colour. If you're facing this problem, consider choosing CiM Indian Summer  or CiM Maple instead, since they are less red but about the same level of saturation. Medium Topaz is brighter and more saturated than Reichenbach Amber, brighter than CiM Indian Summer, and significantly redder and darker than the old Vetrofond Streaky Topaz.

On top of Medium Topaz, silver spreads out and forms a brownish crust. When that crust is reduced and encased, it turns a bluish grey. Medium Topaz deadens silver. I encased silver foil in the rightmost bead, and usually I expect to see the silver glinting out at me with some intensity, whether the colour of it is changed or not. Medium Topaz seems to have eaten it.

Medium Topaz makes a very interesting base colour for reducing silver glass frit. I got interesting outlines around the fritty bits here, and I also got very nice colours in the frit. My TerraNova2 frit got some interesting colour in it, but everything is so dark in that bead that it seems like maybe the reaction between it and the Medium Topaz was too strong. I'll have to try this again and see what happens.

In my frit stringer test, I certainly got a reaction but instead of the blues and greens that I get with colours like Yellow, Straw Yellow, Mojito, and others I instead got a lot of grey and pale yellow with the barest hints of blue. This combined with its behaviour with silver makes me think that the Topaz family's reaction profile is a lot like that of an Ivory. That sort of makes sense based on the little I know about glass colouring and I can't help remembering that Ivory is sort of amberish when it's hot.

Medium Topaz lightens up considerably when used on top of other colours.

Copper Green, Opal Yellow, Ivory, and Peace all separated on top of Medium Topaz, but I didn't notice much in the way of reactions when the Medium Topaz was on top.

Here are some beads that include Medium Topaz:

Test Results :: Dark Emerald

Effetre Dark Emerald is a vibrant, pure medium green transparent. It is relatively inert with other colours -- even with Ivory it has only a very slight brown line reaction. I was expecting it to be more reactive than it is, so I was pleasantly surprised.

Here, you can see that reducing Dark Emerald makes no appreciable difference in itsappearance.

Dark Emerald does nothing with silver until you reduce and encase the silver - then you get faint bluish hints here and there that remind me of how silver interacts with the cobalt blues.

Dark Emerald seems to make a nice base for both reducing and striking silver glass.

And finally, here you can see how very non-reactive this colour is. You'll notice there's a weird, dark sooty line between the Ivory and Peace, but I think that is nothing to do with Dark Emerald and quite a lot to do with me needing to clean my torch head. Also, there was a batch of Peace that did this fairly easily a few years back, and it's possible that I still have a few rods of it mixed in with my newer stock.

And here are some fun beads with Dark Emerald.  On the whole, I think this colour is a bit brighter than I really like to work with. If I am going to use the rest of my stock, I think I will probably mix it with other transparent colours to see what I can do with it in blends.

Test Results :: Antique Ivory

Effetre Antique Ivory (EFF481) is a dark ivory-coloured glass that has a similar reaction profile to Light Ivory and Dark Ivory but it is just a little more muted in hue. Like the ivories, this reacts interestingly with silver and makes good Silvered Ivory Stringer.

Here, you can see that Antique Ivory doesn't change colour when you reduce it.

Silver darkens Antique Ivory and crusts up on its surface. When the reaction is reduced and encased, the darkening of the Antique Ivory goes away.

Like Light and Dark Ivory, this colour makes a good base colour for silver glass. The colour develops well on top of it, and it has interesting blackening/crinkling at the edges of the fritty bits, too.

Apologies for the dirt you can see on the Tuxedo end of the leftmost bead. It's been hard to find time to do anything bead-related over the last few months and I don't have the energy to retake that photo.

You can see in the rightmost bead here the Antique Ivory curdling underneath the other colours I used it with. Like Light and Dark Ivory, this colour gets a dark line around it when used with Copper Green, although the line is more subtle with this colour when the Antique Ivory is on top.  Ivory spreads out on top of this colour.

The edges of Tuxedo dots and stringer lines get all blurry on top of this colour but, interestingly, Antique Ivory on top of Tuxedo seems not to be a reactive pairing. 

Like Light and Dark Ivory, this colour forms a subtle brown line reaction with Opal Yellow.

Here are some fun little pairs that include Antique Ivory.

Test Results :: Peacock Feather / Surfs Up

CiM Peacock Feather (CiM576) and Surf's Up (CiM575) are Opal and Misty Opal versions of a gorgeous turquoise colour. They have interesting reactions with other colours, and seem like a good base for silver glass. I made these beads with Peacock Feather, but I expect the reactions for Surf's Up would be quite similar.

The spacer on the right is not really darker, it is just smaller and is letting through more of the dark grey base I take my photos on. Reducing Peacock Feather doesn't change its colour.

Silver gets all beaded and crusty on top of Peacock Feather. When the silver is reduced and encased, it forms a mottled silvery blanket under the clear with hints of blue haze.

The reducing silver glass frit is not very interesting on top of this colour, but I did get a nice starting strike from the striking silver glass.

Copper Green, Opal Yellow, Ivory, and Peace all separate when used with Peacock Feather.

These beads contain Peacock Feather or Surf's Up:

Peacock Feather

Surf's Up

Test Results :: Slate

CiM Slate (CiM538) is a light, greyish blue transparent colour. Its darkness changes dramatically when it is used in thick layers, and it can bubble when applied using very thin stringer, so you need to watch your heat with this colour.

Slate does not change when you reduce it.

Nothing much happened in these first two beads, but you can see that I got some lovely blue cloudiness in the bead where I used Slate as the base colour, applied silver leaf, reduced it, and then encased it with more Slate.

Slate makes a surprisingly good base colour for silver glass. My reducing silver glass bloomed on top of it, and I got a very nice starting strike from my TerraNova2 frit.

On top of this colour, Copper Green looks very dark and dull, and it separates although you can only see that around the very edges of the dots and stringer lines.

In the bead on the right, you can see that I got some sooty lines in Slate as I melted my stringer down. I think this means that I need to clean my torch, not that this colour is especially sensitive, but you may want to test that yourself before embarking on a whole run of beads that use this colour as stringer decoration.

Here are some fun beads that include Slate.

Test Results :: Light Gray

Effetre Light Gray (EFF248) is an elephantine opaque colour. It is somewhat reactive with Ivory, fairly inert with other colours, and makes an interesting base colour for silver and silver glass.

When you reduce it, Light Grey 'browns up' a little.

Silver on top of Light Grey turns yellowish and pinkish. When the silver is reduced and encased, it loses this interesting colour.

Reducing silver glass spreads and develops a nice sheen on top of Light Gray. I got a decent starting strike from my TerraNova2 on top of this colour, and like the pale halos that I can see around the TerraNova2 fritty bits.

Light Gray separates a little on top of Tuxedo.

Ivory and Light Gray develop a reciprocal dark line reaction. In the case where the Ivory is on top, the result is a dark line that almost looks like a shadow. When the Light Gray is on top, the reaction is crackly and intermittent, giving the stringer lines and dots a translucent, jagged appearance.

Here are some other beads that include Light Gray:

Test Results :: Sunset

CiM Sunset (CiM210) is a dark orange opaque, almost-but-not-quite as dark as CiM Phoenix and in a similar hue range.

Sunset is a striking colour and will get darker with repeated heating and cooling, but a simple waft through a reduction flame didn't change its colour.

Silver crusts up and gets yellowish on top of Sunset. When the silver is reduced and encased it turns blue in places.

Silver Glass reacts with Sunset in a dark-line way. I got a beautiful starting strike on my TerraNova2 frit on top of this colour.

While Sunset is only a moderately reactive colour, there are some interesting things going on in these test beads.

While nothing of note happens when Tuxedo is used over Sunset, Sunset separates on top of Tuxedo.

Copper Green separates and develops a subtle dark line around it when it is used on top of Sunset. When the Sunset is on top, the exact opposite is true and it is the Sunset that separates and the dark line is subtle but wide.

Opal Yellow and Ivory both separate on top of Sunset. When the Sunset is on top, it is the separator. In both cases, the sunset edges get 'eaten' by the base colour. The reaction in both cases is more pronounced with Ivory than it is with Opal Yellow.

These beads all contain some Sunset.