Test Results :: Maraschino

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

I think that CiM Maraschino is the most beautiful colour of red that I've seen so far on this beadmaking journey. The colour of it is lickable - doesn't it seem like it would taste exactly like a cherry Lifesaver?

It is a transparent colour, but it opacifies and seems to darken slightly as you work it. It also has a strange, viscous, murkiness to it so it isn't really a true transparent. However, it's as transparent as it needs to be -- if you use it in very thin layers in even coats, it will behave exactly the way you think a transparent glass is supposed to. I wish I'd made a floral with it.

Anyway.

Here is the Maraschino both over and under Clear.  Putting it over Clear makes it slightly more transparent, but not very much so. It's still a delicious red, and still very dense. It is a much less orangey red than Vetrofond or Effetre striking red, with the added bonus that it doesn't require any special babysitting to strike it.

Silver leaf on top of Maraschino makes Maraschino look much more opaque. The silver spreads and forms a sort of uniform beigy-brown film over the Maraschino. When you reduce and encase this brown film, it turns a much darker brown/grey colour.

My TerraNova2 frit got some decent colour on top of Maraschino, but overall it's a subdued brownish sort of colour that doesn't really look all that nice with the Maraschino itself.

Don't laugh at me, but I have stupidly photographed my Valentine reducing silver glass test bead here instead of my Maraschino one. This is what happens when you try to do things quickly, at the last minute, as you're preparing for a business trip.

So instead of looking at that bead, have a look at this one, which must be the Maraschino one. Thank goodness I only had two sets of test beads waiting for pictures or who knows what we would have ended up with.

Either way, reducing silver glass frit looks pretty interesting on top of Maraschino, and it's not significantly different in either bead except for the way it seems to have spread and engulfed the Maraschino but stayed more in place on top of Valentine.



On top of both Tuxedo and Copper Green, Maraschino looks like a much darker version of itself. Maraschino and Copper Green form a reciprocal dark line reaction.

The only other reactions really worth noting are that Maraschino spreads out and oranges up a little on top of Ivory, and Peace separates ever-so-slightly on top of Maraschino. Apart from that, it seems like a pretty stable colour.

Test Results :: Pimento

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

CiM Pimento is a vibrant orange-red opaque, and it is a limited run so it won't be around for long. The beads I made with Pimento are so bright and flawless, and seem almost to glow from within, the colour is so pure and beautiful.

While the colour is gorgeous, the glass was somewhat shocky, the end of my rod popping off unexpectedly at inconvenient moments and causing some minor panic. I also found that it is fairly easy to boil Pimento, although I was working out of my comfortable Minor/Oxycon element on a Natural Gas/Liquid Oxygen set-up, so it might have just been a 'me and heat control' issue.  The boiling seems not to be evident at all in the finished beads, so I guess it's not much of a concern.

When I reduced Pimento, the colour of it darkened a little. This could be because of the reduction, or it could be because Pimento strikes a little since I generally cool a bead off before I reduce it. Either way, it is an interesting effect so if you have more than a few rods of Pimento, you might want to play around with it a little. Encasing Pimento lightened the colour a little.

I was able to encase Pimento in both Bead #3 and Bead #5 with Reichenbach Crystal with no problems at all. Good news, because sometimes you want to encase red/coral/orange and I haven't had a lot of luck encasing the Effetre hot colours.

Silver leaf on top of Pimento turns a brownish, webby golden colour. I like this effect - especially when you add a little silvered ivory (like I didn't). When the reduction is subsequently reduced and encased, it sort of loses something and just looks dull and dirty under the Clear.

Here, I got sort of interesting results with my silver glass frit. The TerraNova2 frit struck, but it is pretty dark against the Pimento and a thick dark outline has formed around all of the little frit bits that sort of gets in the way of the colour. In the bead on the right, my reducing silver glass frit looks more interesting, having developed into pretty dark blues and greens with a mottled black and white outline interspersing the frit bits. I think it's safe to conclude that Pimento is nicer with the reducing silver glass colours, although if you make something beautiful with Pimento and striking silver glass, I'd love to see it.

Finally, here is Pimento with Tuxedo, Copper Green, Opal Yellow, Ivory and Peace. 

Pimento seems not to be a very reactive colour.  Here is a brief summary of the reactions I see:

Tuxedo - Pimento separates on top of Tuxedo, developing a thin, dark translucent line in the middle of the stringer lines and a blotchiness in the dots. Pimento is darker on top of Tuxedo than it is on top of Opal Yellow, Ivory or Peace.

Copper Green - Pimento seems to scare off most of the dark sheen that Copper Green likes to develop. It also develops a dark line reaction with Copper Green, both when used on top of it and when used under it, although the dark line is more pronounced when the Copper Green is on top. When Pimento is on top of Copper Green, the dots and stringer lines are darker than when used on top of Opal Yellow, Ivory or Peace.

Opal Yellow - This is sort of strange, but Opal Yellow seems to develop a dark line reaction around it when it is used on top of Pimento. There is also a dark line reaction when Pimento is used on top of Opal Yellow, but it is less vivid.

Ivory and Peace - Both of these glasses seem to curdle / separate a little on top of Pimento.  Pimento will spread out on top of both of these colours if it is superheated or smeared, and when that happens it looks more orange than red. My Peace went a little grey. Since I'm working on a set-up that I'm not accustomed to, it may just have been me not giving the bead enough oxygen, however it could also be a reaction. If you have some Pimento and are curious, give it a go.

I'm back into making beads, but I haven't got any fun beads to show with Pimento. However, as I ramp up and test some more colours, I'll be back in the swing of things.  The Pimento is gone, but more glass beckons :)

Test Results :: Jade Palace

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, Peace

CiM Jade Palace is a medium, teal semi-opaque. It seems a little like it might be a lighter version of CiM Rainforest, however the reactions I got with Jade Palace aren't really all that similar to the reactions I got with Rainforest, so it is materially a different colour as far as I am concerned.

When silver leaf is used on top of Jade Palace, it disperses into a fine silvery mist. Underneath the silver leaf, the Jade Palace has struck to a darker version of itself, but I can't be certain whether this happened because of the silver or if it struck because of some repeated heating and cooling. I'm not sure how many times I pressed this bead, which doesn't really help any of us know for sure.

When I encased reduced silver leaf on top of Jade Palace, it turned decidedly gold. I believe I was using Reichenbach Crystal Clear for this test. You can probably see that the bead split in half along the mandrel line as well, which could be my fault, but also might be due to the differing viscosity between the Reichenbach clear and the Jade Palace because Reichenbach Crystal Clear is a very stiff colour, whereas Jade Palace is very soft and runny. I had a similar problem encasing Mulberry with Effetre 006 clear for possibly the same reason. The jury is still out.

It looks like Jade Palace is a little nicer as a base for striking silver glass than it is for reducing silver glass. I got a great start to my strike in the TerraNova2 frit bead, but not a lot of magic happened there. In the bead with the reduced silver glass frit, the frit and reduction seems to have fumed the Jade Palace to a yellower, greener version of itself but the appearance of the frit is sort of smeary and lackluster.

Jade Palace does not do much in the way of reaction with Tuxedo, but it does some crazy things with the other colours I tested it with.

Copper Green

On top of Jade Palace, Copper Green separates into a reddish, shiny colour and a darker teal colour. A faint lighter line is visible around the edges of the Copper Green stringer and dots. I observed something silimar with Seafoam, however with Seafoam the lighter line was much more regular and pronounced than it is here with Jade Palace.

When Jade Palace is used on top of Copper Green, the greenish colour of the Jade Palace gathers in the centre of the dots and stringer lines, surrounded by a light turquoise line, all surrounded by a deeper, dark turquoise. This is a pretty neat reaction, however in the centre of the dots and stringer lines I also got some random sooting/blackening which sort of mars the overall effect.

Opal Yellow

Opal Yellow separates on top of Jade Palace and underneath it. The light yellow halos that pop up around Jade Palace stringerwork are very interesting and worth some playtime if you happen to have some of this colour. I like how the Jade Palace seems to forget that it is semi-opaque and looks very transparent over Opal Yellow.

Ivory

On top of Jade Palace, Ivory separates, gets a dark line reaction and curdles... ALL AT THE SAME TIME. The Jade Palace underneath stays more or less like itself, not getting all curdled the way Seafoam did. This is very similar to how Ivory reacted with Rainforest, although this reaction is quite a bit more dramatic than that one was.

On top of Ivory, Jade Palace turns into a darker, browner version of itself and spreads quite a lot, brown webbing spreading all over the Ivory. Underneath the Jade Palace, the Ivory curdles.

Peace

Peace separates on top of Jade Palace. When Jade Palace is used on top of Peace, the Peace separates underneath it, white halos popping up around the Jade Palace. The Jade Palace goes very transparent and a very dark line forms in the middle of the Jade Palace stringerwork.