Fascinating Effect

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Things have been a bit chaotic here the past week, with a surprise visit from my daughter and some of life's challenges, but I did manage to get a bit of time at the torch.  I had intended to make more Halloween beads with orange and purple and am still looking for the perfect purple.  EDP devitrifies too much to use and reacts with orange as well.  Evil Queen reduces to a bit of a metallic sheen and devitrifies a bit.  Ditto light silver plum (no surprise there) and Plum is too light and translucent and Mulberry is too dark.  I didn't even try Poi because I think it would grey out but I might as well.  You never know until you try.

 I did get a totally awesome effect with the EDP, though.  I think the 5-pointed star or flower effect is so cool and I love the way the orange faded.  The dark circle from the reaction makes this bead even cooler.  I wish the EDP hadn't devitrified so much.  It even made the black next to it bubble.

 Here's another view of the end.  I think this is so totally cool.  I wish I could figure out a way to use this bead so the end is out, since, sadly, the bead doesn't look like much from the side, where it would be seen with ordinary stringing.  Any ideas?

Miscellaneous Oddities

 I was really taken with the combination of CiM Ephalba with purple and went (foolishly) with EDP.  Not only does a reaction take place, but in reducing it a bit to keep the devitrification down, I greyed out the Smurfy.  Hopefully a bit of a soak in CLR will help.  Interesting what the EDP did to the Ephalba.  In addition to the line, there's some separation of the Ephalba.  Smurfy likes to bleed into Ephalba too, it would seem.

 Note to self:  Make sure you find a way to keep track of the black stringer on the bench.  I thought it was tux, but apparently it's metallic black, which I didn't discover until I was melting it in.  Rats.

Effetre Green Tea.  Very pale aqua streaks.  Will play with this.

CiM butter pecan

A while back I reviewed CiM ginger and made a comparison bead with butter pecan, which was pretty identical with the rods I chose. There is quite a bit of variability in both these colors, and the rod color has a lot to do with the color the finished beads turn out. Butter pecan is a good pink to choose for human sculptural forms (think caucasian goddesses and angels) with the warning that it does get pretty drippy. Not quite as soft as ivory but close, and it stays hot for a long time. In the packet of glass I received, there was a lot of variation in rod size, the one I chose to do tests being about 4mm and the largest 7mm.

Plain butter pecan is creamy with an ever so slight streakiness that disappears if the bead is worked at all. With silver foil there is some yellow fuming, but not as much of a surface reaction as I was expecting. I don't really care for the pearly effect reducing the silver and encasing it has here.

What I do dig is the combination of copper leaf and butter pecan. I will be making some sort of beads with this. The iridescent blue of reduced triton looks nice against the neutral background, but I don't really care for the dark chrome of triton without the dots of clear.

Butter pecan is supposed to be a less reactive alternative to ivory and I wanted to do a test bead to see how close they were. I don't think they are very close, but particularly with a test I did on nile green opalino, the test bead may not indicate what really happens when other colors are involved.

I tested butter pecan with tuxedo in the middle and intense black on the right to see which, if either, would web and what would happen. Tuxedo and butter pecan are about the same degree of softness when melted, so each pretty much kept to itself. Intense black stayed crisp on the butter pecan, but webbed the dots of butter pecan on top like crazy.

Plum silver does pretty well on butter pecan, developing a nice lustre and not having too bad an edge reaction. Copper green does form a slight grey line, but not as bad as on some other colors. EDP bleeds like crazy when placed on top of butter pecan, and the way the butter pecan forms a clear dot in the middle is wild.

I'm glad I have this color in my palette and will be buying more when I run out. I am thinking of some seaside themed beads and I think this color will be one of the main ones I will be using.

CiM plum

Creation is Messy has one thing right: It's customers like purple. I do. Plum was released quite a while ago but only recently found its way into my stash. For a link to CiM's website and to see what others have done with this amazing color, click here http://www.facebook.com/?sk=messages#!/profile.php?id=100000449052869 It is billed as an opal and acts like one, melting easily but remaining midway between an opaque and a transparent in stiffnes when hot. This makes it very easy to work with, neither dripping all over the worktop or being so stiff that it pulls other colors off when applying decoration.

Plain, it is a nice, translucent orchid purple. Encased in clear, it lightens a little but seems to become even more translucent. The edge between where the encasing stops and the core starts is slightly blurred. With plum encased over a clear core, the translucency is magnified but the color remains darker.

Silver foil just disappears when just melted into this, but when it is reduced and encased in clear it gives that pearly lavender lustre that I like. Copper leaf looks better than I have come to expect and is a combination that I will probably use again. I only tested DH aurae with plum but was very happy with the bead I made, a base bead of plum with dots of aurae encased with bumps of clear.

CiM tuxedo looks good on plum, remaining crisper than I expected. The dots of plum on top of the tuxedo half of this bead did disappear. Psyche didn't reduce well on the next bead, but I am beginning to think I pulled a stringer of dark amethyst or Effetre black (which I didn't think I had) because none of the beads I have made with this stringer have reduced. Plum silver looks better on the middle bead than the picture shows. The metallic effect stays near the edges and the center has a bit of a line down it on the plum silver scrolls, but I would not be afraid to do this again. Copper green looks nice against the soft plum, but unless something very subtle is desired, there's no point in putting the plum on top of the copper green. EDP looks a bit weird, making the plum underneath look redder than it would be. I wonder what Effetre Sedona would look like with the plum? It seems they are almost the same shade.

Definitely worth a second purchase.

CiM smurfy

Creation is Messy smurfy is amazingly well behaved. Up until now I've only used Effetre 236 dark turquoise and never saw any reason to do otherwise. Now I doubt I will use it again. Smurfy is not an exact match for the color; the Effetre 236 is a tad darker. Smurfy is a bit streakier, especially if the bead is simply wound and finished, as I usually do. There is no boiling and this glass is so much easier to work. I did have an issue with the flame on my HotHead reducing the first bead I made, but this was due to a problem with how the torch was attached to the new tank. I was very glad I was using a turquoise, since the minute it went brick red I knew I had a problem and was able to correct the reduction issue and go back to torching.

Plain, smurfy is a nice, medium turquoise with some streaks, which aren't a problem for me, and absolutely no pitting. With silver on its own there is some yellow fuming, which may work in a specific application that I can't imagine at the moment. The same bead reduced was neat to look at, but the minute I encased it, there was nothing to indicate that silver was ever there. With copper, there is a neat blue-black film and some less-neat bubbles under encasement. Without encasement the copper leaf looks like burned rice paper.

Considering what happened to the silver, I didn't think I'd like the Double Helix aurae, but I'm glad I tried it. Under encasement, there is an attractive, subtle rainbow that goes well with the turquoise. Without encasement, the gold makes a nice contrast.

None of the color reactions surprised me. From left to right are light (?) yellow pastel, ivory, EDP, red roof tile (which didn't do the dark orange to yellow fade I was hoping for), intense black, and plum silver.

I will be buying this glass when my current supply runs out, because even if it costs a few pennies more, it is so much easier to use I will save it in aggravation.

Effetre light violet transparent

Lately, I've been going through my stash of beads and photos and publishing some of the ones that got away. This is such a one, although I don't know why it did, because it's purple! The color is Effetre light violet transparent, which is a premium color, but I don't know why because it is machine pulled. Regardless, it is a nice shade that is sufficiently different from their amethyst color to merit a separate purchase. It melts very slowly, resists thermal shock and remains very stiff when working.

Plain, it appears very dark indeed, which makes me wonder if there was ever a medium or dark violet and what color it looked. With silver foil melted in and left alone, only tiny beads of silver on the surface indicate that anything was done to the bead. It is when the silver is reduced and encased in clear that something magical happens. I really love this effect.

With silver-rich Double Helix aurae, the plain bead looks ok but nothing to write home about. Encase it with clear (I wonder what would happen if I used another color?) and it shows off beautiful blues and greens.

I wanted to see what would happen to the intensity of this color when layered with other colors, and here's my answer. The violet recedes a little and lives up to its name. It is a lovely shade and I must say I am rather pleased the way this floral turned out. The base glass is Vetro lemongrass odd, which I love as a background for purple flowers. On ivory, nothing ugly happens, but I think that the ivory separated and darkened a bit more than I can usually get it to. Over white the violet remains rather dark, but the layer was a bit thick.

EDP scrolls bleed a lot over the violet, but that is to be expected considering the extreme difference in viscosity between the glasses. I don't know what I was trying to do by putting dots of light violet over a clear base bead, but what I did was make a bead that looks very much like it was made of only a very pale violet glass. The violet dots on top of the copper green are disappearing, but the copper didn't do anything ugly.


Would I buy this again? Oh, yes. It's purple.

Vetrofond orange sherbet

This is the last of a load of oranges I bought recently. I don't know what I was thinking, unless it was a longing for summer and warmer weather. Vetrofond orange sherbet presents as a bright orange rod with a white core. From previous experience with the cored rods from Vetrofond odd lots, I was extremely careful to preheat this as I was sure the end of the rod would pop off at least once. I needn't have worried, since this color turned out to be surprisingly well behaved. I liked the striated effect so much that I couldn't see spoiling it too much with a whole lot of other treatment. For instance, I don't ever see myself wrapping it in silver foil or using a DH lustre glass on it, so I didn't bother to test for a lot. I did think that EDP and turquoise were likely, so I did these and the results were positive. I especially like the almost nonexistent grey line with the turquoise.

One of the ways to bring out the striation is to manipulate the bead on the mandrel, so the 2nd bead from the left I pulled and repositioned with steel needle nosed pliers then remelted into a round bead. I don't know how well this shows up. Since the material that is used to shape a bead can have an effect on the appearance of the glass, I marvered the cylindrical one with graphite and used my brass lentil press to shape the other. No difference.

I liked using this glass and will make other, summery beads with it. I may not buy more since it may not be available, but if I run out and it is, I will.

CiM Gelly's sty

Another CiM color that almost slipped by me. They have so many, I'd go broke trying to own them all, but I'd love to try. This one is really a unique shade of pink. It is slightly translucent, but this is part of its charm. Effetre rose opalino is similar, but it is a pain to work with and Gelly's sty doesn't need to be struck. I think the best thing about it is that it plays so well with other colors. The material from Creation is Messy says that it goes light under encasement and likes to be worked hot. There are reports that it can be shocky (oh, no) and devitrifies. I was forewarned on the shockiness and as far as the devitrification goes, I'll just have to see.

Plain reveals a pretty, rose petal shade of pink. Encased, it looks pretty much the same to me. Perhaps a tiny bit more translucent. Maybe a good thing. If I want an ethereal pink, this is the color for me.

I didn't even bother testing this one with silver or copper, since I knew it would go all yellow with silver and I have yellow opalino and CiM ghee for that. With copper I just wasn't interested. I suspect the shockiness advised against comes after cooling without kilning so we'll just see how the plain encased bead does before I add copper to the mix. With DH aurae, pictured here, it goes golden and highlights the gold dots of the aurae. Nice. I love what it did under encasement. I only wish my clear didn't scum up.

The translucent quality of Gelly's sty is really highlighted by its use with CiM tuxedo. The tux seems to be slightly absorbed by the pink, but that is light transmission, because the edges of the black on pink are nice and crisp. The pink on black looks slightly lavender. I have to try encasing a tux bead with Gelly's sty now. EDP bled a little but works well on this pink. No burning! I really like that there is no reaction with ivory. I was sure there would be. The dots of pink on top disappear on both the ivory and the white next to it. Gelly's sty is fairly stiff for an opaque, so that explains the ivory and white bleeding.

Yellow seems to bleed a little but there is no ugly reaction. Strangely, copper green appears bleached out. there is nothing ugly happening here and I would feel confident using the 2 together, but I would wish for more contrast. The intense black stays crisp and the Gelly's sty separates into that neat mouth thing, but it is almost invisible due to its lack of saturation. Trying to get plum silver to go metallic without devitrifying was a task beyond me, but there is a hint of a shimmer, trust me.

I will definitely be buying more of this color. It is a pleasure to work with and an unique addition to my palette.

Vetrofond pearl grey

I've been on bed rest for almost a week and these posts represent me rounding up the pictures of beads that I made previously and haven't had a go at yet. This is a color that I didn't think I'd like at all in rod form but was pleasantly surprised at with the finished beads. The rods melt nicely and the color makes a pleasant background against everything except silver and Double Helix glass.

The first bead is plain for comparison. When I had made this, I noticed that the end of the rod nearest the melted section had gone whitish without devitrifying, so I had to try to do this on purpose. The bead on the right is this attempt. I think it looks a little lighter. This glass reminds me of CiM glacier a lot.

With silver and the DH glasses psyche and Aurea, the yellowish fuming spoils it for me. I do like it with copper leaf, encased in clear. This is the bead in the middle.

This plays well with other colors, especially the copper green, producing a nice spring palette. The bead in the middle with the intense black layered dots looks pretty neat. I'm not as fond as the same effect with EDP.

I don't know if I would buy this color again or CiM glacier. For my purposes the two are nearly interchangeable.

Effetre chocolatta

OK, when I blogged CiM adamantium, I said it was a milk chocolate color.  I didn't know what I was talking about.  This is the chocolate brown.  I could put these in a bowl with candy and be doing the Heimlich maneuver in no time.  The glass melts like chocolate, too.  Perhaps that is why I forgot I had made a bunch of beads and made them again.  I was having too much fun.

With metal it's not impressing me, but who cares.  For the purpose of thoroughness, left to right are plain, with silver foil, same encased, and copper leaf.

With DH aurae and triton, I'm not too happy, but psyche looks promising in a raspberry truffle kind of way.

Plum silver looks kinda nice, like spots of dark chocolate, but copper green is unfortunate, since I could have gone for the whole chocolate and mint thing.  EDP separates the chocolatta, which is a shame. 

Ivory separates the chocolatta, as well, but I'm getting used to it bleeding or separating or forming a line.  Same sort of thing with intense black and CiM tuxedo.


I love this color and will be gobbling it up, so to speak, so I'm sure I'll buy it again.  Only the frustration of trying to use this laptop is keeping me from further raptures.

Effetre light pumpkin

I had to be very careful with labeling these, since I received a large number of oranges all at once and they all look nearly identical in rod form. This is one of the new colors from Effetre, light pumpkin, originally zucca chiaro. It strikes from yellowish to orange tan.

I didn't get much out of adding metal to these beads, either silver foil or copper leaf. I'm not sure how many orange and brown textural beads I'm going to be making.

Double Helix glasses look neat on this color, with a surprisingly dark aurae on the left, then triton, encased psyche looking the best I've achieved yet, and finally psyche on its own.

The EDP does react a bit with the pumpkin but I can live with this. The combination is appealing in a strange way. Intense black stays nice and crisp but there is some separation of the top dots of orange. The grey line forms on the copper green. Sis just plain bleeds all over. Plum silver seems to prevent color development in this just like it did with the red roof tile.

This is a nice, bright, happy pumpkin orange that will come in handy around Haloween.

Effetre apple blush

First I would like to say that I like the name for this color much better than when it came out in a sample pack in December. It was originally Gaillo ocra. My miserable Italian and sense of humor translated it into "yellow chicken" for a reason that I may never know. The color is a bit like a green apple or underripe mango. It melts well and plays very nice.

The plain bead shows the reason behind the name blush. The usual brownish textural thing with melted in silver foil, and I love the shades of lilac that happen when the same thing is reduced and encased. Copper leaf on its own is ugly, and this bead is one of the reasons I am no longer doing this test. Under encasement the copper leaf looks pretty neat.

I like this with Double Helix glass. The one on the left is aurae, and melting it in and reducing it makes a very nice gold tone, with attractive fuming on the edges. Encase it and you get lavender! Psyche didn't turn out well, but I think I was running out of gas. Triton on the right looks nice under encasement, but I still like the aurae better, especially against the green.

Intense black stayed crisp while EDP and ivory bled. Nice contrast with the EDP and lime green.

Would I buy this color again? Probably. I have a lot of greens but there's always room for one more.

Effetre Neptune

Neptune is one of the new colors from Effetre that looked very promising in the catalog. My beads are no where near as nice as the ones pictured by others, but I really like this color.

In the rod it reminds me very strongly of CiM mermaid, in fact labeling would be an issue if the rods weren't so irregular. Obviously a hand pulled color. One of them is almost 10mm and all are a little lumpy. This I don't mind. It is supposed to develop a silver metallic lustre, except under clear. Clear removes this lustre, even if it is well developed when the clear is applied. I tried to do a plain bead without lustre and one with, by working it high in the flame as I would plum silver. The one on the left is wound and that's it, and I allowed the one on the right to cool a little and reheated it gently. I think there is a little change but not as much as I could have hoped.

Under clear, the change is striking. The bicone is just Neptune and clear, the oval is with Effetre whisper because I wanted to see if it would do anything weird under a gold pink and wanted to be able to see it if it did. The cylindrical bead is rolled in silver foil, melted in and trailed with clear. I don't see a whole lot of difference between the beads at all.

Does Neptune play nice with others? Pretty much. Intense black bled, and I put dots of clear on the top of the top dots of Neptune so I could see what was happening underneath. EDP looks nice but the Neptune dots get kind of lost over the EDP and under the clear. I didn't dot the Neptune over the ivory because I knew there would be that grey line and wanted to see what happened to the ivory with all that green around. It held its own.

Copper leaf accentuates the lustre process, and gives a lustre-like effect under clear. Good to know, but I didn't do a very good job of encasing, did I?

I made a couple wee beads just for fun and am happy about the way the one on the left, with triton and clear turned out. I'm not so happy how the one with plum silver and clear turned out, but what did I expect. I did learn that plum silver dark is indistinguishable from the Neptune once it is struck. I don't know what I was trying to do with the tiny dots of clear, but it didn't work, whatever it was.



Will I buy this color again? Yep, and I will play lots more with the lustre glasses from Double Helix.