CiM plum again

By Jove, I think I've got it! For me, at least, CiM plum can be thickly encased but only over a core of clear. 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 The beads I posted yesterday were dismal, but these were fine. I wound up making half a dozen or so, even though I only have two on this string. I love the way the plum shifts color under the encasement with the copper leaf. The bluegreen specks add a bit of interest. Sometimes tiny bubbles are visible as well, but I didn't get any on this batch and am at loss to explain why it happens sometimes and not others.

I haven't listed this set yet, nor will I until I've given them a chance to knock around for a few days and crack if they are going to, but I have high hopes. With the last batch, they cracked soon after cleaning.

I can say that building these over a core of clear does cut down on the intensity of the purple as well as lightening it, but in a color that is supposed to be opal, this isn't a bad thing. It doesn't bleed much and I'm going to see what happens when I do an encased floral next. I love the way the coppered plum combines with the minty dirty martini.

So if I'm not listing these yet, what did I list? The necklace on the right, which I'm calling Talisman, is the latest addition to my Etsy and Artfire shops. Oh, heck, one more thing I have to do, put my Artfire shop up on the blog. I'll get it. My life is a work in progress.

The Talisman necklace at the right was designed with a Southwestern theme to be comfortable, casual, and an easy pick for jeans and t-shirts. I wanted the color to be the main emphasis, and my favorite beads are the ones with color upon color layered over each other. To keep the lucky theme going, the necklace had to have 13 beads in 7 different styles.

CiM Plum revisited

I had hoped to post pictures of a great new set I made but this isn't going to be happening. Instead, what I have today is yet another oppurtunity to show off my learning experiences.

For a link to CiM's website and to see what others have done with this color click here http://www.facebook.com/?sk=messages#!/profile.php?id=100000449052869

They're putting me to shame today, I'll tell you.

I've blogged CiM plum before; click here to see previous post.

CiM plum is an absolutely gorgeous color that I am totally enamored with. It is an opal purple. OPAL. This should have been my clue. My test beads didn't crack because they tend to be very tiny and the stresses of compatibility issues and heat control don't get a chance to get a good running start. Like many opalino and special glasses, this one doesn't much like to be encased. I will try the tip of making them on a core of clear and see what happens, but am very disappointed with this lot. The only bead that didn't crack was the unencased one.

CiM plum remains a gorgeous color and one I will be using again. I especially like what it does with copper leaf under encasement. As a side note, when I was making these beads, they looked like they were going to be dark blue green when hot. They go purple after annealing. Don't worry about this. Now what I have to do is figure out a way to get a full sized bead to stay in one piece.

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.