Batch variations - Spotlight on Heffalump

All CiM glass is handpulled in batches and so it is reasonable to expect some variation in colour from batch to batch. Often times it is not possible to tell the difference, but occasionally a batch variation is noticeable in rod form. I order both from Tuffnell Glass a U.K stockist of Messy Color 104 and also from Frantz Art Glass in the U.S.A. I noticed that my most recent purchase of the usually utterly gorgeous looking Heffalump looked insipid and washed out in comparison the first batch I bought in.

This is the paddle pic for Heffalump from CiM



And here is a quick snap of the two batches of heffalump that I have in my glassy stash. The newest "washed out" looking batch is on the left. The rod colours both look very different from the paddle pic as I took this snap late last night in artificial lighting. In fact the batch on the right looks very similar to the paddle pic in natural lighting.



My test beads are split rounds, newest batch on the left, older batch to the right split by a line of SIS. The clockwise twist in the SIS is so that I can easily tell which rods made which half of the bead once they are off of their mandrels.



Once worked in the flame there seems to be no difference between each side of my test beads. Happily this means that I could mix and match between either batch of Heffalump and achieve consistency in creating a set of beads, despite there being apparent differences between the batches in rod form.