Glass Testing: Fritty Bits by Melanie Graham - Blue Jeans

So last time I talked about frit testing, I was less than enamoured with the color I tried. The color I am blogging about today couldn't be more different! 

My muse was actually quite pleased with this frit called Blue Jeans. Made up of lots of pale neutral shades like cream and light blue, plus some medium teal, this frit can be soft or vivid, depending on what you do with it. The grains of glass in this frit are a little smaller, so it was easier for me to work with on my small round beads.

I tried a few things before I really fell in love with it.  Melanie's notes told me that this frit would look good on white, New Violet or Periwinkle, so I tried white first.  It was pretty, but not too exciting. The neutrals faded on the white, so the predominant visible colors were pale blue and teal. Not bad, but not enough to really draw me in.

Next I tried a light purple - in this case, Effetre Light Lavender Blue - which is similar to the New Violet that Melanie suggested. The effect was much prettier to me, because I love teal with purple, and this combo really brought out the teal. However, all the neutrals really faded away on this bead, and I am not sure why.  Maybe I didn't roll enough frit on.

Base is plain Effetre White

So I thought to myself - if light purple looks this nice, maybe a darker purple shade would look even better.  And I was right!

My final step was to roll the frit onto CiM Lapis, which is a deeper cool purple with similar reactive properties to New Violet and most of the other opaque dark purples out there. These kinds of dense opaque purples tend to striate and help other colors spread out - and the effect is usually really pretty.

I really loved the way Blue Jeans looked on CiM Lapis, so I made a bunch of round beads with  just a thick layer of this frit, and clear scrollwork on top to magnify the colors. You can still see the sweet light blue and just a tiny hint of the creamy shade, but the predominant color that comes out is the teal.  It's a wonderful complement to the purple.

Base is CiM Lapis, scrolls are Double Helix Aether clear.

Top - Effetre Light Lavender Blue base.

Next, I decided to make a couple more cubes just to see the effect, and I liked it.  I used the Lapis as encased stringer to frame the cubes and accent the purple.

The only thing I might change with this frit is to add even more of the teal - it's really pretty.

I find myself wanting to buy more of this - and that's a huge surprise to me.  I never thought I would like frit so much.  :)

I have two more colors to test, but I am not sure which one I will try first. We'll see!  :)