Messy testing - Boysenberry and Cottontail ltd run colours

These hearts are made with a delicious deep opal plum purple glass which is a new melt from CiM called Boysenberry ltd run.
I like this colour a lot, it is really pretty and rich looking, though I find it very difficult to capture the beauty of this glass in a photograph.

The hearts on the left, decorated with silvered ivory ferns are made with Cottontail ltd run. It is another brand new opal melt from CiM, a delicious looking pale peach, unique to the 104 palette. It reminded me of Peaches N Cream ltd run so I made some more hearts with a silvered ivory band (on the right hand side of the pic) for comparison. The shades are both on the peach family and compliment each other really well.

Jolene xx

Messy testing - Goldenrod, School Bus and Pollen ltd run colours

My next messy testing post looks at collection of opaque yellows, Pollen, School Bus and Golden Rod ltd run.

I've used Pollen ltd run to make the heart set decorated with black ferns. It looks fairly similar to Submarine ltd run in the way that it has remained partially transparent. It is a little darker than Submarine was though.

The trio decorated with murrini is made with School Bus ltd run. Though it does not show up very clearly in my comparison photograph, School Bus tends a little bit more towards orange than the other two yellows. The hearts made with Goldenrod are decorated with a  black band are an acid yellow, and is the brightest yellow of the three.

Have a lovely evening, Jo x

Messy testing - Birthstone, Zoe and Blue-yah! ltd run colours

Today I am making some direct comparisons between three new transparent blue melts from CiM and Pulsar. From left to right in this picture you can see Pulsar, Blue-yah! ltd run, Zoe ltd run and Birthstone ltd run.

I mentioned in my last post that CiM have had a lot of requests for new shades of blue recently and have been trying out new formulae. The first two colours I want to talk about  are Birthstone (at the back) and Zoe, they look very similar to me, a pretty mid aqua, but they have been given different names because they have different formulae which just happened to come out looking similar. The only major difference that I can see between them is that Birthstone was a bit easier to work with in terms of accidental boiling of the glass when working a bit hot (I have a bad habit of doing this!), if you like to work cool and love aqua then both are great.

Next up, a pic of Pulsar (at the back) against Blue-Yah! ltd run. Zoe and Birthstone are lighter and more towards aqua than Pulsar is, Blue-Yah! is a similar kind of intensity to Pulsar but a touch towards teal.

Jolene xx

Messy testing - Chamomile, Chateau and Nectar ltd run colours

This set of floral beads was made with Chamomile ltd run and Vetrofond odd Candy Apple. I've not done any comparison testing at all for this colour as there is nothing at all similar in my glass stash to compare it with. Chamomile surprised me, in rod form it looked like it was going to turn out much darker than it did for me here. I really like the way parts of my beads have remained transparent whilst other parts have opacified more which looks especially lovely in  the leaves.

This bead kebab shows where about Chateau falls within the CiM palette, something quite close to (the now sold out) Fostoria ltd run from last year.  From left to right you can see Dusk, Fostoria, Chateau and Sepia.

This pretty egg focal and spacers shows Chateau ltd run off much better than my bead kebab does :-D  It's a very pretty deep golden amber brown transparent.

Last to show this evening is Nectar ltd run. This picture shows Nectar (with silvered ivory wraps) side by side  with  Peachy Keen (decorated with a silvered ivory fern). These glass colours could pass for one another but are named differently as they have different formulae.

Nectar is beautiful bright golden amber and it is also  beautifully well behaved in the flame, happy enough to be worked hot without boiling or pitting.

Jolene xx

Messy testing - Royal, Anchor, Frost, Aegean, and Royal ltd run colours

There have been a lot of requests in for new shades of blue and so CiM has been melting experimental batches for new colours :-D The First of the new CiM blues that I have been looking at this past week is called Royal. It's a rich gem toned mid transparent blue unlike anything else I have come across in the 104 palette before.

Royal is saturated enough to lend itself to making lovely stripe cored beads where tiny dots of colour are placed around the edge of a disc bead and stretched out (and the colour diluted) under layers of clear glass. It is both pretty and versatile.

These two sets show a comparison between Anchor ltd run and Leaky Pen under clear as stripe cored beads. Leaky Pen is at the back with Creamsicle detail, Anchor is at the front with detail using Key Lime. Anchor comes out much bluer than Leaky Pen.

Both Anchor ltd run and Leaky Pen are super saturated transparent colours so a little goes a very long way. Anchor really comes into it's own when used as tiny dots and diluted and stretched out under layers of clear as shown withing the stripes and petals of this egg shaped focal.

Next to show is Frost ltd run, here is a side by side comparison of Frost againts some other pale aqua colours. From left to right there is CiM Ice Floe, Vetrofond 038, Frost and Effetre 038.

 Frost is a lovely subtle pale aqua, very close in tone to Effetre 038 but somehow just a tiny bit brighter. The bubbles in the egg shaped bead here on the right were incorporated by my laying down fairly messy wraps when building up the body of my bead. Frost is a lovely clean colour that is not prone to scumming or boiling even when worked quite hot (as I tend to do).

I imagine it would look delicious etched or tumbled but I have not gotten around to trying that yet....

Last to show today is Aegean ltd run. It is a truly beautiful deep teal which looks like a light version of CiM's Great Bluedini (Bluedini sample bead on the left).

Jolene xx

Messy testing - Duck Egg ltd run and Tortoise ltd run

This past couple of weeks I have been lucky enough to have a look at, and a play with, the newest batches of glass from Creation is Messy. That will be released in the near future.

The two I am blogging about today are called Duck Egg and Tortoise and they are two of my favourite from this round of testing.

Duck Egg ltd run is like a blue toned version of Dirty Martini (see above, Dirty Martini on the left and Duck egg on the right).

The photo on the left here shows how Duck egg looks with Reichenbach Multicolour Dark detail on the surface. They make a fabulous colour combo!

This trio of hearts is made with Tortoise ltd run decorated with silvered ivory. The Tortoise has struck to various shades between warm grey and pale sage green with the several pressings in a brass press. This has given an organic natural look to the finished beads, like weathered stone (but shiny!).

This egg bead was also made with Tortoise and silvered ivory but it has been shaped with a graphite roller as opposed to being chilled with brass tools. The overall colour variation is much less than with the hearts above. Tortoise and Duck egg are both gloriously olde-worlde shades that will be totally new additions to the currently available Colour 104 colour palette. Love them!

Jolene xx