Glass Testing: CiM 210 Sunset Ltd. Run and CiM 614 Jellyfish Ltd. Run

Creation is Messy has a new batch of Limited Run colors up this month, so I put my two favorites together for this test.

First up is CiM Sunset - which was a happy surprise for me!  Almost

all of the coral/orange glass I have ever tried, which has usually been made by Effetre, has had cracking problems when encased in clear or even in light transparent colors.  It doesn't always cause the bead to crack, but it does enough of the time to keep me from wasting my time making encased beads with any coral/orange glass I have.

So, when I saw this lovely, dense, streaky orange rod from CiM, I thought to myself..."hmmmm I wonder if this cracks under encasing, too?"  The good news is that as far as I can see, Sunset doesn't have the cracking problems that all the Effetre 420 odd corals have.  But it does have the same lovely, juicy, saturated orange that we find in those Effetre coral oranges.


Sunset works up a little nicer than the Effetre coral oranges - not too stiff, has a tendency to streak and strike in the flame a little bit, but not as much the Effetre.  Also, Sunset doesn't have the rough texture that sometimes happens with Effetre corals. No pitting or air bubbles that I saw. No bleeding or spreading that I saw.

The color of Sunset is a true orange - it doesn't tend toward either red or yellow.  Encasing it in clear lightens it just a little bit.  For fun, I encased it in Jellyfish, and got a lovely watermelon orange which looks delicious.

I had no problem layering this dense glass - it keeps its color very well.

1. Sunset with clear encased Sunset scrolls. 2. Effetre Lavender Blue Pastel encased with Jellyfish, with clear encased Sunset scrolls. 3. Clear encased Sunset with Lavender Blue Pastel and Jellyfish dots. 4. Jellyfish encased Sunset with Jellyfish encased Lavender Blue Pastel scrolls.

Jellyfish under daylight lamps

Next, we have CiM Jellyfish, a pretty transparent lavender that shifts to lighter bluish in fluorescent light, just like other lavender glass out there.

This version of lavender is very close to the old CiM Count von Count - maybe just a touch lighter. Not as light as Larkspur, and not as pink as Purple Haze.  Not as muted as Tranquility. Compared to Effetre Dark Lavender, Jellyfish is just a touch lighter.

There's nothing that sets this glass apart from all the other lavenders that CiM has released over the years - it works up nicely, isn't too stiff, holds its color and is really pretty. It does scum up a little on the rod as you melt, but that goes away when worked into a bead or pulled as stringer.  It's not as scummy as Effetre versions.

I'm glad for the release of this color, because it's been difficult to find Dark Lavender, and the other CiM lavenders have mostly been discontinued (Except for Larkspur, which is lighter than Jellyfish).  As long as CiM keeps bringing out the lavender glass, I will buy it because I like the consistency better than Effetre.

I am hoping that Jellyfish doesn't turn out to be as expensive as Purple Haze was! Both of these colors are set to come out sometime this month.I'm looking forward to making pumpkins with Sunset and lots of flowers with Jellyfish.  They are limited runs, so get them as soon as you can, because I think they will sell fast. :)

Summer Sunset set, same colors as beads in the above pics.