Glass Testing: CiM 630 Your Majesty, 628 Wisteria and 488 Peppermint Cream

Okay, everyone - I know it's been like 7 billion years since I have last posted a glass test, but here I am! Creation is Messy sent out a really large batch of new colors this time, too.

First off, not all the colors in the package are completely new; CiM has remade or reformulated a bunch of colors, and created two new sub-sections of glass they are calling Misty Opals and Sparkles. Misty Opals are a bit like the old Moonstone shades, in that they are somewhat more translucent than regular Opals. The Sparkles are transparent colors mixed with goldstone. I'll get to those in a later post.

Now, I personally do not have a ton of experience with opals in general, so my testing of these (and there are a lot of them) will be somewhat limited to my own skill-set and style. I may not test every one - mostly because there are, like, 8 different shades of green opal, and I imagine they are all pretty similar. But I will try to get to as many was I can.

Almost all of the colors sent with this batch are Limited Runs, so assume the colors are not part of their main color line unless otherwise indicated. This is because CiM is not certain they can remake a lot of their new colors, and when they try to remake a color that doesn't have an established recipe and production, it's often just different enough to warrant its own name and number.

For this first session, I tested three colors - one opaque, one transparent and one of the Misty Opals.

The opaque is an off-white shade with just the teeniest hint of a greenish cast, and it's called Peppermint Cream. One major thing to begin with is that the rods of this color I was given were extremely shocky. Now, I am not sure if this is just a problem with these first rods, or if they have a whole batch like that. But I ended up wasting a lot of what I had just trying to get a flame environment right enough to melt a few gathers and pull stringers. I ended up having to heat the ends of the rods in the kiln for a bit before melting. The shockiness returned after the rod cooled, so I had to do this several times. This frustrates me to no end! These days, pale opaque rods are more often than not really shocky. Hopefully they can fix this, because if it can't be fixed, I won't be buying this color, even though it is very pretty. I have let Kathy of CiM know about this and hope for a response soon.

Beyond the shockiness, Peppermint Cream is a nice, opaque neutral color that I mostly just used as a base. I wasn't able to encase it for stringer because the rod kept shattering, but I was able to make some spacers and a couple of beads with it. Once it is hot, it has a nice consistency and stays opaque. I did notice some specks of what might be dirt or something in the petal I pulled, which may account for the shocky nature. You can see this if you look closely at the picture above.

I don't have much else to say about Peppermint Cream - but if they end up reformulating it to remove the fragility, I will gladly test it again. I'd like to have this shade in my arsenal - it's nice to have a cooler off-white color as a base.

Next, we have Your Majesty, a medium transparent plum/purple. It seems to be a lighter version of Simply Berry, CiM's dark amethyst shade. I would say that even though Your Majesty has less of a brownish cast than its Effetre cousins, it is still much more plum than purple. I do like that it's not too dark - this will make it a nice color to layer with light purple and blue opaques.

In the beads below, I layered it on top of Evil Queen, and it worked nicely. I can't say this is the most exciting purple in the world, but it's better than some of the alternatives. I would love it if CiM could recreate the Simply Berry Unique one-off that was similar to this, but much less plum and more orchid in color.

Your Majesty was a tiny bit stiffer than usual, but not enough to keep it from layering well. It didn't have any reactive properties, and didn't spread, bleed or scum. It's got great clarity as well. 

Last, we have Wisteria, a Misty Opaque that is a remake of Crocus that is supposed to have more translucency after annealing. I would say it does succeed in that regard, lending an almost pinkish cast to the glowy lavender shade that is Crocus, because more light is getting though.

This glass was not too stiff, and melted nicely. I was able to use it as encased stringer - I layered it on top of Rapunzel (CiM's opaque pale lavender) and pulled a stringer that worked well for scrolling. It held up well when used that way - which is a nice change from the usually persnickety opals, which tended to pop off and crack when used as encased stringer for scrollwork.

In the beads below, I used it as my transparent when layering, and Rapunzel as the opaque. As you can see, these lighter purples faded into the background behind the darker plum. It's just visible enough to lighten the plum dots and ads a little dimension. I think Misty Opals would probably be better used as a base, or as raised decoration, rather than as layered dots.

Wisteria, like almost every other lavender glass on the planet, is a color shifter; it goes bluer under fluorescent lighting, and fades out under some of the new energy efficient bulbs. Under my Reveal bulbs, it stays true glowy lavender with a pinkish cast.

Again, I don't tend to work with opals, so I don't have a lot more to say, except it is very pretty!  Here are a couple of beads with all three colors (along with Evil Queen and clear).

I have not included links to colors in this post because they are not up on CiM's website yet. When they go up, I will edit them in. More colors to come soon!

Glass Color Testing: CiM 541 Denim and CiM 625 Bashful

So, I had planned on blogging about a completely different color scheme a couple of weeks ago. Then, my computer's new solid state hard drive took a complete dive and I lost all the pics and notes about the new Creation is Messy color I had tested the week before. Soooo, I'll have to redo that one!

In the meantime, I have a bunch of other colors ready to blog about - and here are the first two. Both are limited runs (as are all in the latest batch), and both are relatively neutral colors. These days, my mood is darker, so I am in the mood to make dark beads! :) 


First up is Denim, which is aptly named, as it's a very dark, transparent grayish color that sits between green and blue.  I personally prefer more of a blue cast to my denim, so I like to layer it with a bluer opaque color. This time, I used CiM Blue Steel as the opaque to layer Denim with, which turned out a little more grey than I was hoping for, but still bluer than when Denim is used alone. It's still really pretty, especially if you like those dark futuristic neutrals as much as I do.

For me, this color is too dark to work on it's own as a base, so layering it thinly on top of opaques or clear is the way to go. It made gorgeous encased stringer with the Blue Steel!

Denim is a nice smooth glass to work with. It didn't shock, pit, bleed or bubble at all, and it's not too stiff for layering - which is really nice! I actually really loved how it melted in when placed on top of the Blue Steel, on clear-encased black (below) - it created very crisp flowers.

Denim is definitely a winner in my book. There's no other color like it that I know of, and it fits right in to a neutral palette.


Next we have a pale tint called Bashful, which reminds me of sepia tones without the yellow. CiM calls this a pale purple - which personally, I just don't see. I see a very pale grey/brown that reminds me of the color of champagne, or black diamond crystals. It's however not as dark as CiM Chateau.

At any rate, this is a lovely tint that I thought looked really great layered on top of the paler cream colors that CiM has - in this case, Antique Lace or Butter Pecan. The result is a neutral off-white or ecru that doesn't have the yellowish cast to it that cream usually does.

This is another glass that is almost problem-free. I only saw the tiniest amount of scumming if I heated the end of a stringer too long or too hot. As with most pale transparents, use a delicate hand when heating, and you'll be fine.

Encasing stringer with Bashful over Antique Lace yielded a very pale color that was kind of an eggshell - almost white but not quite. Lovely on top of black, and paired with the Denim. This is a wonderful color if you're looking for light cream without the yellow cast, but don't want to go into the light brown range.

More CiM tests coming soon!

Glass Testing: CiM 716 Chateau Ltd. Run and CiM 530 Zoe Ltd. Run

Continuing on with the testing for the giant batch of new colors I got from Creation is Messy, today's colors are the gorgeous aqua called Zoe, and the soft neutral called Chateau.

First up is Chateau, and lovely transparent brownish beige. It reminds me a bit of cream soda, and is a nice alternative for Effetre's Light Brown transparent.

 According to CiM's website, this color was created to be similar to Sepia, but without the reddish undertone.  It fits the bill nicely - it's a true pale brown without any reddish or greenish undertones, and works nicely as an encasing layer for any browns or creams.

One thing I need to mention is that this glass can scum easily if you heat it too fast.  Work it under a cooler flame, and when using it as stringer, don't let it get too melty or it will bubble up.  It's not too stiff, so there's not much of an issue getting it to melt.

One other thing - when using this color with Effetre Sage (the new handmade version, not the machine made version) I had some severe compatibility cracks when making encased florals.  I am not sure what the culprit was - but using it under a thick encasement of clear (DH Zephyr) produced cracks like I have never seen. I didn't get cracks with other combinations of similar colors, so I have narrowed down the culprit to either Sage or Chateau. The cracking didn't happen in any other beads made with these colors - just the encased florals.  So just bear that in mind.

Other than that, I really love this color - it's a nice neutral that adds a soft beigy brown cast to anything it's layered with. 

Chateau layered with Effetre Mudslide makes a nice toffee color.

Chateau layered with Effetre Sage is a soft latte brown - use sparingly to avoid cracks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On to one of my very favorite selections in the new color batch - Zoe.  When CiM sent the new batch of colors, there were quite a few in the aqua/teal/blue range.  That thrilled me because I really love those colors.  Zoe is one of the best. For some reason, this color just shines and sparkles more than any aqua I've seen in any brand of glass.

Okay, enough gushing - on to the important stuff.

The first thing you need to know is that transparent aqua shades are a bitch to photograph.  Seriously.  The camera just does not capture the real color very well.  It doesn't even look right on the CiM website, which frustrates me to no end, because I want to relay to you, the color addict, just how gorgeous this aqua blue really is. 

CiM made this color to be a light version of Pulsar ( which is basically CiM's version of Effetre Dark Aqua) It succeeds - it's lighter and slightly less saturated than Pulsar, which I really like.  This makes it the perfect shade for springy aqua beads.

As usual, CiM's aqua glasses are better behaved than Effetre's - they don't scum or bubble or spread or bleed, etc.  Zoe is no exception. There may be some scummy spots when you first melt the rod, but those will disappear quickly as you melt the glass.  Zoe can take a lot of heat without burning out or bubbling, which makes it an ideal layering color.  Zoe isn't too stiff, which is also nice.

I think Zoe makes a wonderful layering color with either Effetre Light Sky Blue (for a brighter shade) or CiM Duck Egg (for a softer shade). 

As I mentioned before, there are several other aqua shades in the new CiM color batch. Most of these are very close in hue, with just tiny differences in the amount of green/blue and in saturation. I'm sure there are lots of opinions on which is best, but Zoe is my personal favorite. Since color love is subjective, your mileage may vary.  So far, I am of the opinion that any one of these aqua shades will be a great addition to your palette. :)

Zoe layered with Duck Egg (the purples are Heffalump, Dark Lavender and Pale Ink Blue)

Zoe layered with Duck Egg (the purples are Heffalump, Dark Lavender and Pale Ink Blue)

Zoe with Duck Egg as a raised floral is nice and bright.

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!

 

 

 

CiM Glass Testing: 518 Blue Steel, 520 Raindrop Ltd. Run, 521 Eventide Ltd. Run and 611 Lavender Water Ltd. Run

Yep, it's been awhile, so here are a bunch of new colors to look at!  All four of these are brand new, and will be released for purchase this June.  I get my CiM from Frantz Art Glass.  However, all of them except Lavender Water are also going to be available at Tuffnell.

First of all, what these four colors have in common is that they are a bit brighter in rod form than they end up being after spending some time in the kiln. These colors are essentially shades of grey.  For me, this isn't a bad thing at all - I love muted colors.  These four are on the cool side of grey.

We'll start with the one opaque color in the bunch - Blue Steel.  I received a big batch of colors to test from CiM recently, and Blue Steel is the only selection that is not a Limited Run.  They are adding it to the regular production line, I am assuming, which is nice. It's a color we don't have, and I think it will make a nice base for any of the transparent greys and blues we have now. (**Note: as of 5/9/13, Blue Steel has been changed to a Ltd. Run, due to CiM not being able to recreate it right away.  Kathy from CiM has reported that until they are able to melt a consistent color, Blue Steel is only available at Frantz Art Glass.)

spacers, plain and encased with clear

The name of this color is slightly misleading, I think.  For me, this color reads grey - if a tiny bit on the cool side. In rod form, it certainly looks like a steel blue.  But after time in the kiln, the blue fades and you get a medium cool grey.

The consistency of this glass is really nice.  It does spread a little bit - but not enough to mess with your other colors.  I didn't have any problems with bleeding when encased in clear or any of the other three transparents I tested it with. Blue Steel isn't particularly stiff, either.

I did notice a little bit of a reaction when white stringer was melted into a base of Blue Steel - the white fades somewhat and you get the pretty little reaction lines around the scrollwork.  Not an unattractive feature to be sure. Striations in the color as a base go away when transparents are layered on top.

When encased in clear, the Blue Steel did lighten up quite a bit, as you can see in the spacer beads.  However, it's still a nice base for layering transparents onto - it doesn't fade out too much. 

All in all, I really like this color as a layering basic grey. It's much cooler and a bit lighter than the other CiM gray, Adamantium, so it's a nice edition to the line.

Next, we have Eventide, a medium transparent color that looks like a muted lavender in rod form.  However, this color essentially goes cool grey with just a tiny hint of cool lavender left over after it's annealed.  I love muted purples, so I was kind of disappointed that Eventide faded so much.  Still, it makes a nice layering transparent color if you want a cool grey. 

Eventide is your basic, consistent transparent color.  It's the stiffest of this bunch, but not too stiff.  It didn't react to anything.  It layered really well with Steel Blue, and together they *almost* make a color that approaches blueish grey rather than just neutral grey.  It's pretty, and reminds me a little of an older CiM color called Dusk - just lighter and with less of a tendency to go brown.

If we had an opaque navy blue in this line, Eventide would be the perfect complement to it. :)

Lavender Water

Raindrop

The next two colors, Raindrop and Lavender Water, are so completely close in hue and shade that they are almost interchangeable.  In fact, when I made spacers of these two colors, I could not tell them apart when I took them out of the kiln. Also, in the beads I am showing here, you can't really tell which color is used where.

Both colors are extremely light.  In rod form, and in the petals I pulled for these tests, Raindrop is the one that is slightly bluer, and Lavender Water was slighly pinker. But after annealing, the color fades a lot, and we are left with - you guessed it - a cool grey. A very, very pale cool grey.  Shown are three spacers - one of them is Lavender Water and the other two are Raindrop. I can't tell which is which - can you?  :)

Pale transparents are nice for layering, but are known for having a tendency to burn and scum really easily.  I had that problem with both of these. However, once I was careful not to overheat them, I was able to melt the colors without too much bubbling.  I turned my torch (a Nortel Minor) down and worked up a little higher in the flame to avoid the scum.

When used to layer the petals of raised flowers (with Blue Steel), the lighter transparents were only a bit lighter than when I used Eventide.  The effect was a little more pronounced when using them to encase a base of Steel Blue.  Eventide was the darkest, and the other two were much lighter.

When used in melted decoration, I couldn't tell much difference between the three transparents at all.

Soooo, what's the verdict? Well, I think all four colors are very pretty, for when you want cool neutrals that behave pretty well. I will likely buy Eventide and Blue Steel.  I will probably only buy one of the other two, depending on what's available, since they are limited runs. But which one doesn't really matter. Have fun!  :)