Messy testing - Dirty Laundry, Ladybug and Red Alert ltd run

Today I'm looking at a new shade of opal white coming out soon from CiM called Dirty Laundry ltd run. I have used Dirty Laundry as the base for the first trio of hearts in the picture on the left. Dirty laundry looks slightly creamy yellow in comparison with Marshmallow (middle set) and is much denser than Cirrus (trio on the right).
The heart below is also made over a base of Dirty Laundry.








The flower petals for all of these white hearts are made with  Emperor ltd run layered over Grumpy Bear stringer. For the Marshmallow set I have used Effetre yellow opalino also. All of the foliage is made with Ogre ltd run. The colour changing effects of Ogre are unpredictable but also adds a lot of interest.

I have also been looking at two new shades of opaque red, Red Alert ltd run and Ladybug ltd run. Red alert is the darker of the two and has beautiful striations. I pulled a fine stringer of Red Alert and used it to create these poppy petals. The colours variation mades them look shaded and gives them a lot of depth and interest. The hearts below were also made with Red Alert, you can see the colour variation much more clearly here.

The petals for the flowers on this second Glacier focal were made with new ladybug ltd run. It is a bright, vibrant and streak free strawberry red. Below are my test beads of Red Alert (top bead) and Ladybug (bottom bead) side by side.

Jolene x

Chunky Cool fall discs tutorial in Beads & Beyond Magazine Sept 15

Hot off the press and fresh on the shelves, the September edition of Beads & Beyond magazine has a tutorial in print showing how to make these Pantone Fall 2015 colours inspired chunky disc beads.

Jolene xx

Messy testing - Eucalyptus, Ogre and Leaf Men ltd run

This evening I am showing three new shades of ltd run green glass coming soon to the CiM Palette. First up is Eucalyptus ltd run, a delicious pale grey green opaque that looks slightly striated in these beads. The egg at the back has been decorated with layered dots of Effetre Opal Yellow and Gold rich Rubino Ora. The front bead has been decorated with Reichenbach Multi Color Dark. Neither bead show signs of fuming or reactions between Eucalyptus and the Rubino or Multi Dark.

This next pair of beads are made on a base of Ogre ltd run. At first glance these beads appear quite similar to the same designs over a Eucalyptus (see image above) but Ogre strikes to a variety of shades from greyish blue to green to brown and is also quite reactive as you can clearly see in the bead decorated with Reichenbach Multi Color Dark ferns. There is a delicate halo surrounding the outline of the fern details.



These are the same Ogre  beads from a different angle showing some of the colour variation possible with this fascinating glass.

The last green that I have been testing this week is called Leaf Men ltd run. It is a rich jungle green that gives beautiful deep green striations across the surface of the beads. Like Ogre, Leaf Men is also shows a delicate looking halo reaction with Multi Dark.

Jolene x

Messy testing - Autumn, Moccasin and Indian Summer ltd run

This evening I am looking at three new brown glass colours coming out soon from CiM. The first is called Autumn ltd run, it is a rich nutty peach opaque. I found it a bit shocky to work with and so pre-warmed the rods in the kiln. Once warmed it melted like a dream. Autumn makes a lovely base for Reichenbach Multicolour dark (Far left) bringing out the purple colours beautifully. The egg in the middle is decorated with Reichenbach Deep black and the third egg has been decorated with stacked dots of Effetre Opal Yellow and Rubino Ora. Autumn does not show any signs of reacting with or being fumed by either the Multi Dark or Gold Rich Rubino glass.

This egg beads were made with Moccasin ltd run. I really like this colour, it is a warm pale milky chocolate brown that also makes a great base for Multi Dark (far right) and shows no signs of fuming with Gold rich Rubino (leftmost bead). The bead in the the middle is decorated with Reichenbach Deep black. Moccasin is very well behaved in the flame, not shocky at all, and it melts like a dream.

This delicious transparent is called Indian Summer. In rod form it looks quite a bit lighter, Maybe it strikes a little in the kiln as I didn't notice any signs of the glass darkening up (striking) in the flame and was surprised just how dark my test beads looked when they came out of the kiln the next day (see pic below). The egg shaped bead here looks like is has an almost ombre effect going on as the colour looks lighter where the glass thickness lessened towards the point. It has been decorated with raked Multi Dark dots.

From left to right, Effetre Light Topaz 012, Effetre Medium Topaz 014 and CiM Indian Summer ltd Run. I picked out these two Effetre shades to test against as Indian Summer in rod form looked to me to likely fit somewhere between the two. As you can see it came out of the kiln much darker and puts me in mind of the colour of cola after all of the ice has melted in my glass.


Jolene x

Messy testing - Limelight, Tutu and Celeste ltd run

This post is all about three pretty pale transparents that are brand new shades out soon from CiM. These colours are so pale that I am actually comparing them side by side with some Bullseye tints (CoE 90).  First up, Limelight ltd run, which I found to be beautiful but a bit fussy and prone to boil. On this string from left to right there is Bullseye Grass Green 1807, Limelight ltd run and Limelight ltd run etched with Dip N Etch.

Tutu ltd run did not like my hot flame much either. I tend work very hot, two oxygen concentrators feeding a Carlisle Mini CC and am not very patient when it comes to colours that need to be worked higher in the flame and my Tutu Hearts turned out look almost like seeded glass. On this pink string from left to right are Tutu etched with Dip N Etch, Tutu ltd run and lastly Bullseye Erbium Pink 1821 which is the palest pink tint Bullseye glass that I had in the stash.

Celeste ltd run was far better behaved for me in terms of coping with the high heat. From left to right you can see Bullseye Juniper Blue 1807, Celeste, Celeste etched with Dip N Etch.
It is such a pretty shade, very similar to but a touch lighter than Frost ltd run. Below is a side by side picture of Ice Floe, Celeste and Frost.

All three of these super pale colours really come into their own when etched, which is something that Bullseye glass just does not do easily or well. They all look delicious etched but Limelight and Tutu need to be worked much cooler than I have done to get the best results. I want to try working with both again with the Nortel Minor on one oxy to see what difference the cooler set-up will make.

Jolene x

Messy Testing - Emperor ltd run

There are some new colours coming out from Creation is Messy in the Fall, I think Emperor ltd run is my favourite of the ones I have had the chance to play with so far.



As a self coloured bead it is a rich plummy purple transparent but when used as tiny dots it has quite a bit in common with Effetre Rubino Oro in the way it spreads and some reactions. In the image top left I have used stringers of Rubino and Emperor over hand pulled Effetre pale Opal Yellow to create raked fern decorations. Both glasses spread beautifully, the Rubino turned orange/yellow over the Opal Yellow and Emperor stayed deliciously pink.
 

These flowers are made with stringers of either Emperor (fist column) or Rubino (second column) placed directly over some common reactive bases. Both glasses spread out a lot, with the colour pooling at the centre of the dots giving a place cream/white outline.

The top row base is hand pulled Effetre Copper Green, middle row is Effetre light Turquoise, bottom row is Effetre New Violet.


Jolene x