Glass Testing: CiM 912 Lilac and 557 Serenity

Happy weekend, everyone! Next on the docket we have two new CiM colors that I really loved.

First up is Lilac, a pale opaque lavender-pink. When I saw these rods I have to admit I wasn't all that impressed. After all, we have lots and lots of too-pale pinks and lavenders in the color palette, and one more wasn't going to do much for me. This is for two reasons - one is that most of these pale colors are just too pale for me when worked alone - especially when you don't layer them. Second is that the majority of the really pale pinks and lavenders are not as opaque as I need them to be - they're opalescent, which makes them hard to layer because they don't keep what little color they do have.

If it sounds like I'm picky - well, I am. Pinks and purples are tough cookies in the glass world!

Lilac is very, very pale - almost icy - and not really pink or lavender, but somewhere in between. However, it makes up for those things by being quite opaque and just a dream to melt. It's not as stiff as more opal glass, and doesn't lost it's opacity when layered. That means you can put darker transparent colors over it and it won't wash out or go see-through. When encasing it in clear, it does go lighter, as you might expect.

So for me, Lilac is a perfect color to layer with things like Rubino, Double Helix Rhea (as seen here), transparent Dark Violet and other saturated pinks and purples. Lilac holds its cool, icy tone well, shifting the reddish fuchsia in the Rhea to a colder hot pink fuchsia - perfect!

Lilac melts really nicely - I didn't have any shocking, which is a relief, since lots of glass seems shocky these days. There also wasn't any pitting or spreading or bleeding - just nice, smooth, opaque, pale color. The viscosity is pretty nice - not too soupy or too stiff.

Tiny little purple striations appeared in the pulled sampler of this color, but no striations appeared in the spacers or in the beads where the color is left bare. I imagine that using this color for sculptural work will lead to some striations.

(Below: Lilac is covered in Rhea on these beads - you can see that it holds its opacity well, even in the encased stringer.)

Next we have Serenity - a medium transparent teal. Now, CiM has done a lot of batches of transparent glass in the blue-green spectrum. Like, a lot. But I'm not mad at that. I love the variety of color. This particular shade sits right in the middle - it's bluer than both Aegean and Poolside, and greener than Zoe, Pulsar, Blue-yah! and Birthstone. It's medium in saturation, making it a lovely color to layer - my favorite thing to do!

There's not much to say about the workability of Serenity - I experienced no bubbles or scum (a nice departure from most transparent blues and greens), no shocking, no spreading or bleeding and no pitting. It's not too stiff, and doesn't seem to react to much - it's just your basic, easy glass.

In these beads, I layered it on top of Fremen, which is a light sky blue. I thought the outcome would be lighter, but I was pleasantly surprised at the lovely, vibrant shade of turquoise-teal that I got.

Serenity fits right into its own spot in the kind of crowded palette of blue-greens, but for me - the more the merrier, because I adore these colors!

**One note on the photography - the lighter the color, the tougher it was to photograph, and Lilac was one of those colors that my camera just hated.  Also, Serenity appears slightly washed out to me on camera - but all blue-greens do to me. They never, ever look the same in real life as they do on the screen - even in anyone else's pics. What I see is always more brilliant and multi-dimensional in real life than in a picture. My husband and I both think I can see these colors differently than other people, so I try to get the pics to be as close to what I think everyone else sees as I can. It's possible that I am a tetrachromat, but who really knows. Please do let me know if my pics ever seem way off - thanks!

(Below: Serenity is layered over Fremen, yielding a gorgeous turquoise)

More to come!

Glass Testing: CiM 716 Chateau Ltd. Run and CiM 530 Zoe Ltd. Run

Continuing on with the testing for the giant batch of new colors I got from Creation is Messy, today's colors are the gorgeous aqua called Zoe, and the soft neutral called Chateau.

First up is Chateau, and lovely transparent brownish beige. It reminds me a bit of cream soda, and is a nice alternative for Effetre's Light Brown transparent.

 According to CiM's website, this color was created to be similar to Sepia, but without the reddish undertone.  It fits the bill nicely - it's a true pale brown without any reddish or greenish undertones, and works nicely as an encasing layer for any browns or creams.

One thing I need to mention is that this glass can scum easily if you heat it too fast.  Work it under a cooler flame, and when using it as stringer, don't let it get too melty or it will bubble up.  It's not too stiff, so there's not much of an issue getting it to melt.

One other thing - when using this color with Effetre Sage (the new handmade version, not the machine made version) I had some severe compatibility cracks when making encased florals.  I am not sure what the culprit was - but using it under a thick encasement of clear (DH Zephyr) produced cracks like I have never seen. I didn't get cracks with other combinations of similar colors, so I have narrowed down the culprit to either Sage or Chateau. The cracking didn't happen in any other beads made with these colors - just the encased florals.  So just bear that in mind.

Other than that, I really love this color - it's a nice neutral that adds a soft beigy brown cast to anything it's layered with. 

Chateau layered with Effetre Mudslide makes a nice toffee color.

Chateau layered with Effetre Sage is a soft latte brown - use sparingly to avoid cracks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On to one of my very favorite selections in the new color batch - Zoe.  When CiM sent the new batch of colors, there were quite a few in the aqua/teal/blue range.  That thrilled me because I really love those colors.  Zoe is one of the best. For some reason, this color just shines and sparkles more than any aqua I've seen in any brand of glass.

Okay, enough gushing - on to the important stuff.

The first thing you need to know is that transparent aqua shades are a bitch to photograph.  Seriously.  The camera just does not capture the real color very well.  It doesn't even look right on the CiM website, which frustrates me to no end, because I want to relay to you, the color addict, just how gorgeous this aqua blue really is. 

CiM made this color to be a light version of Pulsar ( which is basically CiM's version of Effetre Dark Aqua) It succeeds - it's lighter and slightly less saturated than Pulsar, which I really like.  This makes it the perfect shade for springy aqua beads.

As usual, CiM's aqua glasses are better behaved than Effetre's - they don't scum or bubble or spread or bleed, etc.  Zoe is no exception. There may be some scummy spots when you first melt the rod, but those will disappear quickly as you melt the glass.  Zoe can take a lot of heat without burning out or bubbling, which makes it an ideal layering color.  Zoe isn't too stiff, which is also nice.

I think Zoe makes a wonderful layering color with either Effetre Light Sky Blue (for a brighter shade) or CiM Duck Egg (for a softer shade). 

As I mentioned before, there are several other aqua shades in the new CiM color batch. Most of these are very close in hue, with just tiny differences in the amount of green/blue and in saturation. I'm sure there are lots of opinions on which is best, but Zoe is my personal favorite. Since color love is subjective, your mileage may vary.  So far, I am of the opinion that any one of these aqua shades will be a great addition to your palette. :)

Zoe layered with Duck Egg (the purples are Heffalump, Dark Lavender and Pale Ink Blue)

Zoe layered with Duck Egg (the purples are Heffalump, Dark Lavender and Pale Ink Blue)

Zoe with Duck Egg as a raised floral is nice and bright.

Glass Testing: CiM 210 Sunset Ltd. Run and CiM 614 Jellyfish Ltd. Run

Creation is Messy has a new batch of Limited Run colors up this month, so I put my two favorites together for this test.

First up is CiM Sunset - which was a happy surprise for me!  Almost

all of the coral/orange glass I have ever tried, which has usually been made by Effetre, has had cracking problems when encased in clear or even in light transparent colors.  It doesn't always cause the bead to crack, but it does enough of the time to keep me from wasting my time making encased beads with any coral/orange glass I have.

So, when I saw this lovely, dense, streaky orange rod from CiM, I thought to myself..."hmmmm I wonder if this cracks under encasing, too?"  The good news is that as far as I can see, Sunset doesn't have the cracking problems that all the Effetre 420 odd corals have.  But it does have the same lovely, juicy, saturated orange that we find in those Effetre coral oranges.


Sunset works up a little nicer than the Effetre coral oranges - not too stiff, has a tendency to streak and strike in the flame a little bit, but not as much the Effetre.  Also, Sunset doesn't have the rough texture that sometimes happens with Effetre corals. No pitting or air bubbles that I saw. No bleeding or spreading that I saw.

The color of Sunset is a true orange - it doesn't tend toward either red or yellow.  Encasing it in clear lightens it just a little bit.  For fun, I encased it in Jellyfish, and got a lovely watermelon orange which looks delicious.

I had no problem layering this dense glass - it keeps its color very well.

1. Sunset with clear encased Sunset scrolls. 2. Effetre Lavender Blue Pastel encased with Jellyfish, with clear encased Sunset scrolls. 3. Clear encased Sunset with Lavender Blue Pastel and Jellyfish dots. 4. Jellyfish encased Sunset with Jellyfish encased Lavender Blue Pastel scrolls.

Jellyfish under daylight lamps

Next, we have CiM Jellyfish, a pretty transparent lavender that shifts to lighter bluish in fluorescent light, just like other lavender glass out there.

This version of lavender is very close to the old CiM Count von Count - maybe just a touch lighter. Not as light as Larkspur, and not as pink as Purple Haze.  Not as muted as Tranquility. Compared to Effetre Dark Lavender, Jellyfish is just a touch lighter.

There's nothing that sets this glass apart from all the other lavenders that CiM has released over the years - it works up nicely, isn't too stiff, holds its color and is really pretty. It does scum up a little on the rod as you melt, but that goes away when worked into a bead or pulled as stringer.  It's not as scummy as Effetre versions.

I'm glad for the release of this color, because it's been difficult to find Dark Lavender, and the other CiM lavenders have mostly been discontinued (Except for Larkspur, which is lighter than Jellyfish).  As long as CiM keeps bringing out the lavender glass, I will buy it because I like the consistency better than Effetre.

I am hoping that Jellyfish doesn't turn out to be as expensive as Purple Haze was! Both of these colors are set to come out sometime this month.I'm looking forward to making pumpkins with Sunset and lots of flowers with Jellyfish.  They are limited runs, so get them as soon as you can, because I think they will sell fast. :)

Summer Sunset set, same colors as beads in the above pics.

CiM Glass Testing: 411 Sprout Ltd. Run

Man, time flies when you've got zillions of new glass colors to test!

Originally, I had planned on testing and reporting on a gorgeous new CiM color called Cardamom several months ago. I obtained some of this pretty green at last year's Gathering, along with a bunch of other colors that still haven't made it to my torch.  However, when I tried to work with Cardamom, I found that it was so incredibly stiff that I just couldn't make it work with the kind of beads that I make.  Smaller work with a lot of layering and encasing really does need glass that moves.  At least in my experience.

Soooo, I traded my precious pound of Cardamom to Kimberly, for some DH clear and moved on.  I was sad - Cardamom really is such a pretty light green that would be great for springtime beads.

Happily, a couple of months ago, I got another test batch from CiM, and included with it was a rod of pale green that seemed to be pretty close to Cardamom! 

This dense, opaque color is called Sprout, and is almost ghostly in appearance, without the grey tones of Dirty Martini or the yellow tones of Key Lime Pie.  It's slightly lighter in shade than Cardamom.....and much less stiff!  I would call this color a true mint green.

For my purposes, Sprout makes a lovely base color and is nice for layering with transparent greens.  The only drawback I can see is that encasing it with clear (as you can see in the spacer picture) causes it to fade to almost white.  Therefore, I recommend encasing with pale greens - such as Effetre Pale Emerald or CiM Appletini.



In the sets below, I used Effetre Light Emerald for layering, and the result was a pretty, sparkly light green that reminds me of the tropics. There wasn't any striation or any bleeding/feathering. The color stayed put where I wanted it for all layering.

As you can see, using Sprout as a base for the encased floral yielded a very pale color that doesn't come through as much as I would like, because clear was used for the encasing, and the green washed out.

Beyond that, though, Sprout is a lovely color perfect for spring and summer beadmaking!  

Cim Glass Testing: 803 Twilight Ltd. Run & 602 Purple Haze Ltd. Run

I noticed yesterday that CiM has so many new colors lately, that I am way behind in testing! I am going to try and make up for it this year - it's one of my New Year's resolutions.

Today, I am writing about two newer colors - Twilight and Purple Haze. Both of these colors are limited run, so if you like them, get them as soon as you can.

First up is Twilight, a gorgeous neutral transparent grey. This color fills a small hole in the 104 palette - it's not as warm/green as Effetre Slate Gray, and is darker and cooler than regular Effetre Grey. I like my greys to be on the cooler side, and this fits the bill nicely.

Twilight works up well - it's slightly stiff, but not enough to be a problem. It doesn't bubble or scum much - which is nice for a medium transparent color.

It layers really well, too - here with Effetre Dark Grey. I really love the encased stringer it makes - it's a perfect nuetral shade.

It also worked nicely as a layer between the opaque grey and the clear when encasing a base bead - it doesn't lighten too much. It is kind of stiff, so when using on top of a really soft opaque, like white or grey, make sure you use the outer part of the flame to heat it, to prevent the opaque color from melting faster than the Twilight. This will prevent any bleeding from the opaque underneath the encasing.

I saw no odd reactions in this glass when used with normal colors, and it didn't react with the clear I used - DH Aether. Twilight is a stable, consistent transparent color. Yey!

The other color I'd like to review is Purple Haze. I really love this pretty color. However, I think it's been mis-named. I don't consider this color either purple or hazy in any way. LOL I honestly thought that when I melted this I would get some sort of opacity or cloudiness. I was pleasantly surprised when I didn't. It's a pale transparent shade that works very nicely, if you keep it from getting too hot and bubbly/scummy.

Purple Haze is also....well, not purple. CiM describes it as a lavender/blue color shift (a similar, more accurate description was given to CiM's Count Von Count).  I found Purple Haze to be a lot less lavender/blue than Count Von Count. I think it sits comfortably between Count Von Count and Effetre's (also mis-named) Lavender Blue. What these people are thinking when looking at these colors is sometimes beyond me, in an amusing way. Thankfully, the name's not really that important, once you get to know the glass.

left-to-right: Count Von Count, Purple Haze, CiM Pink Champagne, Effetre Lavender Blue

Purple Haze also doesn't color shift nearly as much in sun or fluorescent light as other lavenders do. It does a small amount - turning a light lavender color with pink undertones. In incandescent light, it is cool pink with lavender undertones.

In my opinion, we have quite a few lavender choices for both layering and encasing. So I decided to use this pretty pinkish lavender to brighten my pinks instead. Here, I layered it with Reichenbach's gorgeous Opal Raspberry, a warm, deep opal pink glass that I just love (and reviewed several years ago). It's the most saturated pink in the 104 line - and I wish it wasn't an opal! I hope CiM can make this as a dense opaque color some day.

Anyway, Purple Haze changed the warm pink into a cool pink - something which I just adore.

The major note with this color is to make sure you work it cool - too hot and it burns and you get scum. This is particularly true when using it as stringer. However, it does encase well, works as a layering color, and makes lovely spacers. It's a consistent color - no striking or odd reactions that I can see.

I plan to put this pale transparent over pretty much anything orange, pink or purple. It's also a limited run, so get it while you can. Nice job, as usual, CiM!

CiM Glass Testing: 504 Blue Suede Shoes Ltd. Run

The first thing you should know about this new color from CiM is that it is technically an opal color.  This means it's supposed to be slightly translucent, not dense, and kind of glowy.

The second thing you should know is that my camera hates it.  More about that later.

I'll get right into the nitty gritty - this color was not fun for me.  It's really pretty, but did not behave the way I wanted it to.  Part of it is my fault - I wasn't aware it was an opal when I started working with it, and it was hard to tell at first. It only acts like an opal when you layer it - but not when you encase it.  At least in my experience.

Blue Suede Shoes is described on CiM's website as "An extremely dark opal cobalt blue",  but (with respect to the people at CiM) I have some issues with it being described that way.  First of all, it's not extremely dark, unless by some chance you can get it to strike that way.  Yes, folks, this is a striking color - technically speaking.  If you can do it, it will go dark and opalescent - very pretty.  But for me, most of my spacers even were a lighter color - almost a light lapis - with striations.

Blue Suede Shoes, paired with Effetre White, DH Aether and DH Ox.

The only time I noticed any opal charactaristics were when I layered this color with clear (but not when I encased it, which is odd to me.)  When applied thinly - as in dots, stripes or on flower petals - Blue Suede Shoes lightened dramatically.  It looks more like a light lapis or even a cornflower blue in some of my beads.  I especially really loved the look of the blue stripes.

The glass itself does have a nice consistency - especially when compared with other opals.  It's not stiff at all - it melts easily.

Blue Suede Shoes does tend to bleed just a bit from underneath an encasing. But it's not too bad - easily overcome if you take the time to move your encasing near the hole.

As for my camera and the pics I took....that's the most frustrating, and not really the fault of the glass at all.  I had a good look around the web for images of this blue, and indeed other glass that's a similar shade (Effetre Lapis for instance).  Images on the web of this color show a blue that has more green than reality.  No matter how hard I tried, I could not get this color to show correctly.  But, I got as close as I could.  Cobalt blue has the same issues.  Maybe it's the way the glass transmits light into the camera lens - I don't know.

All in all, this is a pretty color, if you can get it to behave, don't mind a little bit of inconsistency in color, and if you like opals in general. It's not cobalt, though, in my opinion.  It's closest to lapis blue.