Messy testing - Firecracker and Goldfish ltd run

This evening I am looking at a rich transparent red called firecracker ltd run and a bright transparent orange glass called Goldfish ltd run.

This large encased tumbled heart bead looks as though it was made with 3 colours. It has Firecracker at the top and Goldfish at the bottom. I wrapped the orange glass around the mandrel first and then wrapped the red glass next to it. This means that the orange glass at the point of the heart was allowed to cool much more than that directly next to the red before it was encased. The result is that that part of the bead has struck to a much deeper shade of orange.

These flower bud beads have petals made with Firecracker over a core of Alley Cat - my absolute favourite orange glass. The sepals and spacer beads are made with Elphaba.

The petals of this raised flower bead are Firecracker over white.

Solid Firecracker heart shaped beads with dots of striking Effetre tongue pink.

The petals of these flower beads are made with Goldfish over a core of Alley Cat. The sepals are made with Elphaba and the spacer beads are made with Ogre.

The petals of this raised flower bead are Goldfish over white. I had trouble striking the colour so parked this bead in my kiln at 510 degrees C for a few mins then  reintroduced it to the flame to get the colour to bloom fully.

There is a tiny core of Goldfish at the center of these tumble etched heart beads. The look is patchy, again because I have not quite got the knack of striking it yet but I like the look!

So of course, glass named Goldfish needs to be turned into one! The crab sidestepping next to it is made with Firecracker. These were the very first 2 beads that started my 500 isolation beads challenge project for Beads of Courage UK- you can see a bit more about that here....

Jolene x

 

500 isolation bead challenge for Beads of Courage beads 1 to 33

In this crazy time of social distancing and closed schools I have set myself a personal challenge to create 500 special little beads for Beads of Courage UK and Ireland.

For more information about Beads of Courage in the UK click here....

More pic soon :-D

Jolene x

Scavenger Hunt no 1

What with the kids being off school and everyone being at home because of Coronavirus, we've decided to have a daily scavenger hunt for a bit of fun. Here is our very first one. Please feel free to have a go.



Jolene x

Messy testing - Witches' Brew & Lovebirds ltd run

Witches' Brew ltd run and Lovebirds ltd run are CoE 104 glass colours coming put soon from Creation is Messy. They are both re-engineered versions of a zinging bright opal green called Chartreuse.
 
From left to right:
Encased Lovebirds, Lovebirds, Chartreuse, Witches' Brew, encased Witches' Brew.

Lovebirds is a Translucent opal and
Witches'Brew is a misty opal.

From left to right:

Lovebirds with Effetre turquoise
Chartreuse with Poi
Chatreuse with Effetre white
Witches' Brew with Montezuma
Witches Brew with Elphaba

There are visible reaction lines within the Turquoise, Poi and Montezuma dots. I would expect that these reactions would happen the same way with these colours in combination with any of this trio of opal green glass colours.


 Thank you, Jolene x

Messy testing - Ice Mint, Toothpaste, Surf's Up and Peackock Feather ltd run

In this post I am looking at four beautiful opal limited run colours from CiM's spring 2020 collection.

From left to right, these two tone hearts with silvered ivory wraps use Ice Mint, Toothpaste, Surf's Up and Peacock Feather ltd run.

I am going to talk about them in pairs as Ice Mint and Toothpaste are the same hue but have different opal properties and look different when held up to the light. The same is true of  Surf's Up and Peacock Feather.

Ice Mint is a misty opal (top pair of hearts) and Tooothpaste is an translucent opal (bottom pair of hearts).

The Ice Mint beads have dark turquoise dots, interestingly the dots have pooled to create darker looking centers adding a bit of extra interest.

The Toothpaste hearts have been decorated with Montezuma dots which appear to have a slightly darker rim as a reaction to the opal glass base.

These shells are absolutely tiny, no more than 13mm high and 6mm thick.

From left to right there is:
Tumble etched Ice Mint
Glossy Ice Mint (misty)
Tumble etched Toothpaste
Glossy toothpaste.(translucent)

It is not easy to tell the two colours apart once they have been tumble etched.

The second pair of new glass colours I am looking at today are Peacock Feather, a translucent opal blue (top set with Montezumz dots) and Surf's Up which is a misty opal (bottom set with turquoise dots). Both sets of dots have have had the same interesting reactions, either pooling or darker outlines over these blue opal glass colours too.

More tiny shell bead for direct comparison between the colours.

From left to right there is:
Tumble etched Surf's Up
Glossy Surf's Up (misty)
Tumble etched Peacock Feather
Glossy Peacock Feather (translucent)



Jolene x

Messy testing - Ballerina and Peony ltd run

The pair of hearts in the center of this picture are made with CiM Rose Quartz.

The spring 2020 release of new glass from CiM contains two lovely pinks that are re-engineered versions of CiM's iconic Rose Quartz.

From left to right -
Encased Peony, Peony, Rose Quartz, Ballerina, Encased Ballerina.

Peony ltd run has been designed to give a transparent opal look when compared to the original Rose quartz which is almost completely opaque. Such a pretty effect

From top to bottom - Peony with white dots, Peony, encased Peony.

Ballerina ltd run has been engineered to look misty opal. There is a delightful just barely there cloudy look to them.

From top to bottom - Ballerina with Poi dots, Ballerina, encased Ballerina.

These 2 new glass colours are as beautiful as can be!

This last photograph compares Peony and Ballerina as encased beads that have been tumble etched. The top set has a core of Peony and Ballerina is at the core of the bottom set.

There is only a very small amount of colour at the heart of these beads covered but a thick layer of clear encasing. The beads have been tumble etched with silicon carbide grit for around 3 hours. A great way to use expensive glass in small amounts to create a beautiful effect.

Jolene

Messy testing - Circus Tent and Goldfish ltd run

These glossy hearts were made with CiM Circus Tent ltd run. The rod of Circus Tent looked clear with very fine lines of orange, yellow and black running the length of it.

I have wound this glass around the mandrel in layers of very fine stretched out wraps, a great technique for something like Pachamama but less effective for this glass. In pulling it out so thin while building up the bead I have lost the impact of individual colour strands and it looks like greyish glass instead of clear.

This is what Circus looks like after tumble etching. These beads have a lovely antique feel to them. 

I wanted to give this interesting glass a bit of a colour boost so I teamed it up with Goldfish ltd run. I had to strike the Goldfish lobes several times to get the this deep orange to bloom but the end result was very pretty.

Edit to add a picture of what Circus tent loos like as simple spacers and wound around a clear core to make a very large focal bead.

Jolene x

Messy testing - Watermelon and Heather ltd run

Watermelon ltd run and Heather ltd run are a new kind of glass coming out from CiM soon.

They call them "cloudy transparents" and the rods contain pigments suspended withing clear glass.

It was a totally irresistible temptation to make these watermelon themed hearts, the glass is so aptly named!

This heart pair is made with solid Watermelon. I really like the bright juicy colour and semi transparent "powdery" look. The negative with this glass for me is that I like to add small dots of glass at a time to the faces of heart beads and press several times to build up the perfect shape. I am finding that the tip of the rod boils easily and leaves micro bubbles when I add the extra glass.

These are the same bead after they have been tumble etched, you can see how much more visible those bubbles are after tumble etching.

This next pair hearts are made with Heather ltd run. It is another of CiM's new experimental cloudy transparents in a glorious shade of lilac. So pretty!

As with Watermelon, the areas where I have added additional glass between presses are very apparent.

The next thing I would like to try with these colours is to see how it works under an encasing.

Jolene

Messy testing - Pachamama ltd run

This glass is really special, it's called Pachamama ltd run and is one of a large range of small batch ltd run colours that CiM is bringing out in spring 2020.

It has a pale neutral base and is striped through with blue streaks. I have teamed it up here with Effetre dark turquoise glass and silvered ivory stringer.

These beads have been created with Pachamama and.......nothing else. The effect is gorgeous, like very fine wood grain patterns.

The core of this large shell focal bead is a scrap of Effetre white which was completely encased with the last of the Pachamama rod. This is a great way to make your special colours go a lot further.

The close swirls of pattern at the based of the shell bead were made by winding Pachamama around the mandrel. The wide stripes were created by laying a piece of full width rod across my base bead and melting it down flat before shaping. I plan to put this bead in the rock tumbler to give it a matt finish so will update this post when that has been done.

Jolene x


Updated to add one more picture, the same shell bead after tumble etching.....super lovely!

Messy testing - Ra and Montezuma ltd run

New ltd edition glass colours for spring 2020 from CiM. These coulrs were created in much smaller batches than previous ltd runs and may not be available for long.

The first colour I would like to share is Ra ltd run. It's a creamy opaque pale yellow. From left to right these beads are -
Ra with silvered ivory stringer wraps.
Ra with Efftre dark turquoise dots.
Ra with Montezuma wraps.
Ra and Montezuma with silvered ivory wraps.

Ra is similar to Cake batter but  as you can see with half and half heart on the far right, will take on a deeper caramel blush which reminds me of Jupiter storm.

Montezuma ltd run is similar to a past colour called Prussion blue.  I think it is pretty close but has even more colour variation between deep blue and teal green. As fine stringer over Ra it looks teal all the way.

From left to right -
Ra with Montezuma wraps.
Ra and Montezuma with silvered ivory wraps.
Montezuma with silvered ivory wraps.
Montezuma on it's own.


Jolene xx