Test Results :: Skyberry

Effetre Skyberry (EFF768) is a light blue opaque colour that blushes turquoise. It's like what you'd expect to get if Light Sky Blue and Copper Green got together and had a love child.

Like Copper Green, Skyberry develops a greyish sheen on its surface while it's being worked, although Skyberry's sheen tends more to the pinkish side, which is I guess where the whole 'berry' thing comes from. This sheen goes away when it is distracted by other surface reactions, like what you see in my colour tests with Tuxedo and Ivory.

I went to check my findings for Light Sky Blue to see how this colour and that one are similar, only to realize in a surprised and slightly horrified way that I haven't tested that colour yet.

In the bead on the left, you can see what Skyberry will do in a typical, same-coloured spacer. It's darker at the edges, and lighter in the middle, covered across the shoulders with a pale pinkish greyish sheen.

When I reduced Skyberry in the bead on the right, it turned a dark brick red.

Silver makes an interesting greyish-greenish patina on the surface of this colour, which mostly disappears when it is reduced and encased.

Like most blues, this colour is a pretty boring base colour for silver glass.  The reactions in both beads are interesting - you can see the Skyberry doing odd things around the edges of the frit in both cases - but it fails to make the colours pop, and I didn't find it a good base to strike my striking silver glass frit on.

Tuxedo separates Skyberry both when it is used on top of and underneath it, and Skyberry develops a dark line with Ivory in exactly the way you'd expect it to, as a close cousin of Copper Green.  Skyberry also separates on top of Copper Green which I thought was interesting.

In the bead on the left, if you look closely, you may notice that I accidentally used Opal Yellow twice instead of testing with Peace the way I meant to.  Oops.

Anyway, here are some fun beads with Skyberry. I still have about a half pound of this left, and plan to use it all before I move on to another palette. I am glad that Frantz still has more of this, as I'll want to put some aside for the next time I feel like working with a light blue.

Test Results :: Alley Cat

CiM Alley Cat (CiM209) is a medium orange colour that is darker than Creamsicle but lighter and more yellow than Phoenix. It can be brought closer to Sunset/Phoenix orange with repeated heating and cooling because it is a striker.

The colour of Alley Cat is not affected by reducing it.

Silver behaves with Alley Cat the way it does with other sulfur-containing colours in the orange, yellow, and ivory family. It turns the surface of Alley Cat brown and develops interesting brown/yellow striations through it. This colour would probably make interesting silvered ivory stringer. When the silver is reduced and encased, it turns blue.

Alley Cat is an interesting base colour for silver glass. My reducing silver glass frit bloomed over it, and my TerraNova2 frit struck readily and developed all kinds of interesting outlining.

Alley Cat is a bit reactive. It separated underneath my Tuxedo, and when used on top of Tuxedo it got an interesting semi-opaque quality to its outer edges.

Copper Green and Alley Cat have a mutual dark line reaction, similar to but less violent than what happens between Copper Green and Ivory.

Ivory and Opal Yellow both spread on top of this colour pretty wildly, which I think is because it is stiffer than they are. I was surprised to find no outlining reaction between Alley Cat and Opal Yellow because of how Opal Yellow reacts with Ivory, but I like surprises. Without the occasional surprise, it would be hard to stay motivated to do this testing.

Here are some other beads made with Alley Cat.

Test Results :: Little Boy Blue

CiM Little Boy Blue (CiM561) us a gorgeous blue-grey opaque. It's butter-smooth, and reminds me a lot of Dirty Martini and Lapis in terms of how nice it is to work with. I'm sad to see that it is already sold out, but I hope that hearing how nice we all think it is might inspire CiM to make more of it for us.

Little Boy Blue does not change colour when you reduce it.

On top of Little Boy Blue, silver disappears. Until you reduce and encase it, and then it sits like a cloudy, silvery blanket under the clear layer. This is the exact opposite of what happens between silver and Dirty Martini, so I guess here is where those colours' similarities end.

Reducing silver glass frit is pretty on top of Little Boy Blue, and it really stands out as an excellent base of striking silver glass frit. I got beautiful colour  from my TerraNova2 here, and beautiful separation haloes around all the little fritty bits.

Little Boy Blue separates on top of Tuxedo, but it is not very reactive with other colours. Copper Green stays very grey on top of it.

Here is a pair of beads made with Little Boy Blue. I'll come back and publish some more when I have them.

Test Results :: Cream

Vetrofond Cream (VET822) is a pale, neutral opaque. It is a bit cooler in tone than the coveted Vetrofond Light Ivory, but it is similarly stiff and has gentler reactions with unfriendly colours than the Effetre ivories. I love this colour a lot, so I was sad to see the last time I was at Frantz Art Glass that it is all gone.

This colour's only real weak point is that is sometimes has little black speckles in it. I don't mind the speckles, and if they're in my way I just pull them out, but some other people seem not to like them. You can make up your own mind if you're lucky enough to come across some of this glass.

Cream doesn't do anything much when you reduce it.

Silver crusts up on top of Cream. When the silver is reduced and encased, it looks the same but smoother and less interesting.

Cream makes an ok (but not awesome) base for silver glass. I like it better with the reduction colours than with striking ones like TerraNova2.

Here you can see that Cream separates on top of Tuxedo and makes Tuxedo bleed when Tuxedo is used on top of it.

Cream does develop a dark line with Copper Green, but mostly only when it is used on top. The dark line reaction that it has with Opal Yellow is stronger.

I didn't make any interesting observations about its behaviour with Ivory or Peace.

Here are some beads that contain Vetrofond Cream.

Test Results :: Porpoise

Porpoise (CiM828) is a medium grey opaque. When it is molten, it is disconcertingly green in colour. I thought for sure that the finished beads would be greenish, but they aren't in the least.

Reducing Porpoise turns it brown.

Porpoise seems to fall somewhere between Effetre Light Gray and Effetre Dark Gray in hue. It's much darker than Pearl Grey, and less blue/green than Bayou, another new CiM colour.

On top of Porpoise, reduced silver turns yellow under encasement.

Porpoise gets an interesting light border around TerraNova2 frit, and the colours really popped in my reduction frit bead. It seems like it might be an interesting base colour for silver glass.

Porpoise separates on top of Tuxedo, Copper Green, and Peace. It spreads out on top of Opal Yellow, and develops a brownish dark line reaction with Ivory.

On top of Porpose, Copper Green separates and Ivory develops a dark shadow line around its edges that looks like it has texture.

These beads contain some Porpoise.

Test Results :: Smurfy

Smurfy (CiM569) is a medium to dark turquoise opaque colour. I found it really creamy and nice to work with, and vastly prefer it to the other dark turquoise opaques (Dark Turquoise, Dark Sky Blue) from Effetre because it doesn't easily develop that greyish dirty patina that other turquoises get, although you can make that happen if you really try.

You can see in the bead on the left that when I reduced Smurfy it got a greyish haze on its surface. I reduced this bead a few times trying to get it to change colour. I was hoping for that solid red brick coating you can sometimes get on turquoises, but that doesn't seem to happen with this one.

Smurfy is darker than both Light Turquoise and Fremen, more of a shade with Dark Sky Blue. Unlike Dark Sky Blue, it doesn't easily develop that grey sheen, although you can make it happen if you hold it in a reducing flame.

On top of Smurfy, silver leaf looks a greyish green colour. When you reduce and encase it, it turns yellow.

Smurfy seems like it is probably a decent base for silver glass.

Like other turquoises, Smurfy gets a dark line with Ivory. Smurfy separates on top of Tuxedo and Copper Green. Apart from that, there weren't very many reactions in these beads.

Here are some other beads made with Smurfy.

Test Results :: Tahitian Pearl

Tahitian Pearl (CiM827) is a dark greyish purple that gets shiny in the flame while you're working it. As you'll see, I went into my relationship with Tahitian Pearl expecting it to be similar to Adamantium, but ultimately found it quite a bit more like Effetre Dark Silver Plum, only with more interesting variation in surface texture.

With repeated heating and cooling, the surface of Tahitian Pearl gets all shiny, wrinkly, and uneven. I was alarmed by this when I was making these two beads together on the same mandrel. Then, I reduced the bead on the right and thought that all of the neat surface finish had gone away and was alarmed by that.

And then I took the beads out of the kiln the next morning. It turns out, the wrinkly, textured shiny finish of the unreduced Tahitian Pearl is awesome, and reducing does not take away the surface finish, it just smooths it out. Also awesome.

At first, I thought Tahitian Pearl was like a shiny version of Adamantium. Then, I made this bead and realized that Tahitian Pearl is purple while Adamantium is not, and that silly first impression of mine popped like a soap bubble.

On top of Tahitian Pearl, silver disappears. When the silver is reduced and encased on top of Tahitian Pearl, it turns yellow. Ignore the peach and pink you see on the leftmost bead. This colour doesn't turn silver leaf pink the way Dark Silver Plum does. What you're seeing there is my hand and my T-Shirt in the shiny finish. Reflective!

Tahitian Pearl makes an interesting base colour for silver glass. I got neat colours and reactions from both frit treatments here without much effort.

Here, you can see that Tahitian Pearl separates on top of Tuxedo, but apart from that it seems not to be very reactive with other colours.

This bead was made with Tahitian Pearl and Raku Mottleshards.