Test Results :: Dark Topaz

Effetre Dark Topaz (016) is a rich, dark transparent colour that is reminiscent of Root Beer or Coca Cola. In terms of reactions, Dark Topaz is most similar to Ivory and other colours like Ivory. It has strong reactions to silver and copper, and is pretty easy-going with everything else.

Dark Topaz doesn't change colour when you reduce it.

Dark Topaz makes an interesting base for silver leaf. Silver behaves on it much the same way that it behaves on Ivory. There's no point in encasing silver foil with Dark Topaz - it kills it.

Dark Topaz is a beautiful base colour for both reducing and striking silver glass. It's got something in it that serves as a catalyst.

Like Ivory, Dark Topaz forms a brown line reaction with Opal Yellow.

Dark Topaz turns a greyish brown on top of Copper Green

Ivory and Peace both separate on top of Dark Topaz.

You can encase goldstone with Dark Topaz, but if you do, don't get it really hot for prolonged periods of time. If you do, it turns a blechy dark grey colour because the copper in the goldstone reacts with the metals in the Dark Topaz. If you want to encase your goldstone with a dark brown transparent to accentuate its beauty, Oliva Nera (Black Olive) is a better choice because it won't discolour.

Here are some beads that contain Dark Topaz.

Test Results :: Lime Green

Reichenbach Lime Green (RL4017) is a medium green transparent glass that is quite pale in thin layers, but darkens up significantly when used in solid, self-coloured beads. It darkens a little when worked, so you can expect any beads you make with this colour to end up somewhat darker than the rod colour might lead you to believe.

In this picture, Lime Green is in the middle. On its left is Effetre Olive Transparent, and on it's right is Effetre Light Grass Green. It's the darkest of the three, and builds saturation quickly as you build up a bead.

Here, you can see that the rightmost bead, which I reduced, looks no different from the left hand bead, which I did not.

Silver crusts up on top of Lime Green and develops some bluish haze. When the silver is reduced and encased, some of that blue haze can be captured under the clear layer. In the rightmost bead, I tried encasing some silver foil with Lime Green. I do this to see if the silver will turn yellow. It didn't :)

Lime Green is an interesting base for Silver Glass. Because it is a little stiffer than the Double Helix and TAG colours in my reducing frit blend, my frit spread out on it which was nice. I got a nice starting strike from my TerraNova2 frit on top of this colour, but nothing extraordinary.

I saw some very slight separation in Ivory, Copper Green, and Peace on top of this colour, but not enough that I am even tagging those reactions to Lime Green for future reference. I didn't get many unusual reactions when I used Lime Green on top of other glasses, either, although when I used it on top of Copper Green, I did notice that the edges of the dots and stringer lines looked much brighter turquoise than can be seen elsewhere on the bead.

Here's a goddess bead made with Lime Green and some green frit. I'm not very pleased with how this came out, but am not too proud to show it anyway. If nothing else, it demonstrates how this colour is actually quite saturated and looks very dark when melted into a solid mass.

These beads also contain some Lime Green.

Test Results :: Olive (Reichenbach)

Reichenbach Olive (RL4203) is a very pretty medium green. It's an opaque colour in that you can't see through it when you use it in thick layers, but I think it would be more accurate to call this colour an "opal" because it is definitely transparent when pulled thin, and has a sort of glow to it even when used in solid, self-coloured beads.

This is a little odd, but it seems like maybe Olive gets lighter when you strike it. I am used to striking colours darkening with repeated heating and cooling, but this one seems to do the opposite. This only happened in the beads where I restruck the colour in a reduction flame, so maybe it only happens in a propane-rich environment.

Here is Olive with a bunch of lighter colours, and then with it's closest colour cousin, CiM Shrubbery. Unlike many 104 CoE greens, Olive is not even a little bit streaky. This is nice if you're going for a more solid-looking green and not looking for an organic effect.

Silver on top of Olive doesn't change its basic greenness at all. When the silver is reduced and encased on top of Olive, its edges turn blue.

I got pretty colour out of both my reducing silver glass and my TerraNova2 frit on top of this Olive.

Here, you can really see how Olive thins out to translucency when applied in a thin layer.

Copper Green, Opal Yellow, Ivory, and Peace all separate on top of Olive.  Out of these, only Opal Yellow separates when Olive is used on top of it.

When Olive is used on top of Copper Green, a thin outline of a lighter turquoise is visible around the Olive stringer lines and dots.

Here is an Olive goddess bead. I want to make some additional beads with this colour because I still have some, but they aren't ready yet. I'll come back and update this post with them after they're made.

Test Results :: Nile Green

Effetre Nile Green is a pretty, vibrant spring green. It's super-soft, making it a fast melter. It's also quite reactive with other colours.

Here, you can see that in the bead I reduced (the one on the right), a cloudy greyish sheen has appeared on its surface, not unlike the greyish sheen that we sometimes see on turquoises and teals. I think this means that this colour has some Copper in it, although it's hard to be sure.

Here, I've compared Effetre Pea Green, Effetre Grasshopper, CiM Shrubbery, CiM Elphaba, Effetre Nile Green, and Reichenbach Olive.  Nile Green is more of a true green than many of these, not containing much yellow at all.  Now that I see what I've done here, I could wish that I had also included some teals to show how much greener Nile Green is, but I didn't, so you'll have to take my word for it being a pretty middle-of-the-road, minty green and not really tending towards blue, either.

On top of Nile Green, silver seems to just settle and shine in a fine lacy pattern. When it is reduced and encased, it gets a silvery sheen to it under the clear.

In both of these beads, you can see that the silver glass frit has been shunted into the middle of the bead is a very pronounced way. This is because of the softness of the Nile Green.  I like the pretty splash of blue I got from my reducing silver glass frit on top of this colour, but don't have much use for it as a base for striking silver glass.

Nile Green and Ivory form a reciprocal dark line reaction. When Nile Green is used on top of Ivory, the line is light brown and sort of fuzzy. When Ivory is used on top of Nile Green, the line is a bit darker and more distinct.

Nile Green is a very soft colour, and seems to both spread and separate on top of almost everything. Oddly, everything I used except for the Tuxedo separated on top of Nile Green as well.

Here are some beads that contain Nile Green.

Test Results :: Peat Moss

CiM Peat Moss (CiM452) is a rich, earthy olive green transparent colour. It is definitely unique in the 104 CoE palette, and I hope that we see more of both this and Eel Grass, my other favourite transparent from this lot of new CiM colours.

Peat Moss doesn't change much when you reduce it.

Here, I've compared Peat Moss against Effetre Olive and Effetre Light Grass Green.  As you can see, it is significantly more on the yellow side and a fair bit browner than both of those colours. I got a lot of bubbles in all of these colours, which is no doubt my own fault, but Peat Moss does seem to be a colour that likes to bubble, especially when it is used in stringer form. I think the key to avoiding these bubbles is to work slower and cooler, which I'll practice :)

On top of Peat Moss, my silver turned yellow in a thick crusty layer. When I encased a similar layer of silver with clear on top of Peat Moss, all of the silver turned white.

I think this is the test result that confused me the most.  In all of my previous tests, when I've encased silver foil with a transparent colour, it has either turned the silver golden OR left it a shiny silver under the colour layer. Peat Moss is the first colour that has effectively deadened the silver so that it has no shine at all.

On top of Peat Moss, my reducing silver glass developed very interesting colour and edges, leading me to believe that Peat Moss is a good colour to use with reducing silver glass.  My TerraNova2 frit didn't do anything remarkable - Peat Moss seems like it would be an average base colour for striking silver glass.

Here you can see that Peat Moss does interesting things when pulled into stringer with reducing silver glass frit. I was surprised to see that I got this result but that it did not turn my silver foil gold, since up until now there has been a strong correlation between those two behaviours.

Copper Green, Opal Yellow, Ivory, and Peace all separate on top of Peat Moss.  Also interesting, Copper Green didn't develop its customary greyish patina when worked with Peat Moss.

Here are a few beads made with Peat Moss:

Test Results :: Light Umber

Effetre Light Umber is one of the 800-series colours, which probably means that it's limited production and won't be around for too much longer. I think it's a really interesting colour, pretty unique in the 104 palette, and both earthy and fiery at the same time. Depending on how much you strike it and the other colours it is used with, it can range from looking quite a burnt orange to being a very dark olive green, and all the shades in between.

Here you can see that in the bead I reduced, the colour is much darker. I'm not sure if this is because it struck in the reduction flame or if reducing it actually darkened the colour. Putting silver on Light Umber also made it a dark brownish green.

In the leftmost bead, you can see that silver turns a greyish colour and stays more or less in place on top of Light Umber, similarly to how it behaves with Ivory. Reduced and encased, the silver turns blue.

I am pretty sure that this cracking was the result of me having a rod of old Precision 104 Diamond Clear mixed in with my clear shorts, and not from putting silver on Light Umber, but the bead I put silver leaf on top of cracked in a really odd way. It's clearly a compatibility crack, because of how weirdly jagged and around the widest part of the bead it is, and dicey clear is the only thing I can think of that could have caused this.

Light Umber goes dark in beads with silver glass, too. I think it's a great base colour for silver glasses - the reduction colours pop, and the striking silver glass got beautiful purples even if I wasn't patient enough to properly develop the colour.

Light Umber is very reactive with Tuxedo - you can see in the leftmost bead how it has risen around the Tuxedo in halos, and in the bead on the right how it has quite dramatically separated on top of the Tuxedo.

With Copper Green, the edges of whichever colour is used in smaller quantity get dark, but the reaction is mild. Light Umber separates slightly on top of Copper Green and Copper Green spreads on top of Light Umber.

There are no obvious reactions between Light Umber and Opal Yellow, Ivory, or Peace. There is a slight separation of Light Umber on top of Opal Yellow and Peace, but nothing dramatic.

And here are some fun beads with Light Umber :)