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.