Glass Testing: CiM 586 Mermaid

CiM Mermaid - here's another color I would really love to like! Actually, I do love the color - it's a deep opaque teal that doesn't occur in any other 104 glass line that I know of. It's deeper than the Effetre Ocean Green we all love, and bluer than Effetre Petroleum.

What I don't like is the workability of this glass. This is one of the first times I have been disappointed in the quality of one of CiM's colors. However, I only have one thin rod of this, so there's a chance it's a fluke.

One of the first things I have noticed is that this rod of Mermaid was incredibly shocky - even more so than most of Effetre's handpulled stuff. Mermaid cracked down the rod when I tried to heat it - even after a quick pre-heat in the kiln. The tip kept splintering, so it was hard to get a gather going to pull stringer. It was virtually impossible to use this as a base for encased stringer - which is really what I wanted to do with such a dark, saturated color.

I also noticed that this glass is stiff and melts in kind of a clumpy way. You can see that a bit in the swatch above.

Mermaid did make gorgeous spacers, though - once I was able to wind it wround the mandrel. It's streaky and seperates quite a lot, which can be pretty in the right application.

When encasing a base bead, I noticed that Mermaid bleeds a lot - coming out under the enges near the hole, even after I pushed the clear over it as much as possible.

These things make it hard for me to use this pretty color as a layering glass. As a base, it's probably great, as long as it's not encased.

I will ask and hold out hope that CiM reformulates this color so that it's more stable. Otherwise, it's yet another of the dozens of highly reactive, persnickity glass colors other glass lines have been flooding us with lately. Boy I'm grouchy. :)

**Edited to add: Seems like from what everyone is telling me here and in other places I might have gotten a bad rod of Mermaid. So as soon as I can get my hands on more, I will re-test it and hopefully it won't be shocky for me. If it's nice and stable, I will be one happy lampworker!

***Edited again: I have retested this color with wonderful results! Click here to see.