Test Results :: Black Marble

Effetre Black Marble (EFF774) is a streaky, dark brown-black colour that has the same consistency as Effetre Dark Ivory. Also like Dark Ivory, it does a crazy reticulation thing that looks like little cells of different shades of brown and ivory in between veins of darker colour. It's in this glass' reactions to other colours where some big differences lie.

On a bit of a side note, this colour does not look like marble, and it is also not really black. It's more of a 'rich farmland soil' kind of dark, streaky brown.

Black Marble doesn't really change much when it is reduced. It's possible that the bead on the right got a bit darker, but it's hard to be sure since this colour has so much variation anyway.

Here I did Black Marble as stringer (wrapped about three times) on the left side of the bead and then the same amount of Silvered Black Marble on the right side. The silvered stringer is darker overall (my best guess is that the silver reacted with whatever ivory-like glass forms the lighter streaks?) and has tiny flecks of silver in it that make me happy. I made the Silvered Black Marble the same way I make Silvered Dark Ivory.

I sort of expected this colour to behave the same way with silver as light and dark ivory glasses do, but I was wrong. The silver leaf on the surface of this colour is a more interesting light golden hue. When I reduced and encased the silver, the golden-ness went away and it blushed blue in places which I have not had it do with ivory glasses.

Silver glass is very beautiful on top of Black Marble, which seems to make a decent base colour for both reducing and striking colors.

Black Marble has a much milder version of the same reaction profile as Ivory - which is to say that it does a gentle dark line reaction with Copper Green, and it is also gently reactive with Opal Yellow. Because both colours are spready, you can see where Ivory and Black Marble were used together that there is some interesting bleed at the edges of the stringer dots and lines.

My most important takeaway from these beads is that Black Marble is really awesome as stringer.

Here are some other beads that include Black Marble:

Test Results :: Cotswold Blue

CiM Cotswold Blue (CiM554) is a medium teal opaque. It's a bit reactive with Ivory, but is otherwise fairly well behaved. My rods of Cotswold Blue were mildly shocky, but I liked it enough anyway to order a full pound of it, so I clearly didn't mind it all that much.

Cotswold Blue doesn't change colour when you reduce it.

Silver leaf on top of Cotswold Blue largely disappears, beading up in tiny little silver granules on the surface. When the silver is reduced an encased, it turns an odd mustardy colour.

The Cotswold Blue bead with silver on it cracked. You can't see the cracking in the photo very well, but it cracked on a diagonal under the clear. More and more, I am realizing that these darker teal blue colours (Petroleum Green, Rainforest, and this one among others) encase just fine until you add silver, but that the addition of silver somehow tips the crack balance. I'm not sure why this is the case, but am glad that I'm finding a pattern that will make this problem easy to avoid.

Cotswold Blue is a very pretty base colour for striking silver glass, and I got nice colours from my TerraNova2 frit on top of it. Its colour isn't really conducive to hosting the reducing silver glass colours since it is so similar, but you can see that there was some interesting spreading behaviour in that frit in the leftmost bead above, too.

Copper Green, Ivory, and Opal Yellow all separate on top of Cotswold Blue. Cotswold Blue is such a streaky colour that it separates on top of everything.

The only real reactions of note here were:

• Ivory and Cotswold Blue form a mutual dark line reaction
• The edges where Peace and Cotswold Blue meet get sort of fuzzy and translucent. You can see this in both beads.

Here are some other beads that include Cotswold Blue:

Test Results :: Lilac

Reichenbach Lilac (RL6221) is a medium to dark purple that has blue overtones. It is a little less purple and a little less bright than its close cousin Purple Rose, but has better workability since it doesn't boil, pit, and devitrify the way that colour can. It's very, very streaky.

In the leftmost bead here, you can see how crazily streaky this colour is, with the streaks looking both bluer and darker than the rest of the bead. When this colour is reduced, it goes dark and slightly shiny.

Adding silver to Lilac turns it a weird greenish yellow colour. When the silver is reduced and encased, it turns white with a faint blush of blue here and there. Any Lilac still visible through the silver continues to look greenish yellow.

Lilac rocks silver glass. Around my reducing silver glass, it's gone brownish and shiny, and even reddish in places, and it has developed really cool delineation around the fritty bits. The frit itself in the leftmost bead has developed colour and shine really well. In the rightmost bead, you can see that I also got very pretty colours from the TerraNova2 frit.

Lilac separates Copper Green, Opal Yellow, and Peace. It develops a reciprocal dark line reaction with Ivory, and it spreads and goes somewhat translucent when used over White and Opal Yellow. It separates on top of Tuxedo.

Here are some other beads made with Lilac:

Test Results :: Spanish Leather

1 - Plain, 2 - Plain (reduced), 3 - w/ Silver Leaf, 4 - w/ Silver Leaf (reduced & encased), 5 - w/ TerraNova2 Frit, 6 - w/ Silver Glass Frit (reduced), 7 & 8 - w/ Tuxedo, Copper Green, Opal Yellow, Ivory, and Peace

Effetre Spanish Leather is a streaky, stable dark reddish orange colour. It reminds me a lot more of ripe tomatoes or hot chili peppers than leather -- if the name had led you to believe that this colour was in any way brown, it has tricked you.

Spanish Leather behaves fairly predictably as compared to other reds and corals, although the consistency is a little stiffer than Coral and the texture less 'grainy' if that makes sense to you. It is a bit of a striker, and when it is allowed to heat and cool repeatedly, it can turn quite dark. You can see this on the ends of some of the beads as you look through the rest of this post.

Spanish Leather does not develop any noticeable effect from being introduced to a reduction flame.

Silver has a very interesting appearance on top of Spanish Leather, turning blueish in some places and yellowish in others, and hazing a little on the surface. When the silver is reduced and encased, the interesting effects are lost and you are left with just a silvery net effect on top of the dirty brown Silver/Spanish Leather reaction.

Silver Glass likes being on top of Spanish Leather. In both beads, a strong brown/black line has developed around the fritty bits. You can see in the bead on the left that I got nice pinks and purples from the TerraNova2 frit. It's too bad it sort of clashes with the Spanish Leather itself and that the colours don't gel better.

In the bead on the right, the reducing silver glass also developed colour nicely and because the blues of the silver glass has good contrast with the base, looks quite nice on top of Spanish Leather.

When Spanish Leather is used on top of Tuxedo, a shiny, greyish line appears around the dots and stringer lines.  This line is lighter and shinier than the line that pops up around it on top of Copper Green.

Spanish Leather and Copper Green have a reciprocal dark line reaction between them.

Ivory spreads out a little on top of Spanish Leather, but apart from that not much of interest occurs between Spanish Leather and Opal Yellow, Ivory, or Peace.

This sculptural goddess bead was made with Spanish Leather, and illustrates the richness and streakiness of the colour.

And here are some fun beads made with Spanish Leather:

 

Test Results :: Bonnie Blue

1 - Plain, 2 - Plain (reduced), 3 - w/ Silver Leaf, 4 - w/ Silver Leaf (reduced & encased), 5 - w/ Silver Glass Frit (reduced), 6 - w/ TerraNova2 Frit, 7 & 8 - w/ Tuxedo, Copper Green, Opal Yellow, Ivory and Peace

I have deep love for this colour... the kind of love that drives people to hoard glass. Unfortunately, I talked myself out of participating in Frantz Art Glass' Black Friday sale, so I don't have a whole lot of it, and if you all agree with me that this is possibly the nicest blue glass ever, I will miss my chance to get more.  This colour really shines on its own, and is also really nice in a base bead, under clear where it won't react with anything. It is also weirdly compelling on top of Opal Yellow.

Effetre Bonnie Blue seems to be a light blue opaque layered with two different colours of blue transparent - one on the teal side, and the other more aqua. Whatever they did at the factory, the result is a magical, streaky and beautiful.

When you reduce Bonnie Blue, it develops a patchy reddish reduction coating. I won't ever do this on purpose again, but if you have a use for this effect it's nice to know how to make it happen.

When silver leaf is melted into the surface of Bonnie Blue, a couple of strange things happen. First, the silver turns sort of yellow in places. Second, where it is darker, almost a dark grey, the silver has beaded up on the surface slightly. When the silver is reduced and encased, no good comes of it - it's yellow and brown and really sort of gross-looking.

Bonnie Blue also isn't a big winner with silver glass. My reducing silver glass frit sort of turned brown in places, and while I got some decent shine out of it the blues of the silver glass frit don't really bring out the beauty of the base colour. My TerraNova2 frit didn't really develop nice colour on top of Bonnie Blue and looks sort of sad and brown in places.

In terms of colour reactions, there are some interesting things to report.

On top of Tuxedo, the edges of my Bonnie Blue seem to have curdled slightly, and the streakiness of the Bonnie Blue is really evident. Nothing so interesting happens when things are turned upside down and it is Tuxedo on top of Bonnie Blue.

Bonnie Blue causes Copper Green to separate when Copper Green is used on top of it, and when Bonnie Blue is used on top of Copper Green it helps Copper Green to looks pretty and turquoise and not develop that greyish sheen it seems to like having when used by itself or with other colours.

I am oddly attracted to what happens to Bonnie Blue on top of Opal Yellow - the streakiness of it is accentuated and the stringer lines and dots look almost weirdly rippled on top of Opal Yellow in the bead on the left. When Opal Yellow is used on top of Bonnie Blue, it just looks like Opal Yellow.

Bonnie Blue and Ivory have a reciprocal dark line reaction, which because of the streakiness and semi-transparency of the Bonnie Blue in places is echoed all through the stringer lines and dots in my test bead where I used it on top of Ivory. This reaction is fairly strong - even in the bead on the right you can see that the Ivory has a dark line around it but is also pretty thoroughly shaded and discoloured on the inside of the stringerwork.

Peace and Bonnie Blue co-exist without doing anything noteworthy.

Here are some fun beads made with this colour. I used Bonnie Blue in the base of the mushroom bead.

And here is a really bad picture of the goddess bead I made with Bonnie Blue. I'm posting it only because I'm too lazy to try to take another picture, and so that you can see how pretty the colour looks when used in a sculptural piece. Please excuse the lint.

Test Results :: Woodie

1 - Plain, 2 - Plain (reduced), 3 - w/ Silver Leaf, 4 - w/ Silver Leaf (reduced & encased), 5 - w/ Silver Glass Frit (reduced), 7 & 8 - w/ Tuxedo, Copper Green, Opal Yellow, Ivory and Peace

Effetre Woodie is a pretty neat colour of brown. It's sort of strange to use - it's not grainy at all like some Effetre opaques, and it is smooth and almost buttery to melt. It's fairly transparent while hot, but when it cools it is as opaque as opaque can be.

Want a sort of washed out, streaky brown? Great, then don't strike or reduce it. Want instead a reddish, rich, chocolaty brown? Then just strike it by giving it a dose of reduction flame and be pleased with yourself for knowing it does this.

You can also strike it naturally in a neutral flame to darken it, but that doesn't give it the reddish hue. The next beads show its darker-yet-not-red aspect.

When silver leaf is used on top of Effetre Woodie, it lays flat on the surface and acquires a touch of a golden hue. You can also see around the silver leaf in the bead on the left that a subtle, darker line surrounds the silver. When the silver leaf is reduced and encased it turns a snowy silver colour with hints of blue.

Silver glass likes Woodie, too. My reducing silver glass frit got nice shine on it, and my TerraNova2 frit developed some nice colour.

And here it is with some colours. In these beads, the Woodie is not very well struck, and has a sickly yellowish hue to it. This glass is a chameleon, for sure.

On top of Tuxedo, the edges of Woodie look sort of bubbled and three-dimensional. No reaction is evident when things are switched around and it is the Tuxedo that is on top.

There's no obvious reaction when Woodie is used on top of Copper Green, however on top of Woodie, Copper Green develops an interesting three-dimensional-looking outline.

Woodie doesn't have any reactions with Opal Yellow or Ivory apart from a little bleeding/feathering with Ivory when it is used on top which is less of a reaction than it is a viscosity thing.

Finally, Peace separates on top of Woodie just like it does on just about everything else. you can see a faint outline inside the Peace dots and stringer lines in the bead on the right.

I made some fun beads with Woodie, too, but I made them so long ago that I can no longer tell which ones they are. Sorry about that! I am almost caught up with posting the test beads that I made in September, so I'll have more interesting stuff to show soon.

Test Results :: Supernatural

1 - Plain, 2 - Plain (reduced), 3 - w/ Silver Leaf, 4 - w/ Silver Leaf (reduced & encased), 5 - w/ Silver Glass Frit (reduced), 6 - w/ TerraNova2 Frit, 7 & 8 - w/ Tuxedo, Copper Green, Opal Yellow, Ivory and Peace

Effetre Supernatural is a very interesting colour. All by itself, it's a little boring - just streaky grey and white. However, reducing it, using it with silver and using it with other colours can change its appearance. I think I like it best reduced and with silver leaf. You'll see why, below.

It's not evident in the test beads, but superheating Supernatural brings out turquoise streaks, I'm assuming because it makes the copper in the glass separate from the rest of the colour. You can't see that in my test beads, but it is evident in the goddess bead at the end of this post.

You can see here in the spacer on the left the whiteish grey streakiness of Supernatural. When supernatural is reduced, it develops a translucent pinkish red coating.

When I used silver leaf on top of Supernatural, it fumed the Supernatural a yellowish colour. Additionally, the silver has turned a blueish colour. It's rather pretty, actually. When the reaction is reduced and encased, most of the prettiness goes away and it just looks like a whiteish coating surrounded by yellowish and pinkish patches, which is way less appealing.

When I reduced silver glass on top of Supernatural, I gor a brownish, yellowish fuming from the Supernatural, all around the frit. This is a pretty neat effect. On top of Supernatural, my striking silver glass frit got an interesting strike - I'm not thrilled with the amount of strike, but I am intrigued by the fact that each bit of frit seems to have developed colour in little patches. This makes me want to try it again, for sure.

Supernatural is a streaky colour, so in most cases above, it's not easy to see if there is a reaction. However, a few things come through loud and clear:

• Copper Green turns darker and pinkish when Supernatural is used on top of it.Supernatural gets a brown line around it when it's used on top of Opal Yellow. This line does not seem to appear when Opal Yellow is used on top of Supernatural.
• There is a reciprocal dark line reaction between Ivory and Supernatural. This dark line appears regardless of which colour is used as the base.

Here are some fun beads with Supernatural:

Supernatural's streakiness and its tendency to reduce even in a more or less neutral flame are both evident in this goddess bead. You can see the deep, turquoise streaks, the grey mottled streakiness of the glass itself and the patches of brick-red reduction here.

Here, I've used Supernatural both in the core of the bead under transparent light aqua and silvered, in the mushroom cap and stem.