CiM Glass Testing: 518 Blue Steel, 520 Raindrop Ltd. Run, 521 Eventide Ltd. Run and 611 Lavender Water Ltd. Run

Yep, it's been awhile, so here are a bunch of new colors to look at!  All four of these are brand new, and will be released for purchase this June.  I get my CiM from Frantz Art Glass.  However, all of them except Lavender Water are also going to be available at Tuffnell.

First of all, what these four colors have in common is that they are a bit brighter in rod form than they end up being after spending some time in the kiln. These colors are essentially shades of grey.  For me, this isn't a bad thing at all - I love muted colors.  These four are on the cool side of grey.

We'll start with the one opaque color in the bunch - Blue Steel.  I received a big batch of colors to test from CiM recently, and Blue Steel is the only selection that is not a Limited Run.  They are adding it to the regular production line, I am assuming, which is nice. It's a color we don't have, and I think it will make a nice base for any of the transparent greys and blues we have now.

spacers, plain and encased with clear

The name of this color is slightly misleading, I think.  For me, this color reads grey - if a tiny bit on the cool side. In rod form, it certainly looks like a steel blue.  But after time in the kiln, the blue fades and you get a medium cool grey.

The consistency of this glass is really nice.  It does spread a little bit - but not enough to mess with your other colors.  I didn't have any problems with bleeding when encased in clear or any of the other three transparents I tested it with. Blue Steel isn't particularly stiff, either.

I did notice a little bit of a reaction when white stringer was melted into a base of Blue Steel - the white fades somewhat and you get the pretty little reaction lines around the scrollwork.  Not an unattractive feature to be sure. Striations in the color as a base go away when transparents are layered on top.

When encased in clear, the Blue Steel did lighten up quite a bit, as you can see in the spacer beads.  However, it's still a nice base for layering transparents onto - it doesn't fade out too much. 

All in all, I really like this color as a layering basic grey. It's much cooler and a bit lighter than the other CiM gray, Adamantium, so it's a nice edition to the line.

Next, we have Eventide, a medium transparent color that looks like a muted lavender in rod form.  However, this color essentially goes cool grey with just a tiny hint of cool lavender left over after it's annealed.  I love muted purples, so I was kind of disappointed that Eventide faded so much.  Still, it makes a nice layering transparent color if you want a cool grey. 

Eventide is your basic, consistent transparent color.  It's the stiffest of this bunch, but not too stiff.  It didn't react to anything.  It layered really well with Steel Blue, and together they *almost* make a color that approaches blueish grey rather than just neutral grey.  It's pretty, and reminds me a little of an older CiM color called Dusk - just lighter and with less of a tendency to go brown.

If we had an opaque navy blue in this line, Eventide would be the perfect complement to it. :)

Lavender Water

Raindrop

The next two colors, Raindrop and Lavender Water, are so completely close in hue and shade that they are almost interchangeable.  In fact, when I made spacers of these two colors, I could not tell them apart when I took them out of the kiln. Also, in the beads I am showing here, you can't really tell which color is used where.

Both colors are extremely light.  In rod form, and in the petals I pulled for these tests, Raindrop is the one that is slightly bluer, and Lavender Water was slighly pinker. But after annealing, the color fades a lot, and we are left with - you guessed it - a cool grey. A very, very pale cool grey.  Shown are three spacers - one of them is Lavender Water and the other two are Raindrop. I can't tell which is which - can you?  :)

Pale transparents are nice for layering, but are known for having a tendency to burn and scum really easily.  I had that problem with both of these. However, once I was careful not to overheat them, I was able to melt the colors without too much bubbling.  I turned my torch (a Nortel Minor) down and worked up a little higher in the flame to avoid the scum.

When used to layer the petals of raised flowers (with Blue Steel), the lighter transparents were only a bit lighter than when I used Eventide.  The effect was a little more pronounced when using them to encase a base of Steel Blue.  Eventide was the darkest, and the other two were much lighter.

When used in melted decoration, I couldn't tell much difference between the three transparents at all.

Soooo, what's the verdict? Well, I think all four colors are very pretty, for when you want cool neutrals that behave pretty well. I will likely buy Eventide and Blue Steel.  I will probably only buy one of the other two, depending on what's available, since they are limited runs. But which one doesn't really matter. Have fun!  :)

CiM Glass Testing: 608 Tranquility Ltd. Run

Although it may seem so, not all lavender glass is created equal.  Lavender shades (whether transparent or opaque) almost always do color shift - from pale blue-ish in fluorescent lighting, to bright lavender purple in sunlight, to soft pinkish-lavender under incandescent lights.  This new color from CiM, called Tranquility, is no different in that regard.

What does make Tranquility a little different than the other transparent lavender shades in the 104 COE line is its consistency.  Tranquility is nice and smooth - melts evenly and doesn't burn, scum or bubble as easily as the other lavenders I have tried.

As for the hue - Tranquility is one of the lightest lavenders - lighter than CiM Count Von Count (discontinued), CiM Purple Haze, and Effetre Dark Lavender.  It's probably closest in shade to CiM Larkspur (which is also no longer available). However, Larkspur tended to wash out easier and was slightly stiffer in my opinion.  Tranquility is a bit darker than Effetre Pale Lavender.

CiM's transparent lavender shades tend to have much more clarity than Effetre's shades - light transmits through them really well, making them appear smoother and shinier.

However, as with all purple glass, photographing Tranquility can be a challenge.  Different lights will change the color slightly, and sometimes getting it to appear correctly can take some editing skills.  This difficulty increases when you pair the lavender with other colors such as green or blue.

Because Tranquility is so smooth and well behaved - and not as stiff as some other shades, it makes a great encasing and layering glass.  I like how it transforms the sometimes dingy opaque violet shades into sweet purples.

Shown here are some tests - I used Tranquility to encase (from left to right) Effetre White, CiM Heffalump, CiM Grape Ape, and CiM Thai Orchid. Plain spacers are also shown.

Above, Tranquility is layered with my favorite opaque purple, Effetre New Violet, to make a subtle medium purple.  It's combined with navy blue (CiM Inkblot over Effetre Periwinkle) and white for a wintery look.   These beads are slightly brighter in person, but soooo hard to photograph.

All in all, Tranquility is a wonderful replacement for the discontinued CiM lavenders, and is easier to work with than the Effetre versions.  A worthy addition to the line! 

***New Info as of Feb 1st.... according to Kathy at CiM, Tranquility was a limited run miss-melt, and it has already sold out.  I don't think Frantz has any more either.  I have asked if they have any plans to remake it or something similar.  I will post again, if I hear back!  So sad!!

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: 510 Ink Blot Ltd. Run

I've been waiting for years for someone - anyone - in the glass manufacturing biz to release a navy blue color - in opaque or transparent.  Effetre or Vetrofond (I can't remember which one) came close a bunch of years ago with an opaque Denim Blue - a color which, sadly, I cannot find anywhere anymore. 

 A couple of months ago, CiM released Ink Blot - a limited run transparent color that is as close to navy blue as I have ever found.  YEY!!!

Ink Blot looks very saturated in rod form, and if you hold it up to the light, it is a dark purply blue color.  However, when melted, worked and annealed, it loses all the purple and a lot of the saturation, and flirts with blue/grey and navy.

By itself, as a spacer, it stays very dark.  When encased, though, it sparkles with a lovely quality I can't quite describe.   I would say that Ink Blot is most like CiM Midnight in color - although maybe a shade lighter.

What makes me happiest about this color is that it isn't stiff at all, when you compare it to colors like Midnight, which is gorgeous, but very, very stiff.  Ink Blot melts like a dream, and layers very nicely, with no bleeding or feathering at all. 

Ink Blot can be used as a blue/grey or as a navy blue, depending on which color you layer it with.  I have used it with several shades of neutral grey, and also with Periwinkle and Dark Periwinkle.  The navy blue comes out best when Ink Blot is layered with Periwinkle and encased in clear.  In the beads below, left to right, Ink Blot is shown layered with various colors and encased in DH Aether; alone; with Effetre Pearl Grey; with Effetre Periwinkle; with Effetre Dark Periwinkle.

When used as decoration, Ink Blot lightens a lot and works really well as a neutral color, adding variety to any neutral palette, in my opinion.

 In the sets here, with green, called Echo, Ink Blot is used as a grey, layered with Pearl Grey and clear.  It works well as an encased stringer as well - a nice, light neutral grey.

The  center beads, as well as the left bead in the lower set all use the Pearl Grey/Ink Blot/Aether encasement, and they stay nice and dark.

In these blue and cream sets, called Winter Lace, I used Ink Blot with Periwinkle to bring out the navy. This makes for a lovely wintery blue.  (The spacers in the pic seen here are CiM Zachary, a shade lighter than Periwinkle).

You can see how well the Ink Blot layers in the dots on the left bead in the last set.  Very even and clean.

I am very impressed with the consistency and workability of this color, and very happy we finally have this shade in our 104 COE palette.  Thank you
Creation is Messy!  :)

CiM Glass Testing: 409 Key Lime Pie Ltd. Run

Just a quick post today to tell you about a new CiM color....another one that hasn't been named or numbered yet, so it's labelled "B". (note: as of 8/29/12, this color has now been named and numbered 409 Key Lime Pie Ltd. Run) I said last time that I wasn't going in alphabetical order - and I'm still not, at least after this one.  This pretty green shade just happened to be what I wanted to use last week, to fill a custom order for some light green and cream beads. And this is a lovely light opaque green.


When I first saw this, I thought it was the new color called Cardamom (yes, I'll be testing it later on).  However, it isn't Cardamom - it's a unique version of Elphaba, according to Kathy at CiM.  "B" is much, much lighter than Elphaba, and slightly greener than Cardamom (but still really close).

It's light, like Dirty Martini, only more saturated and less grey. It's very springy - if I were naming this color, I might call it Pale Mint or Baby Green.

The consistency of "B" is nice and smooth - not too stiff or too soft.  It works very nicely, and was easy to manipulate.

Like other CiM greens, this pretty color doesn't tend to bleed when encased, or spread when melted.  It layers well and stays opaque (if very, very light).  It only striated a tiny bit (as you can see in the middle of the spacers).

In this set of beads, I layered "B" with Effetre Yellow Green to brighten it up a bit.

All in all, this is a happy pale green that will make lovely, springy beads. Hopefully CiM will have this one out soon - or at least have a number and a name for future ordering!  :)

"B" with Effetre Yellow Green, Silver Pink and Light Brown.

CiM Glass Testing: 408 Leapfrog Ltd. Run, plus Gathering Stuff

Hi everyone - I'm back!
So was the title of this post enigmatic enough for ya? :)

First, I've had a bunch of people ask me to post an update about how the Gathering went a couple of weekends ago.  In a word - great!! There were awkward moments - as there always are when one has social anxiety and other mental issues... but for the most part I had a wonderful time.  Most everyone was so nice - and seeing faces to go with names again was great.  I am so glad I swallowed my fear and went - I knew I would regret it if I didn't.

I've posted pics and comments on my Facebook if anyone wants to check those out. 

While I was at the Gathering, I picked up a couple of bundles of sample glass from Kathy of Creation is Messy - one is the group of colors she has released already and you can see pics of over on the website.  One is a bundle of brand new colors that don't even have names or numbers yet (!!!)

I have to tell you, I am so excited by the colors I got, I can barely type!  :)

There are quite a few colors, but several really stand out, and I will be testing them as quickly as I can.  We have both an opaque peach and a transparent peach!  Peach is one of those colors that really does not exist in any kind of saturated form at all in the 104 COE line.  The transparent version will be one of CiM's basic colors and looks soooo promising, I can't even tell you.

The other color I am dying over is a transparent dark navy blue.  Navy!!  Finally!!  I have been hoping for a navy blue ever since I ran out of that odd lot of Vetrofond that I think was called Denim Blue that I can't even find anymore.

There are also several opals - one of which is a deep and dark and luscious teal green.  There are some weird reds, a couple of yellows, and lots of green.

Speaking of green - that's the first color I am showing today - and it has no name or number, so the rod was just labelled "A".  (note: as of 8/29/12, this color has been named and numbered 408 Leapfrog Ltd. Run) No, I won't be going in alphabetical order... this is just the first color that came about, because I wanted to make pumpkins, and could use this for the stem/vines.

Soylent, Split Pea, "A"

"A", I was told, is an odd lot of Split Pea, a lovely soft opaque green. It's possible that this will be a limited run color, but we'll have to see.  It doesn't even have a page yet, so I will have to wait to link to it.

Soooo, this odd lot is a touch lighter and brighter than Split Pea, and I think a great name for it would be Pistachio.  It kind of sits between Split Pea and Soylent (a brighter Christmas green).

"A" is entirely opaque and pretty dense.  While Soylent striates pretty heavily, this new color only does so a little bit - more toward the hole than in the middle of the bead.  It's a smoother color - much more like Split Pea.  The consistency is nice - not too stiff and not too soupy.  I didn't see any bleeding or spreading, as in many Effetre opaque greens - and this is something CiM continues to impress me with. Their opaque greens tend to be more stable and layer really well.

"A", encased with DH Aether, and as plain spacers

Pumpkin - Effetre Tequilla Sunrise Coral, "A", Effetre Lt Grass Green

Encased, "A" gets a little lighter without losing its opacity. I encased it with DH Aether (clear) on the spacer, and with Effetre Light Grass Green on the vines in the pumpkin beads. The stringer layed very well and melted nicely.

Pumpkin - no bleeding from the green!

This shade makes a nice addition to the green palette for CiM - one I probably will buy.  There are a LOT of greens in CiM's line - especially opaque greens - but so far, none of them seem redundant. 

More colors coming soon!  :)

Why am I dreading The Gathering? And more news...

Okay, maybe "dreading" is to harsh a word....but I can safely say that I am extremely anxious about attending the ISGB Gathering this coming week/weekend.  Fair warning - I'm about to pour my heart out here.

When I first heard that the Gathering was coming to the Seattle area this year (specifically Bellevue, which is just minutes away from my home in Maple Valley, WA) I was really excited about it.  I definitely wanted to attend, and participate in everything I could.  After all, THE beadmakers' convention doesn't come to the west coast all that often.  I've been to only two other Gatherings - the one in Portland in 2004, and the one in Oakland in 2008. Both were a great time!  The idea that the convention would be so close was really an incentive to me - no travel, home nearby, a familiar place, etc.

So I signed up - for the main convention (complete with seminars),and the banquet.  I also signed up for half a table at the Bead Bazaar (sharing with my friend Kim) on Saturday.  I had planned on donating to several of the projects, and taking part in some of the contests. 

A few months ago, life really got in the way of all my plans.  Severe family issues cropped up and brought my creativity, motivation, energy, mental faculties all to a screeching halt. I know it sounds all melodramatic and catastrophic.... but that's how I have been feeling lately.  Both sides of our family - my husband's and my own - had some major things come up at the same time.  It was kind of an onslaught of confusion and heartbreak that took me completely by surprise. 

Since these events, I have had a pretty rough time keeping up with things.  I've been doing custom orders, and really little else.  No glass testing, no new beads for sale, no experimenting, nothing like that.  And certainly, no inventory for the Bead Bazaar.  At all.  I have like a handful of beads to bring to the Gathering - most of which are extras from the custom orders. 

Things just....fell apart for me.  The depression has been crushing, and I don't really know when it will get better. 

So as it sits for the Gathering.... I am supposed to have half a table - but I have nothing to stock it with.  So I am basically giving my half to Kim - even though the tables aren't supposed to be transferrable.  I am hoping the people in charge will understand.  I haven't emailed them because the deadline for a refund on the table has long past, and I am embarrassed about it.  If nothing else, I will help Kim at the table with her stuff, allowing her to take breaks and shop and such as she needs.  I'll have my business cards to hand out for people who want to place orders, or buy tutorials - and I will have a few beads for trading and maybe for sale, but that's pretty much all.

One thing which does sound promising is that Creation is Messy will have some new colors soon that I can test - including transparent and opaque peach shades, which we have been asking for forever. They (as well as the other new colors) look really lovely.  

As for the rest of it.... I missed all deadlines for the contests/projects, but I am hoping to donate some beads to the Beads of Courage, if they have a booth there.  And I am going to try and attend all the seminars and such. 

With this kind of depression and anxiety, I don't know how what kind of company I will be, but I will try and have a smile on my face, and hopefully I can snap out of it long enough to commiserate with my fellow artists and maybe be inspired.

But I am really nervous, and haven't yet been able to build up much enthusiasm for this event, which in the past I have really loved. When I am depressed and under a lot of stress, I tend to have issues with crowds and am prone to panic attacks. I hope that changes soon.

So why am I telling you all this - and laying it on so thick?  Well, part of it is in the hopes that if you are there, and see me, you won't judge me too harshly if I am quiet and have not much to show. Partly, it's also to apologize for my utter lack of preparation for this show.

As at the Oakland Gathering, I will have my tarot cards with me as kind of a social anxiety security blanket. I most likely won't come up and strike up a conversation with people - that's just not in my makeup right now. I hope that won't make me look like a stuck up antisocial brat.  Just a fragile artist trying to get through some tough times, and maybe talk herself into having a good time at the Gathering. Crossing my fingers.

Cim Glass Testing: Let's Talk About Red!

This post is a long one, so grab a cup of coffee and settle in!

Today I am going to review a group of CiM glass colors in the red spectrum - and we'll also hear from guest blogger Kim Affleck!  I asked Kim to help me test one of the reds that I got, because she is really great at striking transparent red, and she agreed.  She has lots to say about this new batch of reds that came in recently.

Red glass in general has properties that are different from other glass colors, and comes with its own set of unique challenges for glassworkers. Most transparent reds are striking colors - they change shade based on temperature and type of flame.  They tend to get brighter as they are cooled and reheated over and over.  However, transparent reds tend to burn very easily and will boil if heated too quickly or for too long.  Opaque reds are notoriously variable from batch to batch, and most of them striate. They also turn black in the flame - so keep that in mind when working together with black glass - you can't often tell them apart until they cool off.

Specifically, we're going to look at some of the brand new reds CiM has released, as well as an older CiM red that I really love.  I'll also talk about a vivid orange.

First up is CiM Valentine, a lovely deep opaque red.  This color can best be compared with some batches of Effetre Purple Red, but as we'll see, they are not exactly alike. Valentine is slightly warmer.

solid spacers

Valentine is a true red, and appropriately named.  It's incredibly saturated in color and looks to have fallen right off the Valentine's Day shelf.

Working with this color was fairly easy - it's a typical opaque red.  It striates a little when used as a base, but not overly much.  It's not too stiff for an opaque, which is nice, because I enjoyed using it as a layering color.  I did end up having a couple of cracking issues when layering this with DH Aether clear, but that could have been user error, in that it only happened on two beads out of a full kiln.  Because red can be temperature sensitive, keep an eye on your heat and don't let the reds cool too quickly.

Valentine makes fantastic stringer when encased with CiM Sangre (covered later) - probably the most gorgeous encased stringer I have ever seen.

If Valentine remains consistent from batch to batch, I am probably going to use it in place of my normal Effetre Purple Red for holiday beads and for basic red in general.  Because I like my reds saturated and deeper, this is a wonderful addition to my color palette.

Below, this first set has Valentine as the opaque red.  Sangre is used in the center bead, layered on the Valentine.

On the set below, Effetre Purple Red is used, by itself on the left bead, and layered with Sangre on the other two.  You can see it is slightly darker and colder than Valentine is. 

Next, we have the new CiM Maraschino - a semi-transparent light bright red, that looks exactly like it sounds.  It's cheerful and youthful - like cherry candy.

Maraschino acts pretty much like any other semi-transparent red glass.  Semi-transparents are different from opals - they carry no opalescent sheen.  They just sometimes opacify in the flame - usually underneath the top layer of transparent glass. Most "transparent" reds that aren't strikers do that.  Unlike striking red, the color in a semi-transparent remains saturated, but sometimes can't be totally seen through.

This is why I really like these types of colors as layering glass only when used with an opaque that is similar in shade.  Semi-transparents can then be used to brighten the opaque and make it really shiny.


These Maraschino spacers turned out to be sometimes transparent and sometimes like an encased bead.  The bead on the upper right looks to be somewhat opaque. What you get seems to be kind of random - I haven't yet figured out the specific temperature or flame environment that causes the opacity to come out in any of these types of reds. I've had similar reactions with Lauscha's transparent reds.

This shade of red was really tough to photograph.  It's so vivid that it threw off the camera, I think.  Red tends to do that, but this specific shade was tougher than most. 

My favorite red in the whole 104 COE line is CiM Sangre.  This is one of CiM's older basic colors, and I find it to be consistently beautiful and easy to use.  It's also a semi-transparent, and is a vivid Christmas red that's very similar in shade to Valentine.  I consider it to be relatively close to Lauscha Cherry Red from way back when. It's the perfect red for me - not too warm and not too cold, on the darker side - like red velvet cake.


Sangre doesn't really strike - it's basically the same intensity, no matter how you work it - as long as you don't burn it out.  It's a wonderful layering glass, in my opinion, but can almost seem like an opaque when you use it as a base by itself. It's not too stiff and doesn't spread or bleed.  None of the reds seemed to bleed at all, and stayed put for the most part on all the beads, even when raked.

Christmas beads and Valentine's beads really stand out when you use Sangre with Valentine - they work very well together. Below, you can see them in one of my latest sets.  The stringer is particularly pretty - Valentine encased with Sangre.

Next in line are two brand new reds that I got even before they were named. They started out as 11.10.9 and 11.10.9s. Now they are known as Crimson and Ruby Slippers respectively.  Both are limited run colors, and Crimson is already available, while Ruby Slippers will come out sometime in April, according to CiM's website.

I am doing these two together for a couple reasons.  First, as many CiM testers have verified, they look to be essentially the same color, even though the formulas are different.  Second, they both have some serious issues that make them unusable for me particularly.  These are also the colors I asked Kim to help me with, and she agrees that they are problematic.

This swatch is of 11.10.9s - Ruby Slippers.  I tried making a swatch of 11.10.9 Crimson, but it shattered every time I put it even near the flame.  I am guessing that's not normal for the color, as Kim was able to work with it without having it shatter.

Both colors are striking red transparents.  They change color when heated, cooled and reheated. 

Here's what Kim had to say about Ruby Slippers:

"This transparent struck easily for me with two strikes.  However, it is really easy to overstrike and gets livery (cloudy brown)

The plain spacer (3rd from right, above) was heated until clear, allowed to cool, then struck, allowed to cool, then struck again.  I got a nice red but there is too much brown in it for my taste.

The encased spacers (far right, above) were worked basically the same way but as you can see - they went VERY cloudy.

The bicone has a core of white, THINLY encased with 9s transparent red, then THINly encased with clear.  Nice red on this one.  it struck well - the uneveness of the red is due to the thickness of the application, rather than any uneveness in striking.

On the florals, I used the darker red for the base of the petals in one bead, and I used white for the base of the petals in the other bead.  I did not get the lovely, velvety red I was looking for and you can see that the red in the lighter flowers has a lot of brown."

As for Crimson, which is not pictured, Kim had this to say:


"It goes livery even easier that the other.  Frankly, it is an ugly red. No point in going any further with it.  It was also a bit more difficult to strike than the other one.  Did not like!  LOL!!"

Now, this is saying a lot, given that Kim is very good at striking red glass!  She regularly uses Effetre Striking Red, which is probably the most comparable to these two shades.

I personally prefer semi-transparent reds to striking reds, so it's likely that I won't purchase either of these.

Last but not least, we have CiM Pimento Ltd Run, a super vivid cool orange-red that can almost be called neon.  It's so freaking bright!  Especially when used as stringer.

Pimento is very saturated.  Like intensely so.  I am shocked by how much color is in this glass.  It overtakes everything!  It's your basic opaque - not too stiff, doesn't bleed, or spread, and is consistent in shade, for the most part.  It pretty much acts like an opaque red in the flame - it turns black when hot and can burn easily.

By itself, I don't find this a very attractive color.  It sits between red and orange and is just not my thing.  However, according to Pantone, this shade of orange is super hot this season, so there you go.  I'm not as fashionable as I thought!

This is one of those colors that seems to get brighter as its thinned out.  Encased stringer made with Pimento and clear is amazingly bright and pretty - a lighter orange.  However, an encased base with this color and clear is almost too dark for my taste.

On the set below, I tried using black and white to temper the sheer brightness of this color, and it worked to a point.  It reminds me a bit of the color of clownfish.  However, even the pic of these beads downplays the brightness of the orange.  Put on sunglasses!

Whew, that was a long one - hope you enjoyed the reviews - and hope your eyes don't hurt! Till next time.... :)