Product Review :: New CiM Cloudy Transparents

I am crazy about so many of these new CiM colours and I will be coming back to blog about some of them in greater detail over the next few months. Because the volume of colours this time is so big, I wanted to make sure that I at least posted some initial impressions and photos of them all but will do my detailed colour explorations only for those colours that I decide to incorporate into my palette more permanently. I made this decision after I had already dived in and done a bit of testing, so you will see some more detailed posts for a few colours right away, beginning next week.

I haven't used all the colours yet, and this post will be focused on what I've been making with some of the new Cloudy Transparent colours. I really like this new rod format with the pigment filaments suspended in Clear, and I am hoping for a whole range of colours in the future. I think that a dark blue, a dark teal, and some bright oranges, pinks, and yellows would be particularly fun.

In general, I have found the Cloudy Transparent colours to be a bit shocky. For for the most part, this was quite manageable and well worth the effort, at least for the colours I've tried so far. Heather is the one that I've had the most trouble with out of this group. Another thing common to all of these colours (so far) is that they can be easy to boil, so you really have to watch your heat. This is true not only with fine stringer, but also when applying the glass from the rod to your bead. Work higher up in the flame and a bit cooler to avoid this problem. I have not specifically tested any of these for colour reactions yet. When I do, I might find out something interesting, but so far they do not seem very reactive with other colours.

These beads all contain Heather (CiM922) or Luzern (CiM924). The only real difference between these glasses for me was that my rods of Luzern had more colour density. Heather and Luzern are a magenta/lilac-coloured streaky transparent where the pigment filaments are suspended in clear glass. Both of these colours are stunning, and I am hoping to get some more of at least one of them.

   

Colours: CiM Heather/Luzern, CiM Sunset, Effetre Opal Yellow, 

Effetre Light Turquoise, CiM Loch Ness, CiM Serenity, CiM Circus Tent, 

Effetre Super Clear, and various colours of enamel.

Fruit Punch (CiM730) is described as a reddish brown cloudy transparent but I found that it lightened substantially while I worked it and came out looking more like a cloudy pinkish peach colour.

 

Colours: CiM Fruit Punch, CiM Sunset, Reichenbach Pink Lady, CiM Serenity, 

Effetre Light Turquoise, CiM Adamantium, Effetre Opal Yellow, and various colours of enamel.

Chocolate (CiM731) is a gorgeous, deep, dark brown transparent colour. Out of all the new cloudy transparents, this one might be the one I am most excited about. Because it is a very dark colour, when used in thick layers this colour is a very opaque deep brown, but you can lighten it as much as you want by applying it in thinner layers on top of other colours. This offers quite a lot of flexibility when you're designing with it.

 

Colours: CiM Chocolate, CiM Light Turquoise, Effetre Opal Yellow, Effetre Light Red, 

CiM Sunset, CiM Loch Ness, CiM Serenity, and various colours of enamel.

CiM Watermelon (CiM219) is a bright coral cloudy transparent that darkened a little as I worked it. I really liked it. I am wondering if it could have been made even more beautiful by suspending the coral filiments in a very pale pink instead of clear.

Colours: CiM Watermelon, CiM Chocolate, Effetre Opal Yellow, 

CiM Sunset, Reichenbach Pink Lady, and CiM Loch Ness.

And finally, this last bead is made with a colour that I don't think will be for sale (at least not this time around), doesn't have a name, and is a bright, royal blue cloudy transparent. In these beads, you can see both how the bright blue base looks almost opaque, and how the same colour in a thin layer in the bead's raised dot decoration looks streaky and wispy and almost transparent.

What a lot of fun! I can't wait to see where CiM takes this product line in the future.