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 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 red roof tile

This is not a new color from Effetre, in fact it's pretty old, but I like it. It reminds me of CiM pheonix, but seems more opaque. The fact that it is still hand pulled is attractive, but I don't honestly know if this makes any difference in the glass. Judging from the amount of variability in the coral shades, I imagine it is even more different from batch to batch than others. It is actually a striking color and the hue varies a lot from bead to bead. I simply have to face up to the fact that in order to do all the experimentation I would like to, I would have to devote so much time to each color that I would be sick of it and never want to see it again.

With silver foil it develops a great textural thing which persists under encasement, but where did the orange go? Copper leaf doesn't do much for me.

With the DH glasses, red roof tile develops some brownish fuming, which I don't mind in an orange bead. Blue or white, I would. I used aurae in the plain bead, then aurae, triton, and badly reduced psyche in the encased ones, in that order. I'm finally getting my act together and making the beads that could be confused different shapes.

With plum silver dark, some of the orange vanishes again, but I'm not sure if this was me failing to strike it properly or a characteristic of the glass. I like the color combination, though. Good for Halloween. Copper green produces a pronounced grey line, which I don't care for in this bead. Nice fade on the top dots, though. Ivory bleeds all over the place. What a surprise.

Would I buy this again? Yes, a nice, well-behaved color.