Glass Color Testing: CiM 546 Quetzal, CiM 313 Painted Hills, and CiM 548 Barrier Reef

Hi, everyone! It's been quite a few months since the last test, but the good news is that Creation in Messy just sent a huge batch of new colors for me to try out and blog about. There are a whopping 20 new shades of glass in the batch - all of which are limited runs (which I think will be the trend for the forseeable future). I'll try to get to most of them, I think.  There is only one opal color in the batch, which excites me because virtually all the new colors are ones I can really use and layer with.

CiM went a little nuts with the blues and greens this time - there are a ton of new shades that are great additions to the 104 palette that we don't usually see.

So first off, we have Painted Hills - an interesting light creamy yellow that really reminds me of the lighter batches of Effetre's famous Opal Yellow.

Painted Hills is a striking color - tending toward the lighter, almost washed out side when encased with clear, unless you strike it by cooling and reheating a few times. When used as a base, you can get blushing creams and yellows with a hint of rosy ivory at times. 
The longer you work it, the more color you can get.

The glass does behave somewhat like Opal Yellow in the flame as well - it can spread, especially when layered with a transparent color, but not to the point of being unusable. I really like this color as an alternative to Opal Yellow, because it is lighter, and because it doesn't have the air bubbles and holes that Effetre's handmade colors tend to have. So it doesn't have a shocking problem, and is pretty well-behaved.  If the price is right, I might completely replace my Opal Yellow with Painted Hills until they run out!

Next up are two teal shades called Quetzal and Barrier Reef. I used these two together because they complement eachother really nicely.

Quetzal is an opaque medium blue-green that sits somewhere between turquoise and teal to my eye.

Barrier Reef is a super intense dark transparent teal that can really only be seen when layered or encased - otherwise it looks almost black.

Encase Quetzal with Barrier Reef and pull into stringer and you have a magnificent deep rich teal that I just love!

Quetzal is very well behaved for a turquoise - it doesn't pit, doesn't striate nearly as much as a lot of greenish opaques, and is a lovely consistency.  It also doesn't go silvery like the Effetre turquoises. It will lighten a bit when encased, but still stays a lovely color. There's no shocking with this one either. It will bleed a little out the sides when making stripes if you're not careful to cover the edges well.

Barrier Reef is slightly stiff and very, very dark. It also turns really green in the flame, so don't let that surprise you - it goes back to teal when cool. Use it in thin layers to bring up the color - especially when using it as a base. Layer it thinly over a lighter opaque and then encase with clear.  I had no problems with bleeding, scumming or shocking.

In the beads shown here, the three new CiM colors are used with CiM Indian Summer, which is layered with the Painted Hills for a range of colors from light rosy amber to deep rusty amber.

you can see the Quetzal bleeding on the edges just a little

lovely shade of teal is made by layering Barrier Reef over Quetzal, then putting a small amount of clear on top.

scrolls of encased stringer make lovely teal striations under the pale flowers.

Painted Hills makes a wonderful base color for layering ambers and oranges.

Painted Hills can create lines of tiny bubbles when layered and melted in on top of clear, so watch for that.

Barrier Reef over Quetzal makes a wonderful dark teal stringer. Indian Summer over Painted Hills yields a soft rosy amber.