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 :: 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.

Test Results :: Loch Ness

CiM Loch Ness (CiM432) is a very dark green moonstone colour, although to me it just seems like a very dark transparent since it is quite difficult to see through, even when used in thin layers. It's a very well-behaved colour, buttery and easy to control except that it gets a lot easier to boil it when applying it in thin layers with stringer. Work cooler and higher up in your flame to avoid this problem.

Loch Ness does not change colour when you reduce it, and looks pretty much black when used in self-coloured spacers.

Silver dissolves in a fun way on top of Loch Ness, looking almost like a starscape or galaxy. When the silver is reduced and encased, it opacifies on top of the Loch Ness and develops hints of blue here and there.

This colour has potential as a good base colour for silver glass. Both my reducing silver glass and my striking silver glass got great colour on top of it.

Copper Green separates with Loch Ness, but apart from that it is not a terribly reactive colour. This reaction happens with Light Turquoise as well, so I suspect it will happen with most turquoise opaque glasses.

This colour does not react with Ivory, and it is always good to find greens and blues where that is true.


These beads all contain some Loch Ness:

Test Results :: Pale Purple (Pale Amethyst)

Effetre Pale Purple (EFF046), also called Pale Amethyst, is a very pale purple transparent colour. It is not very reactive with silver or other colours, and is reasonably well-behaved in the flame, resisting my "expert" attempts at boiling it.

Overall, I quite like this colour. I don't use a lot of pale transparents in the beads I typically make, but I like having one in each hue group that I can call on reliably when I need one.

Pale Amethyst doesn't change colour when you reduce it.

Here you can see that silver stays silver under Peal Amethyst. When silver is reduced and encased on top of Pale Amethyst, it develops a bluish haze.

Pale Amethyst is a decent base colour for silver glass, but it doesn't cause any magic to happen. in the striking silver glass frit. I quite like the way the reduction frit looks.

On top of Pale Amethyst, Copper Green separates and Ivory spreads and looks 'floaty'. Ivory and Peace both spread like mad on top of it, but Opal Yellow stays crisp and thin. Other than those observations, there's not much more to see here. Pale Amethyst is not very reactive.

Test Results :: Summer Haze / Lemongrass

CiM Summer Haze (CiM321) and CiM Lemongrass (CiM320) are essentially the same colour, except that Lemongrass is a little more opaque. They work up a gorgeous, smokey lemon yellow. The glass in these test beads is Summer Haxe, but there are beads with both Lemongrass and Summer Haze towards the end of this post. Because these colours are essentially the same formula according to CiM, I only did the colour test with one of them but I am sure that there are some subtle differences.

Reducing Summer Haze didn't really alter its colour. It might have gotten a bit darker, but I also need to remember that it is a smaller bead on a dark background, which probably explains the colour difference in the two beads above all by itself.

Silver develops a slight 'mistiness' on top of Summer Haze, and when the silver is reduced and encased it shows some areas with blue halos under the encasement layer When you use Summer Haze over silver foil, the foil turns bright gold. This means that Summer Haze has interesting potential as a base colour for silver glass frit stringer.

Summer Haze is an unusually good base colour for silver glass. My reducing silver glass and striking silver glass both really bloomed on top of it.

Summer Haze is not a very reactive colour, but it did cause separation in Opal Yellow, Ivory, Peace, and Copper Green in my test beads.

Here are some other beads made with Lemongrass and Summer Haze.

Lemongrass

Lemongrass

Summer Haze

Test Results :: Lotis

Double Helix Lotis is a beautiful middle pink colour. It has gorgeous smoothness and clarity, and is not difficult to strike at all.

The larger the amount of Lotis in one place, the darker it looks.

Lotis is pinker, brighter, and lighter than Rubino Oro and Pink Lady, the other two pinks I had on hand to test it with.

In spite of it being a lighter pink, Lotis is still powerful in a handmixed colour. Here, I've paired it with one of the Double Helix semi-transparent whites for a beautiful, semi-opaque pink without much dilution of its colour.

Lotis is a bit reactive with silver, turning it a smokey, yellowish grey colour with blue fume around its edges. When the silver is reduced and encased, it looks lacier and the yellow goes away.

Lotis makes a pretty base colour for silver glass. I got a beautiful starting strike in my TerraNova2 frit.

Although Lotis is reactive with silver, it is mostly inert with these other colours I use for testing. Apart from a slight tendency for Copper Green to separate when used next to it, there isn't much to report about these beads.

Test Results :: Anole

Today is my 10th anniversary!  10 years ago, I posted my first glass review and then look what happened.  I hope you enjoy this one and the ones that will inevitably follow.  I don't know whether or not I have 10 more years of this in me, but I guess it's possible! :D

 

CiM Anole (CiM480) is a pretty, light green semi-opaque colour that stays translucent as you work it. It's the same hue as Elixir, only with less translucency.

I was not expecting it to be, but Anole is a bit sensitive to overreduction. Reducing it here made it darker and yellower than the other Anole beads.

Silver disperses over the surface of Anole in little veins, and then springs forth with a largely uninteresting white blankety effect when it is encased, without any blue blushing, translucency, or iridescence to make it interesting.

I got pretty colour from my reducing silver glass frit against this colour, even if my TerraNova2 frit was slow to strike on top of it. These reactions were a bit of a let-down though after my results with Elixir. I think I'm noticing that the misty opals have some silver glass-influencing power in them that colours like Anole lack.

Ivory and Copper Green both separate on top of Anole, but apart from that I didn't notice much in terms of reactions in these beads.

Here are some beads made with Anole.