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 :: 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 :: 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.

Test Results :: Ectoplasm

Ectoplasm (CiM474) is a medium-to-light green semi-opaque colour that is a bit more muted than some of the other new shades of green in this new lineup of CiM colours. It is a pretty shade of green, has interesting reactions with other colours, and is nice with both silver and silver glass.

Here you can see that Ectoplasm doesn't change colour when you reduce it. The smaller bead only looks a bit darker in this picture because more of the dark background is visible through it because it has less glass than the other bead.

Silver leaf makes a playful, shiny, lacy design on top of Ectoplasm. When the silver is reduced and encased, it fills out to a more uniform shiny blanket with blue fume visible in it.

Ectoplasm seems to make a pretty nice base colour for silver glass.

On top of Ectoplasm, Copper Green, Opal Yellow, Ivory, and Peace all separate.

The most interesting reaction in these beads, though, is where I used Ectoplasm on top of Ivory. In the beads above, you can see that where Ectoplasm is over Ivory, it spreads out and the Ivory rises up around it in a feathery layer that looks almost 3-dimensional. Cool.

Here are some other beads made with Ectoplasm.

Test Results :: Wheatgrass

CiM Wheatgrass (CiM471) is a medium, misty opal green. It reminds me of Effetre Dark Emerald, but the wispiness gives it more depth.

Wheatgrass doesn't change colour when you reduce it.

Silver is pretty on Wheatgrass. It dispersed all over the surface of the leftmost bead and left a bluish haze all over the surface. In the rightmost bead, you can see I got lots of blue fumey 'glow' from the silver on top of Wheatgrass. In the centre bead, I encased silver foil with Wheatgrass on top of Wheatgrass and you can see that the silver stays true under Wheatgrass, resulting in a reflective green.

Silver Glass is also quite nice on top of Wheatgrass. I got pretty colours from my reduction frit, and a gorgeous red/purple starting strike from my TerraNova2 frit.

On top of Wheatgrass, Copper Green, Opal Yellow, Ivory, and Peace all separate.

When the Wheatgrass is on top, this reaction is only evident in the Copper Green.

Here are some other beads made with Wheatgrass.

Test Results :: Baked Alaska

CiM Baked Alaska (CiM317) is a beautiful pale yellow colour that strikes in the flame. I thought it would be like Effetre Opal Yellow, and it is a very similar colour alone, but the reactions with other colours are quite different.

Baked Alaska is a striking colour, and the longer you work it, the more yellow/peach it becomes.

Baked Alaska really shines here. In the leftmost bead, I applied silver leaf and burnished it in, and then melted it down. I love all the silver that is visible on the surface and how in places, the Baked Alaska has fumed a deep salmony colour. In the rightmost bead, the silver leaf is greyish blue over pink, which I find interesting and unique.

Unlike its Effetre cousin Opal Yellow, Baked Alaska doesn't energize the reactions in silver glass.

When you use Tuxedo on top of Baked Alaska, it doesn't seem like it will be reactive, but if you switch it around so that the Tuxedo is on top you can see that the Baked Alaska separates, with a translucency to the outside of the stringerwork that is sort of milk-mustachey. Baked Alaska does not bleed with Tuxedo the way Opal Yellow does.

When you put Baked Alaska on top of Opal Yellow, it gets an interesting yellow and yellow/green halo around it that is pretty rare. When the Opal Yellow is on top, nothing very interesting happens.

Ivory separates on top of Baked Alaska with a wide, darker centre stripe/dot in the middle of the stringerwork. When the Ivory is on top, nothing happens. I love the way the Ivory separated much better than the greyish dark line I got from Opal Yellow with Ivory.

On top of Peace, Baked Alaska looks oddly green.

Here are some other beads that include some Baked Alaska.