Test Results :: American Beauty

It has taken me a long time to get around to using my American Beauty (EFF643). This Effetre "cool colour" is strange in the rod, looking more like a cloudy red filigrana than a streaky red transparent.

I liked this colour much more than I thought I would because the paddle pictures that are displayed for it at most online vendors make it look truly hideous. My core takeaway from these test beads? Try everything. The paddle colours unfortunately tell us almost nothing about a colour.

American Beauty is unfazed by a bit of reduction.

On top of American Beauty, silver crusts up and turns a patchy blue. When the silver is reduced and encased, the blue is more evident.

Silver Glass is really pretty on top of American Beauty. I got good results from both my reducing colours and my striking colours. The reactions are more subtle and the colours are much more vibrant than what I got performing the same tests with Striking Red.

American Beauty is not very reactive. I got a little fuzziness in my Ivory stringer dots and lines on top of it, but that's it.

Here are some other beads made with American Beauty.

Test Results :: Strawberry Sweet

Vetrofond Strawberry Sweet (VET994) is no longer in production, but it is still available at many vendors. You could also try Effetre Spanish Leather if you are looking for something similar but can't find this particular colour. Strawberry Sweet's main advantage over Spanish Leather is that it is less shocky, but Spanish Leather is also a lovely colour and very close to it in hue.

Strawberry Sweet does not noticeably change colour when it is reduced.

Like many other colours in the Red-Orange-Yellow-Ivory colour family, this colour turns dark with the addition of silver, and silver turns beige and blue on top of it. Encasing this reaction darkens it slightly.

Strawberry Sweet makes an average base colour for silver glass. My reducing silver glass frit popped on it better than my TerraNova2 frit did.

Here, you can see that Strawberry Sweet and Copper Green have a reciprocal dark line reaction. Also, Strawberry Sweet separates a little on top of Opal Yellow and Ivory thins out at its edges when it is used on top of this colour. Apart from that, nothing really odd reactionwise happened in this colour test set.

Here are some other beads that include Strawberry Sweet.

Test Results :: Striking Red

Effetre Striking Red (EFF076) is not my favourite of the three dark, transparent reds that I've tested so far. It's a nice enough colour -- turning a pretty, deep red once you get it to strike and layer it over something significantly lighter. But if you're making small beads and applying this colour in thin layers, you'd better exercise some patience while you make that happen, because striking it that way can be very tricky.

My opinion, for what it is worth, is that CiM Bordello and Effetre Very Cherry are both much easier to strike than this colour. I haven't tested CiM Sangre yet and I am looking forward to seeing how it compares. 

Striking Red doesn't change when you reduce it.

Reactions with silver are pretty typical for Striking Red. It behaved the same way with silver as both Very Cherry and Bordello, crusting up on the bead's surface and turning blue in places.

Striking Red is a surprisingly nice base for silver glass frit. My reducing silver glass frit got interesting, wispy outlines and my TerraNova2 frit got a very pretty starting strike.So, the good news is that if you're not enjoying your stash of Striking Red using it in more traditional ways, you can stick it under your silver glass to interesting effect.

There is almost nothing to report regarding Striking Red and its reactions with my staple colours. There is a bit of separation with Ivory and a more pronounced amount of separation when it's used with Peace.

Here are some other beads made using Striking Red:

Test Results :: Purple Red

Effetre Purple Red (EFF438) is a very dark burgundy red colour. It can be a bit prone to boiling, so if you are using it in stringer form and are not really looking to have any air bubbles in your dots and lines, work it cool. It's a difficult colour to photograph, looking a bit lighter and a bit redder in person than you'll imagine it is from my photographs in this post.

Purple Red doesn't change when you reduce it.

Like some other reds, silver can turn blue when used on top of this colour. You can see some blue in both the unencased and encased bead above.

On top of Purple Red, my reduction frit pieces got interesting yellowish outlines and developed pretty colours in the reduction flame. This colour was also a surprisingly effective base for my TerraNova 2 frit. I got beautiful colours from the frit on top of Purple Red.

CiM Peace separates on top of Purple Red but, on the whole, this colour not very reactive with other colours. It can thin out and looks a bit transparent when used in thin layers over a lighter colour like Opal Yellow or Peace.

Here are some additional beads that contain Purple Red.

Test Results :: Light Red

Effetre Light Red is a gorgeous colour. I don't know what took me so long to try it, but I am glad I have found it eventually :)  It's sort of in the middle of the red hues, and seems like a real, true red until you pull it out thin over white or use it in thin layers over white, when it looks more orange.

Here, you can see that Light Red doesn't change when it is reduced. It also seems not to alter much with repeated heating and cooling, maybe darkening just a bit.

One of the benefits of all of the anal-retentive planning I do is that I occasionally get to recycle a picture instead of taking a new one, and this is one of those times.  Here, you can see that Light Red is very slightly darker than Reichenbach Lipstick, and is substantially lighter than CiM Maraschino, Valentine, and Hemoglobin.

On top of Light Red, silver clouded up and visibly bunched on top of the base colour. It also fumed the base colour a dark, bluish colour. When the silver was reduced and encased, it turned blue.

Silver Glass is very pretty on top of Light Red, both the reducing kind and the striking kind.

In terms of reactions, this colour was surprisingly volatile.

On top of Tuxedo, my stringer dots and lines are decidedly mottled and blotchy.  I also got a reciprocal dark line reaction with Copper Green, and then some separation inside my stringer dots and lines of Copper Green, Ivory, and Peace when used on top of Light Red.

Opal Yellow, when I used it on top of Light Red, got a strange, irregular blotchy brownish edging to it, and where I used Light Red over Ivory, the Ivory has crept over its edges in places to do that milk moustache thing it sometimes does to other colours.

I think the very weirdest thing though is that when I used Light Red on top of Peace, so much of the red bled into the Peace that it looks pink.

Here are some other beads that contain Light Red.

Test Results :: Lipstick

Reichenbach Lipstick (RL6116) is a bright, happy semi-opaque (opal) red. This colour melts really nicely, does not boil easily, and didn't turn grey on me the way Reichenbach Strawberry did, although I should really try that colour again now that I have a more powerful oxygen concentrator.

Here is Lipstick with some other colours for reference.  Effetre Light Red is actually quite similar to Lipstick, although I think Lipstick is a bit lighter and a bit less opaque.  CiM Valentine and CiM Hemoglobin are substantially darker.  CiM Maraschino is darker in colour and more transparent than Lipstick.

Lipstick does not change significantly when it is reduced.

On top of Lipstick, silver leaf really crusts up, and the Lipstick itself fumes a dark colour. When the silver is reduced and encased, it turns blue. The Lipstick stays dark though, and does not lighten under the clear the way some other colours have for this test.

Lipstick is a good base for silver glass. I got some nice colour out of both my TerraNova2 frit and my blend of reduction glasses on top of this colour, and the dark line that forms around the fritty bits really make them pop.

Here you can see that because this colour is not fully opaque, it looks significantly lighter when used over a lighter base colour.

Lipstick separates on top of Tuxedo, and the edges of Tuxedo stringer lines and dots on top of Lipstick are a little fuzzy.

All of the colours I used here with Lipstick seem to have spread on top of it.  Ivory separated and developed a lightline up the middle, and there is a greyish dark line reaction with Copper Green that is both wide and blotchy.

Here are some other beads made with Lipstick: