Effetre coral Martian strata

This is one of Effetre's numerous corals that they came up with a while back, Martian strata. Strata is the right word, since it is arguably the streakiest of the lot. It heats nicely and looks pretty decent on its own, but I like it best with silver and silver glass. And CiM tuxedo. The plain bead on the left is pretty indicative of how it turns out if you don't fool with it, but I wouldn't be me if I didn't fool with it.

With silver foil melted in, it does the usual thing, with the purple and blue thing under encasement that I really like. I tried to reduce the bead under encasement uniformly, and obviously wasn't very successful. I wonder whether the purple is incompletely reduced or the yellow is? Or which is over-reduced? OK, now this is annoying me. The beige isn't bad, but it wasn't what I was hoping for and I want to know what I did so I don't do it again. Next time.

With silver glass it looks pretty good on its own, and I'm glad I gave DH psyche a try as well as the triton. I love the color sheens I got on reduction. Under encasement, the triton is doing its green thing. I wish I could reduce it just to turquoise or lavender. With practice comes skill.

The coral and turquoise is a better combination than the copper green. Both have that grey line, but again, no where near like is achieved with turquoise and ivory. With CiM tuxedo, the coral is separating like crazy. I love it.

That effect isn't as pronounced in the next bead with Martian strata over intense black over Martian strata. The top dots are separating a little but here's my color that holds its own on intense black. Everything spreads on ivory, perhaps because it is so soft. Plum silver isn't looking very plum, nor is it very metallic. It was a nice try. Note I had no luck at all striking the TE-331 stringer with clear dots. I couldn't hope lightening would strike twice, could I?

A nice color. I would buy it again as an alternative to the more expensive rosewood, which it resembles a lot. It is a little darker and murkier and thus, to me, not as attractive, but in a setting where this doesn't matter this is a better color. If I run out, would I buy more? I don't know, since there are an awful lot of corals around.

Effetre rosewood

Effetre rosewood.  Lovely color.  Actually, just what I've been looking for and one I will be playing with a lot.  It holds its own.  It plays nice.  Give me your odd lots.  Give me your wild and wacky.  Actually, please, but give me this color first.

1 is plain, unadorned, and badly shaped at that.  Not a bad color.

Rosewood likes silver, even by itself.  Nice texture on bead 2.  3 is under encasement and it shines.  I see pink, blue, green, and PURPLE.  What's not to love?  The neat gravity and marvering effect is one I would go for on its own but the fact that it is combined with great colors is attractive in the extreme.  If only I could make it do this when I wanted it to.

With silver glass under encasement it's pretty lame.  But by itself in bead 4, with triton stringer just reduced, I don't know what's going on, but I like it.  Separation!  Never had this before.  Get it again?  Doubtful, but loving the bead.  Encased, in 5, everything goes away and gets boring.  Didn't get enough reduction on the low cylinder.  It's just blue glass getting lost on the brick red.  TE-331 I had high hopes for, but I'm still wrapping my mind around this amazing color and it's going to play coy.  I will have you.  Just wait.

Whole bunch of colors, and guess what?  It doesn't wash out.  Intense black?  No problem.  It is crisp and so is the black.  Ivory?  Ditto.  Copper green is nothing special, but not ugly, which I am appreciating.  CiM tuxedo?  Takes it and gives back change.  Effetre turquoise?  Not a combination I would care for but nothing nasty going on.

Would I buy it again?  No brainer.  Of course.  This is the perfect supercoral.  It costs a little extra but boy, is it worth it.

petrified wood

This is another one of Vetrofond's numerous odd lots, which are difficult to come up with now.  This is a shame, since this one is very pretty.  As far as the plain bead is concerned, Effetre rosewood is very similar.    This one really likes silver, but not so much sliver glass. 

1 is plain and is a nice, streaky terracotta.  With silver foil melted in, nice things happen.  2 is with just the foil and 3 is the same under encasement.  I love the shades of purple, blue and green that sit between the layers.  They almost seem to float on the surface.

With silver glass the prettiness is not as evident.  4 is with DH aurae, I think, and 5 is with triton.  What was I thinking doing these roughly the same size, shape and decoration.  Now I am not sure which is which.  There is a slight brown fuming effect on the petrified wood, and both reduced well, but either could be aurae.  I know 6 is with triton encased because I didn't do one in aurae.  I should be thankful I had that much sense.  The triton went somewhat green but it's not so bad against the orangey petrified wood.

The less said about 7, the better.  The dark streaks going across the petrified wood is TE-331.  It didn't strike.  At all.  I need to play with this color more.  8 is with copper green and there is perhaps the faintest of grey lines between the copper green and the petrified wood.  I wish the copper green could have done its separation thing.  That would have been cool.  9 is petrified wood dots on top of intense black dots on top of a petrified wood base.  The intense black stays crisp and the petrified wood goes translucent.  I have to play with this idea and see what happens.  I also have to go back to testing with CiM tuxedo since intense black is too dominant.  10 is with plum silver scrolls and I'm not sure about this one. 

Ivory bleeds a bit into this coral type color but the effect isn't too pronounced, despite what the fuzzy photo says.  11 is silvered ivory stringer and 12 is petrified wood over ivory over petrified wood.  Again, the dots wash out.  I have to find a terracotta type that holds its own over ivory.  Maybe Effetre zucca scuro.  It sure is vibrant.  I'll give it a try.  One thing to note about the combination is that the petrified wood seems to lose its streakiness under the ivory.  That is not the side effect of my lousy photography.

Would I buy this color again?  I wouldn't go out of my way for it.  It is very, very similar to rosewood, which is still available.  Of course, it was 1/3 the price.  Always a plus.  I guess it would depend upon how much glass I was intending to use.

more test photos

I didn"t like most of my test photos, and while I haven't had my stuff photographed well yet it has been photographed by me, better than it was before.  For instance this necklace was a green and blue blur last time I photographed it, and with the macro setting on the camera and the colors clarified, it almost looks like it does in real life.  It even has the color interaction I like pretty well depicted.  The glasses used are again peackock green and cobalt. 

The bracelet is one I've been wearing to work for months and finally decided to take a decent picture of.  The coral is Effetre coral streaky sherbet, there is some opalino carnelian, and the trans orange is Vetrofond arancio perfecto.  I used dark red stringer on all.  I like the color variation of the dark red when it is mixed with the coral, but the bead with the red bumps looks like it's oozing drops of blood.  I don't know whether to say neat or gross.

This necklace I didn't dare show in my earlier picture since it was blurry and the colors were miserable.  The spacers are plum silver dark, the sky is copper green red and the ground is moss agate.  If these colors don't look right to you, it's the bead.

These didn't show up very well in an earlier post.  I sorta have the camera and software working for me now and I like the pictures a lot better.  The beads are the same.  Now they went and changed the format for this blog.  Figures.  Just when I start to be able to figure out where stuff is going to come up it changes.