Test Results :: Mermaid Unique #1

This is trippy, this blogging thing, because you can look back at what you did a year ago (or more, I suppose, if you've blogged for more than a year) and see what your beads were like, what you were focusing on, and in the case of this blog post, the results from some other testing you did that you now want to reference.  Fun!

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 - w/ Tuxedo, 8 - w/ Copper Green, 9 - w/ Opal Yellow, 10 - w/ Ivory, 11 - w/ White

In this case, I was looking back to my test results with CiM Mermaid to see the differences between Mermaid and this newer colour, CiM Mermaid Unique #1.  I posted my Mermaid results in December 2009, so the format of the post is much different from this one, and my beads have improved quite a bit since then, so that is also evident when you look at the two sets of results.  I should go back at some point and re-do my Mermaid testing, but I have a lot of other colours to get through first.

Mermaid Unique #1 is both darker and bluer than original Mermaid.  It is also less streaky, and does not go red when you reduce it the way original Mermaid does.  Silver glass is GORGEOUS on Mermaid Unique #1.  This is another one of the CiM unique lots that sold out so quickly that it made my head spin, so there isn't any more left.  I only ever had a few rods of it -- just enough to tease me and get me all wound up about it.

Silver on Mermaid Unique #1 turns sort of greenish.  In the bead on the left, the silver seems to have migrated towards the centre of the bead and webbed out a little.  In the bead on the right, the colour of the reduced and encased silver leaf seems mottled with a greenish colour, pink and a yellowish orange competing for space.  When I used silver with Mermaid, the silver seemed to discolour the Mermaid and yellow it a bit, but I didn't see this effect with Mermaid Unique #1.

I got gorgeous colour out of my TerraNova2 frit on top of Mermaid Unique #1, and the reduced silver glass got interesting colour too, although I like the TN2 bead much better.

Tuxedo on top of Mermaid Unique #1 bleeds a little, and looks all smeary.  On top of Tuxedo, Mermaid Unique #1 developed a shiny, silvery outline.  A lot of colours seem to do this on top of Tuxedo, I'm noticing. This reaction did not happen between Effetre Black and Mermaid.

Something in the Mermaid Unique #1 makes Copper Green sheen up with a pinkish grey patina.  This isn't unattractive, but the colour doesn't really work well with the Mermaid Unique #1.  This didn't seem to happen between Mermaid and Copper Green, although my Copper Green batch might be slightly different now than it was then.

On top of Opal Yellow, Mermaid Unique #1 gets a faintly darker line and dot in the middle of the stringer lines and dots.  Mermaid Unique #1 bleeds into Opal Yellow, so you can see a petroleum green-coloured stain seeping into the Opal Yellow from the Mermaid Unique #1 side of the bead.

I think I'm using a different batch of Effetre Ivory now than when I tested Mermaid, and that might account for the CRAZY marbling that was caused in the middle of this bead.  It also might be that Mermaid Unique #1 is more reactive with Ivory than regular Mermaid is.  Either way, this reaction is way cool, and I like the dark line reaction between the Ivory and Mermaid Unique #1 too.  The dark line reaction is more pronounced in this bead than in the test bead I made with Ivory and Mermaid.

Like with Opal Yellow, Mermaid Unique #1 bleeds into White and gets a concentration line/dot in the centre of the stringer lines and dots placed over top of it.

Here are some fun beads with Mermaid Unique #1.  So sad there won't be any more.

 

 

  

Test Results :: Adobe

1 - Plain (reduced), 2 - Plain, 3 - w/ Silver Leaf, 4 - w/ Silver Leaf (reduced & encased), 5 - w/ TerraNova2 Frit, 6 - w/ Silver Glass Frit (reduced), 7 - w/ Tuxedo, 8 - w/ Copper Green, 9 - w/ Opal Yellow, 10 - w/ Ivory, 11 - w/ White

It's surprising that I was even able to melt any CiM Adobe Limited Run, since all I've done with my Butter Pecan Unique #3 is gently lift it out of the box, pet it lovingly and then put it away again... over and over.  This colour reminds me a lot of my Butter Pecan #3 in rod form, but since I haven't actually used any of that colour yet it's hard to say for sure. 

My favourite combinations with Adobe so far have to be when it's under Copper Green or over Steel Blue.  Adobe etches beautifully, too.  I love the soft, medium peachy brown tone of this colour and I'm sad that there doesn't seem to be any more left for sale anywhere.

I put these on the mandrel in the wrong order, which is why the reduced one is left of the plain, unreduced one.  Reducing Adobe turns it a slightly pinker, duller version of itself and makes it faintly shiny. 

Silver leaf on top of Adobe turns a bronzey colour and fumes the Adobe to a rich brown.  When the silver leaf is reduced and encased, it turns quite blue under the Clear.  The silvered Adobe is a little lighter once its been encased, but not much. 

On top of Adobe, silver glass isn't really that interesting.  I got decent colour (for me) out of both the striking and reducing silver glass frit, but you can see on the left the dirty grey halo that surrounds the fritty bits, and in the bead on the right, reducing the Adobe resulted in it taking on a slightly dirty sheen, as it did above in the disc spacer.  I can imagine circumstances where this is a desirable effect, but I'm not sure I like it much.

It's not very evident in the picture, but the Adobe has faint, shiny thin lines around it on the side where the Adobe lines and dots are on top of the Tuxedo.  The Tuxedo has bled over to the Adobe side a bit, making it look sort of dirty.

With Adobe, Copper Green takes on a darker persona.  The Copper Green dots and lines also have a subtle brown outline to them, making them stand out slightly from the rest of the bead.  The Adobe lines and dots on top of the Copper Green do not seem to do that at all, and the Adobe on top of the Copper Green looks much lighter than it did anywhere else I used it in these test beads.  These colour reactions are funny. 

Opal Yellow spreads like crazy on top of Adobe, although I think I helped it along by being sort of inept with my bead roller and mushing the bead a bit.  The Opal Yellow also has the odd look of 'floating' on top of the Adobe.  Adobe on top of Opal Yellow isn't as interesting, but the two colours are sort of pretty together, or at least they would be with an accent colour to tie them together.

Ivory spreads on top of Adobe, too, but not as much.  And on top of Ivory, Adobe bleeds a little.  You can see thin little prickles poking out from the Adobe stringerwork.  There's a bit of a reaction where the two colours meet, almost like they're afraid to touch each other.

White also spreads on top of Adobe.  I must have been tired when I made this bead because the stringerwork is unusually erratic, even for me. :P

And here are the fun beads with Adobe.  I may still be able to squeeze one or two more out since I've got one rod of this left and am forcing myself to use up all of my odds and ends before moving on to the new palette I've got planned.

 

  

Test Results :: Adamantium Unique #1

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 - w/ Tuxedo, 8 - w/ Copper Green, 9 - w/ Opal Yellow, 10 - w/ Ivory, 11 - w/ White

Let me just start off by saying that these are not the pictures I've been holding my breath for as I get my photography issues under control, but that they are better than some I've been taking and I've decided to just go with it.

CiM Adamantium Unique #1, like Adamantium, is a smooth, creamy dark grey-brown.  It's less dark than its cousin, and more greyish.  I love brown way more than the average person does, and this one scores high points with me because it plays nice with other colours, isn't red at all and has some fun reactions with silver.

Adamantium #1 with silver reacts very similarly to how Adamantium reacts with silver.  When left unexposed on the surface, it forms a yellowish crust that blushes to an orangey colour in places.  When reduced and encased, it forms a sold silver layer which tinges blue at the edges.  I used leaf with these beads, and foil with the test beads I posted last January for Adamantium, resulting in a little less crusting and bumpiness but essentially the same reaction.

This colour is also like Adamantium in that it is a nice base for striking silver glass.  The effect is subtle, because of the grey darkness of the base, but you can see on the left where I got some gorgeous blue and purple from the TerraNova2 frit.  The reduction frit in the bead on the right didn't photograph very well, and it hasn't done anything particularly exciting anyway.

When I tested Adamantium, I was using Effetre Black.  I am sort of excited about the silvery, shiny line that crops up around the Adamantium #1 when its used with Tuxedo -- and intensely curious about whether or not the same effect would come between Adamantium and Tuxedo, or between Adamantium #1 and Effetre Black.  These go on the endless list of things to try.  Neat, right?

Adamantium #1 does not behave with Copper Green in the way that I expected it to after testing Adamantium.  My Copper Green, here, has an odd murkiness to it that I did not anticipate, and the Adamantium #1 on the Copper Green looks sort of washed out compared to how it looks in the other beads.  I spent some time worrying that there was a problem with my torch before I realized the other beads looked much more normal.

I am aggravated by a lot of my earlier colour posts because I had not yet come up with the process I'm now using to test the beads, so again, my basis for comparison is sort of screwed up.  I didn't test Adamantium with Opal Yellow, and I haven't tried that combination lately, so I don't have anything to compare this bead to.  However, Adamantium #1 looks dark and competent on top of Opal Yellow and the two colours seem fairly tight with each other, with not much bleeding or fraying of the edges of the lines and dots at all.  On top of Adamantium #1, Opal Yellow spreads a little.

Adamantium #1 does not seem to bleed into Ivory the way its parent Adamantium does.  The lines aren't super-crisp, but they also don't have as much spiky bleed as I saw in my test beads with Adamantium.  In the centre of the bead where the two colours meet, a dark line seems to separate the Ivory and Adamantium #1.  My Ivory dots and lines spread a little bit, but not as much as Opal Yellow did.

And blast it all!  I didn't test Adamantium with White either, so I have no idea if this complete lack of any reaction whatsoever is also common to that combination.  Grrr.  Oddly, the White dots and lines did not spread much at all -- less than either Ivory or Opal Yellow did.

Here are some fun beads with Adamantium #1.  I'm a fan of this colour, and love it just as much as I loved Adamantium-proper.