Test Results :: Peppermint Cream

Peppermint Cream (CiM488) is a pale, yellowish green opaque colour. It is soft and creamy, and my rods were very well behaved, not shocking at all in the flame. It reminds me quite a bit of an older colour called Linen, except that it has a greenish cast to it.

Nothing of any significance happens when you reduce Peppermint Cream.

This colour is a touch lighter than Dirty Martini and just a shade or two yellower.

When I encased Peppermint Cream after putting silver on it, it cracked under my Effetre 006 Clear. This doesn't mean you shouldn't encase it, but it definitely means that you shouldn't encase it after putting silver on it. This has happened to me with other colours that are otherwise perfectly compatible like Effetre Petroleum Green and CiM Linen. Just proceed with caution, and make a test bead before embarking on a big run of beads the way you always should anyway.

Peppermint Cream seems to be an average base colour for silver glass. It fumed a bit when I reduced the reduction frit, and the TerraNova2 frit started to strike, but no magic happened.

Peppermint Cream is not terribly reactive, but it does separate on top of Tuxedo and Ivory.  On top of Tuxedo, it has a milk-moustache sort of appearance, almost translucent.

Other colours (Ivory, Opal Yellow, Copper Green, Tuxedo) all seem to spread out on top of it.

Also, you can see in the Tuxedo dots and stringer lines that Peppermint Cream made Tuxedo bleed out into it quite a bit.

Here are some other beads that include some Peppermint Cream:

Test Results :: Pistachio

Effetre Pistachio (EFF415) is a gorgeous yellow-green-grey ochre colour, both greener and lighter than most batches of Vetrofond  Yellow Ochre. It's similar to Effetre Apple Blush, but is lighter and more subdued in hue. It's a streaky colour, so sometimes when you use it you get lines in your work where it joins onto itself, but that's its only real flaw.

As you melt Pistachio, it goes a bit lighter than its rod colour, but as you use it the colour all comes back. You can see in the left bead here that it is a bit lighter - it's only because I hadn't struck all of the colour back into it. Pistachio doesn't change colour when you reduce it.

Here you can see that Pistachio reacts with silver in a similar manner to Ivory. Silver discolours and covers its surface when you use it on top, and when you reduce and encase the silver it gets pinkish and blueish tones in it.

Pistachio is an interesting base colour for reducing silver glass because of the neat colour contrast, and I got some nice colour in my TerraNova2 frit, but overall these test beads weren't very remarkable.

Pistachio and Copper Green form a mutual dark line reaction that is more pronounced and invasive when the Pistachio is on top.  It does this with Opal Yellow, too, in a similar way to what you see when you use Opal Yellow and Ivory together.

Ivory separates on top of Pistachio and Pistachio separates on top of Ivory.

Here are some other beads that include Pistachio:

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.