Vetro gunmetal

This is a tough color to photograph, especially with my cheapie camera.  Here goes.  Vetrofond gunmetal,  aha! promises implied.  Metallic effect, neat reaction, something neat.  What I got:  another black.  I don't have a good shop for coaxing the best out of colors, but I wanted something.  On the left, Vetrofond gunmetal and on the right, CiM gunmetal.  And a unique at that, supposed to not produce the effect as easily as with the standard.  No matter how I look at it, the Vetro gunmetal is just black.  It is not a failure of the camera but an effect of the glass.  Heated gently for an extended time, black.  This is the first bead.  Maybe it reduces; this is the second bead.  I put a drop of aurae on to check.  Nothing.  Does it do anything neat with ivory?  Apparently not.  Now we get into the CiM.  I have had decent luck with this supposedly difficult color, probably since my HotHead reduces and burns cooler than pros' torches.  I can see a sheen.  It is even slightly evident in my lousy picture.  Next is reduced as before.  In order to distinguish between the 2 colors, I put a dot of ivory on the CiM beads.  I didn't know I would get a reaction, but I like it.  I din't get anything on the reduced bead other than this great reaction, but I will try it again.  I have to do it this way since the ivory and CiM gunmetal bead did nothing.

Final analysis, I will buy any gunmetal except Vetrofond.  It isn't doing anything for me.

effetre metallic black

This is one that everyone but me knows how it looks and what it does, and has switched to dark silver plum or gunmetal to save on cost, but I had to do it. It is similar to dark silver plum in the lustre that it creates and the method I have to do it on my HotHead, but the tonality involved is very different in a subtle sort of way. Does that sentence make sense?
1 is by itself heated very gently for quite a while to really make it pearlize as much as it was going to.
2 is the same bead with dark silver plum scrolls. The plum predominates on the visual impact and this is the real difference.
3 is encased, and the pearly effect was lost, with no surprises all around.
4 is with copper green red and this is a beautiful bead. The color is like a moon on the water or something equally poetic. Just plain pretty.
5 is on top of Effetre intense blue. I still have some kinks to work out on my lentil press. Pressing the bead does accentuate the pearly process, which is what I was trying to find out.
6 is with triton and 7 is with aurae. They are supposed to be brother and sister and they seem to be on these beads. On 6 you have steel and on 7 you have purpley gold. On both beads, the pearl effect is extinguished where it comes in direct contact with the silver glass.
8 is with opal yellow stringer because the plain ivory was buried under a pile of other stringer. This says a lot about my worktable and something about the colors. The two aren't all that much alike, are they? Interesting zoo effect, though.
9 is with sis and all I can say about this bead is that it is prettier in real life. What was I thinking?
10 is on Effetre sedona as stringer. Getting the metallic black to do its thing while not devitrifying the sedona was no mean feat, and I like this color combination. A sucessful bead, all in all.
11 was with EDP stringer, and all I can say in my defense is that the EDP struck nicely. Getting the metallic black to go all pearly and not devitrifying the EDP is something I dare anyone to try.

Will I buy this glass again? Yes, when my current stock runs out. How much will I use? I don't know.