First Impression & Testing: CiM Cranberry Pink 926-2

This is the second installment of testing for this brilliant new color - see the post below this one for the first test.

Now we're talking! The second batch of CiM Cranberry Pink is a lot darker than the first, and in my opinion is virtually a home run as far as transparent fuschia pink goes. It's not quite as vibrant as the darker batches of Rubino, but it's really close. In fact, I would say this is almost Rubino's twin, with a couple of exceptions.

First off, this rod is slightly darker than the last, and in the picture of the rods, it's the second from the bottom. The color does not stay the same as you melt it - unfortunately, but it's still pretty. As you can see from the swatch, there's darkening and a little bit of the butterscotch reduction effect, too. But that effect is not nearly as pronounced as it was in the first batch, especially if you're not using it as the base.

The spacers turned out darker as well. The encased spacer isjust a bit cloudy, while the plain spacer is a deep fuschia with a hint of the cloudiness as well. This version of Cranberry was even easier to strike than the first batch - but also slightly easier to burn out as well. Just remember to keep the fuel on the low side and your flame fairly small and you should be okay.

When I compare it to Rubino, this glass is a bit stiffer to work with, easier to strike, is not quite as vibrant, and doesn't spread or "bloom" nearly as much as Rubino does. In fact, it was really stable laying on top of the Lauscha Cocoa and Effetre Dark Pink in the beads below.

Here are some pics of the beads I made with this version. The only bead made with the lighter version is the encased floral that is in the middle of the set - that's the one I made for the first post. You can really tell the difference between the versions in that one bead versus all the others in the set.