Messy testing - Oobleck and Cotswold Blue ltd run

I had to look up the word Oobleck and when I did it made me grin from ear to ear to know that it's gooey green stuff that fell from the sky in a Dr Seuss book. How glorious is that! Just about as glorious as this stunning fun bright green glass new out from CiM very soon.

I am a huge fan of Oobleck ltd run, it is a truly zingy lime green. One of the lovely things to find is that along with being awesomely bright it seems to be very dense too which means that is equally bright and beautiful as tiny dots or fine stringer lines. Also it doesn't look very much paler under encasement than as a solid colour bead.

Oobleck also reacts with fine silver leaf, as shown with this tiny goddess bead. I have burnished small pieces of fine silver leaf on to the surface and flashed the bead through the flame. The heat has partially vapourised some of the silver leaf which has reacted with Oobleck to give a rich deep tan colour.

Cotswold Blue ltd run is another stunner of a colour, a delicious teal shade that sits in that special place exactly in the middle between blue and green. This glass gives a lot of striations - similar to those you see with CiM Mermaid and Quetzal ltd run.

Cotswold blue is not reactive with silver leaf at all. As you can see in this last picture, all that is left behind in the areas where silver leaf has been vapourised are the smallest droplets of silver and no colour change to the glass itself at all.

Jolene x

Messy testing - Sacre Bleu and Serenity ltd run

This beautiful transparent blue glass is called Sacre Bleu ltd run, it is a new glass colour coming out from Creation is Messy in a few weeks time.

I've enjoyed playing with this rich royal blue transparent, it is such a pretty colour. The real big difference with this glass and other transparent blue glass colours that I have worked with before is just how very well behaved it is in a hot flame. There was no boiling, scumming or micro-bubbles at all. These floral hearts are made with a solid Sacre Blue and decorated with twistie cane petals.

These tumbled hearts have been made with a small core of Sacre Bleu encased in a thick layer of Effetre oo6 clear glass. They have been tumble etched in a rock tumbler with silicon carbide grit for a couple of hours. The little heart imprints have created a glossy indent where the rich blue give a really interesting visual highlight.

Half of these Sacre Bleu hoops have been tumbled etched with silicon carbide grit in a rock tumbler to give them a sea glass finish. I like the matt finish but prefer the glossy finish in with this colour.

Sacre Bleu is a really close match for Neon Blue ltd run which came out in early 2014.

I just love this colour, I am a real big fan of bluey green and greeny blue and all things aqua when it come to glass and Serenity ltd run ticks the prettiness box for me! It is another brilliantly behaved colour in a hot flame which also suits me well. Not a sign of boiling of bubbles at all.
Both Sacre Bleu and Serenity are so easy to work with.

These hearts are made with a base of Serenity which I have decorated with swipes of twistie cane for petals.

These hearts have been made with a small core of Serenity encased in a thick layer of Effetre oo6 clear glass. They have been tumble etched in a rock tumbler with silicon carbide grit for a couple of hours. Serenity is a great colour for this technique, it looks really pretty.

Half of these Serenity hoops have been tumbled etched with silicon carbide grit in a rock tumbler to give them a sea glass finish. I have strung them side by side for comparison with the glossy ones, both look great to me.
 
Serenity is a very good match for the now impossible to find Breeze ltd run colour that came out in spring 2013.

Jolene x

Messy testing Merryweather ltd run

There will be a new collection of ltd run CoE 104 glass colours coming out this spring from Creation is Messy. There is a preview page here.

One of my favourites so far is this gorgeous opal blue called Merryweather ltd run. It is a light semi transparent opal blue glass which is very easy to work with in the flame. Like many opal colours it is quite a stiff glass. The flower bud beads shown here are made with a core of Merryweather with effetre clear petals swiped over the top. They seem to have some sort of inner glow to them.

This second set of buds are made with a core of Merryweather with CiM Sacre Bleu ltd run (more about this lovely transparent blue in a future blog post) which is a beautiful combination.

The floral button here shows how large dots Merryweather look when layered over CiM Freman. This takes away some of the transparency but gives beautiful depth to the petals.

The little flower button here was made with Merryweather dots over another fabulous new colour called Oobleck ltd run. This time the petals have not been layered up over another  colour and you can clearly see how the bright green is showing through the semi transparent Merryweather petals and giving them a greenish tint.

Last up, some Merryweather hoops that I have tumbled etched with silicon carbide grit in a rock tumbler. Many opal glass colours do not etch easily or even at all with Etchall or other commercial chemical etching products. I tend not to try that method any longer for opal colours and head straight to the grit! As you can see here Merryweather also looks great with a matt finish.

Merryweather ltd run is both a beautiful and versatile new colour.

Jolene xx