Glass Testing, CiM Ltd. Run Colors: 710 Seashell, 712 Hazelnut Mousse and 714 Antique Lace

It's beige day! After summer ends, I like to get into a more neutral palette, before I hit the vibrant fall colors.  This time, Creation is Messy cooperates by introducing a whole bunch of new neutral tones to their 104 coe glass line. 

l-r Seashell, Hazelnut Mousse and Antique Lace

The three I am reviewing today (which are all limited runs) fall into the beige category, and are all very very close in shade. So close that in the sets of beads I made, you can barely tell the difference between Hazelnut Mousse and Seashell. Antique Lace is the lightest of the three, and Seashell is the darkest - although you can barely tell which is which until you get them into the flame.  Working Seashell is a bit different than working the other two colors.

In the past, I have used Effetre Silver Pink as my beige/cream, mostly because I like the lightness and denseness of the color.  However, because it's handpulled, Silver Pink can be shocky, is sometimes full of air bubbles, and tends to vary from batch to batch.  It can also be rosy (hence the name), and is sometimes too light.   Luckily, I won't have to use Silver Pink as often, now that there are many choices for beige in the CiM line.

Seashell encased in clear

Seashell is a warm beige that's a bit peachy in the rod.  However, when melted and annealed, it lightens up and loses most of the peach overtones, and is a nice, light color, great for light skin tones, or anywhere you want an off-white color.

When melted, Seashell has a similar consistency to Lichen - a bit stiffer (but not overly so) than most CiM opaques.  It is slower to cool and doesn't always go back to being very opaque. It's just a teeny, tiny bit darker than Hazelnut Mousse, and a little less dense.

Therefore, when encasing this color, it's not as opaque, and tends to wash out just a little.  Encased stringer with Seashell as the base, and clear or a light transparent as the cover yields a bit of a ghostly effect.  It's pretty if you like that sort of thing.

HM encased in clear

I prefer Hazelnut Mousse, because while it is the same tone as Seashell, it's denser, so it stays opaque and doesn't fade as much when encased.  This makes it easier to layer with.  It's also a bit less stiff, and opacifies almost immediately when cooled.  I would probably pick this color immediately for any off-white, cream, beige I need in my beads. Fantastic neutral - and pairs well with black, grey, brown and pretty much anything else.

Seashell and Hazelnut Mousse, with Black, CiM Adamantium, Effetre Light Brown, and Clear

I liked encasing this with Effetre 018 Light Brown for a dreamy vanilla cream color. If you encase it in clear it comes out almost white - maybe a kind of eggshell color.

AL encased in clear - almost white!

Antique Lace works pretty much the same as HM, only a shade lighter.  It's dense, not too stiff, and easy to melt.

It's too light of a color for me, personally - but might work as a base for dark transparent colors.  When encased, it turns winter white - just a tiny shade darker than actual white. It's pretty on it's own, but is too light for layering as a light color, because it just washes out.  I think this would be a nice pale opaque base if you're not planning on doing any encasing.

Other than the spacers, the beads I am showing only incorporate the first two colors, not the Antique Lace.

Sometimes I used Hazelnut Mousse and Seashell in the same bead, and you cannot tell which is which.  These colors went really well with grey and black - a nice neutral palette for all year long. :) The beads below are available on my website, on my new Beads For Sale page.

Cubes!