Glass Testing: CiM 529 Frost Ltd. Run, 535 Duck Egg Ltd. Run and 906 Sakura Ltd. Run

Over the holidays, I got a new box of color to test from CiM, and I finally had some time to break open the box and start melting! Let me tell you, there are lots of new colors, and a lot of them seem to have great promise. 

CiM seemed to fixate on aquas and blues this time around, and bright yellows as well. I am not so crazy about the yellow shades, but the blues are all really gorgeous. There are also quite a few translucent opals and moonstones. I will likely stick with the transparents and dense opaques, though, because I love layering glass. 

First up, we have a really pretty subtle opaque color called Duck Egg, which is a nice shade of pale blue/green. CiM stated on their website that this color was meant to be a bluer version of their Dirty Martini, and it fits that description pretty well.
This glass has a nice consistency - it melts smoothly and is not too stiff or too soupy.  It really behaves a lot like Dirty Martini does. 

As you can see in the spacers, Duck Egg can striate a little bit, but that will disappear when layering the glass. If you melt in dots and leave them uncovered, you may get lines of separation, which can be pretty as part of the design.

Beyond that, Duck Egg is a dense color, which means it stays opaque when layered, and holds the shade well. No bleeding or pitting from what I can tell, also. 

Duck Egg is used here as the layering color behind Frost (shown below)

Next up we have Frost, the lightest of the transparent aqua/teal shades in the latest batch of new color. from CiM. 

There are two things I like best about CiM's many, many shades of aqua/teal/blue.  First is that they tend not to scum or bubble or pit like Effetre/Vetrofond blues and teals. The second is that most of their shades are a step or two brighter or darker than any of the other brands' shades - which broadens the palette!

Frost is no different.  This shade of pale blue is a little more saturated and slightly bluer than Effetre's Pale Aqua, and behaves much, much better.  It's a gorgeous icy aqua color that stays clear of bubbles, and layers like a dream.

Frost has a wonderful consistency. It's stiff enough to hold its shape, but not too stiff.  It makes gorgeous encased stringer (used above, with Duck Egg), and equally lovely spacers. It even works well as an encasing color over a pale opaque.
 I'm buying more of this as soon as it's available (February, according to their website).

Lastly, we have a wonderfully odd color called Sakura. When I first saw this color, I thought it was just a medium pink transparent - but when I looked closer and when I melted the rod, I got a glorious shade that sits somewhere between peach and pink.  It's much more saturated than either the Vetrofond or the Effetre version of light transparent pink.  I would call it a kind of pale cantaloupe color.

Whatever you call it, it's freaking gorgeous. Sakura is Japanese for Cherry Blossom, I believe, so that fits the bill pretty well.

This glass is a little on the stiff side, but not too bad.  Just be careful when you layer it with any opaque pink - opaque pinks that are Effetre tend to be on the soupy side. I will still able to make flower petals with it, and they turned out really lovely. This shade also makes gorgeous encased stringer, because it's more saturated than any other transparent pink I know of, so the color doesn't wash out.

Like the Frost, this glass doesn't seem to bubble or scum at all, and stays perfectly flawless when melted.  

Sakura is going to be a spectacular spring color, I think, and I am going to buy a ton of this when it comes out, provided it's not too ridiculously expensive.

All of the new CiM colors I got this time (around 27) are limited run colors, which means you need to get them as soon as you can!

The bead sets shown in this post are made with the following colors:  CiM Frost, CiM Duck Egg, CiM Sakura, Effetre Petal Pink, Double Helix Aether and Vetrofond Black.

(I know I'm going to get asked - Effetre Petal Pink is a pale opaque pink that's not around anymore - you can replace it with pretty much any of the Effetre opaque pinks you like - they are all so close it really doesn't matter.)

Points to those who get the play on words with the name of these beads (Anna May)!  It's a Big Bang Theory show joke. :)