Test Results :: Budgerigar

CiM Budgerigar (CiM477) is the misty opal twin of Ectoplasm, and both colours are a lovely light green.

Budgerigar does not change colour when you reduce it.

You can see blue in the silver leaf where I've melted it into the surface of Budgerigar even before reducing and encasing it. Reducing and encasing silver on top of Budgerigar yeilds a snowy, blue-streaked blanket under the clear layer.

My reducing silver glass frit came out quite pretty on top of Budgerigar, but colour in my TerraNova2 didn't develop quite the way I thought it would after using Ectoplasm. Possibly it just needed a hair more heat to bloom - more experimentation required.

Budgerigar is not very reactive with other colours, although it does separate Copper Green, Ivory, Opal Yellow, and Peace.

Here are some other beads made with Budgerigar:

Test Results :: Cream

Vetrofond Cream (VET822) is a pale, neutral opaque. It is a bit cooler in tone than the coveted Vetrofond Light Ivory, but it is similarly stiff and has gentler reactions with unfriendly colours than the Effetre ivories. I love this colour a lot, so I was sad to see the last time I was at Frantz Art Glass that it is all gone.

This colour's only real weak point is that is sometimes has little black speckles in it. I don't mind the speckles, and if they're in my way I just pull them out, but some other people seem not to like them. You can make up your own mind if you're lucky enough to come across some of this glass.

Cream doesn't do anything much when you reduce it.

Silver crusts up on top of Cream. When the silver is reduced and encased, it looks the same but smoother and less interesting.

Cream makes an ok (but not awesome) base for silver glass. I like it better with the reduction colours than with striking ones like TerraNova2.

Here you can see that Cream separates on top of Tuxedo and makes Tuxedo bleed when Tuxedo is used on top of it.

Cream does develop a dark line with Copper Green, but mostly only when it is used on top. The dark line reaction that it has with Opal Yellow is stronger.

I didn't make any interesting observations about its behaviour with Ivory or Peace.

Here are some beads that contain Vetrofond Cream.

Test Results :: Oracle White

Double Helix Oracle White is a white, opaque glass. It is stiffer than either Peace or Effetre White, and reacts similarly to silver as other white glasses do, but its reactions with other colours are more unique.

Because this colour is stiffer, it is well-suited to applications like stringer and sculptural work. As you'll see, Oracle White is a little more translucent, so when it is used on top of a dark colour in thin layers, a tint of the base colour shows through. Because more light passes through it, Oracle White's colour is a little brighter than that of either CiM Peace or Effetre White.

This white  also seems like it is a little more difficult to smear than other whites, making it great for flower petals in encased florals.

Oracle White does not change when you reduce it.

Here is CiM Peace, Double Helix Oracle White, and Effetre White all side-by-each on top of Oracle Black. Oracle White is a bit less opaque than either Peace or Effetre White, but not so much that it doesn't show well over a dark colour. It still covers reasonably well, so if you happen to be looking for a cooler, lighter effect, it can be a good choice for stringerwork.

If you blow the picture up really big, you can see that Oracle White and Peace both get a slight border around them on top of the Oracle Black.

Here I mixed Oracle White and Effetre White with Effetre Light Cobalt. Light Cobalt is a really saturated colour, and I thought it would be a good test to evaluate whether Oracle White is more translucent than Effetre White and CiM Peace because it is less saturated, or if there might be some other reason. In my results, the blue that resulted from the Oracle White mix is a bit darker, which helps to support my theory that this White is slightly less saturated than the CiM and Effetre ones.

Oracle White's reactions with silver are very similar to what I experienced with other Whites. If you're interested, you can look back at my test results for other whites: Effetre White, CiM Peace, Ornela Chalk White, Lauscha Kryolith White, Reichenbach White.

In the bead on the left, I've reduced silver glass frit on top of Oracle White, and you can see that it has fumed the White yellow in places. The bead on the right has TerraNova2 frit. It is probably very possible to get silver glass to strike well on top of this colour, but what I am testing when I do this particular test is to see if the base colour has any magic in it that will make getting great colour out of the silver glass easier. Wait until you see my silver and silver glass tests on Oracle Black, and you will see what I mean by 'magic'.

Tuxedo spreads on top of this colour, bleeding into it, and Oracle White separates on top of Ivory. These reactions are not like the reactions I've had with other whites.

Here are some other beads that include Oracle White: