Test Results :: Mystic Violet

Reichenbach Mystic Violet (RL0201) is a medium purple semi-opaque colour that works up like shampoo glass. The more you heat and work this colour, the more it loses its rich, pretty purpleness, so if you want to keep the dark plumminess that you see in my spacer beads below, don't use presses on it, and work quickly.

Mystic Violet devitrifies, and is very sensitive to overworking. I made a goddess bead with it, and everywhere I joined new Mystic Violet to old Mystic Violet and melted it in, the seams are pocked with little marks from where the glass pitted and devitrified. 

I left this goddess bead in the tumbler for I don't even know how many cycles, and it never really ended up looking the way I wished it would. The devitrification was so strong that even tumbling her for so long that the grit in my tumbler wore her nipples off couldn't fix the discolouration and pitting problems.

Here you can see that Mystic Violet is a little lighter than Effetre Medium Amethyst, and you can also see the shampoo effect as it's worked up. Because of the 'mystic' shampooness of it, you can see a lot more of this glass' colour than you usually can from a transparent that is this deep. Case in point -- what colour would you say Dark Amethyst and Simply Berry were if you didn't already know they were purple?

Silver beads up and disperses on top of Mystic Violet. When the silver is reduced and encased, it looks fairly uniformly mauve on top of this colour, and has a slightly lacy feel to it.

In the bead on the left, you can see from my one press and subsequent firepolishing of this bead that the colour is starting to leave the Mystic Violet.

Mystic Violet isn't remarkable as a base for silver glass. I got an 'ok' starting strike in my TerraNova2 frit, but nothing remarkable.

Mystic Violet is not very reactive, but Copper Green does separate on top of it. To a much lesser degree, so do Opal Yellow and Ivory.

Here are some other beads made with Mystic Violet.

Test Results :: Oobleck

CiM Oobleck (CiM465) is a that's-not-a-colour-we-see-a-lot-here-on-earth sort of colour. It's wickedly vibrant, beautiful to work, and I was intrigued by its reactions with other colours. Most of the opaques I tried with it spread on top of it, and I love it with silver.

Here you can see that Oobleck doesn't change when you reduce it.

It does change, though, quite a lot, when you put silver on it. Silver turns Oobleck an ochre colour. You can see some of that in action in the beads at the end of this post. On top of Oobleck, silver looks beigeish and beads up a little. When the silver on top of Oobleck is reduced and encased, it takes on a blueish cast.

My silver glass travelled to the middle of the Oobleck beads for some reason. And once it got there, in both cases, behaved very interestingly. i got cool outlines around all of my reduction frit pieces, and it developed colour in a beautifully variegated way. My TerraNova2 frit got very interesting, thick outlines and also developed colour really nicely. So, good base for silver glass is Oobleck.

Something worth noting is that I got all this gorgeous colour from the silver glass frit but although Oobleck is clearly quite reactive with silver, it didn't take on a lot of fume when I reduced the silver glass frit on top of it. Interesting.

Oobleck reacts like it thinks it's Ivory, in a category with other colours like Coral, Vetrofond Yellow Ochre, Effetre Grasshopper, and most yellows, oranges, ivories, and some reds. It develops a dark line with Copper Green, and brownish line with Opal Yellow, and seems to be heavier than the other colours I used it with here because they spread on it like crazy.

On top of Ivory, Tuxedo, and Peace, Oobleck separated into darker and lighter versions of itself.

These beads all contain some Oobleck.

Test Results :: Sacre Bleu

CiM Sacre Bleu (CiM555) is a gorgeous, vibrant, dark blue transparent. It's buttery to work, and its only real vulnerable spot is that it can be a little bit vulnerable to sooting if you work it too hot. It's interestingly reactive, it makes a nice base for silver glass, and just a beautiful colour of blue.

Here, you can see that although Sacre Bleu is essentially the same colour as Effetre Intense Blue, it's just a bit more saturated, working up darker. It's not quite as dark or as saturated as Effetre Cobalt, but its reactions are more similar to that colour.

Sacre Bleu does not change when it is reduced.

For some reason, silver leaf turned yellow and blue on top of Sacre Bleu. I looked back at previous test results, and this reaction is pretty consistent with what I saw when I tested Effetre Cobalt, so they must contain some similar ingredients.

The way silver glass develops colour on top of Sacre Bleu also bears some similarity to how it behaves with Cobalt. The reduction frit got pretty colour and interesting edges, and the TerraNova2 frit developed colours, but mostly in the burgundy/purple range.

Using Sacre Bleu over light colours reveals its true nature. It's not as saturated as Effetre Cobalt, but it is more saturated than Effetre Intense Blue.

Like Effetre Cobalt, Sacre Bleu causes separation reactions in Copper Green, Opal Yellow, Ivory, and Peace.

Here is Sacre Bleu in some fun beads.