Messy Testing - Birds Nest, Horehound, Brown Eyed Girl and Burnt Sugar ltd run

Today I am looking at three new shades of transparent brown glass from CiM. This first picture shows how each of the colours looks as a solid colour bead finished with Alley Cat dots.

From left to right - Horehound ltd run, Burnt Sugar ltd run and Brown Eyed Girl ltd run.

Horehound is a very pretty light honey shade that looks even prettier under encasement. Burnt Sugar is a golden shade of transparent brown with a slight orange tone to it which makes me think of Topaz. Brown eyed Girl is the darkest of the 3 new colours and more of a true brown rather than tones of amber or topaz.

This next trio of heart pairs show how each of the transparent browns looks when encased with one of the new range of Streamer glass rods. I have teamed each of the colours up with Birds Nest ltd run. I am really enjoying using streamer glass rods as they give such delicate trails of colour and detail.

From left to right - Horehound, Brown Eyed Girl and Burnt Sugar encased with Birds Nest.

This last collection of hearts have a core of one of the brown shades encased with a thick layer of Effetre clear. They have been tumble etched to give them a matt finish.

From left to right - Horehound, Brown Eyed Girl and finally Burnt Sugar.

Something about the look of the tumbled encased Burnt Sugar hearts in this picture makes me think of the last drop of Cola in your glass after the ice cubes have melted!

All 3 of these transparent colours were wonderfully well behaved in the flame, no boiling or micro bubbles at all.

Jolene x  

Messy testing - Dollhouse and Beeswax ltd run

CiM have been working towards a more standardised amount of opalescence across their Milky and Misty opal glass lines. They have also simplified the naming by giving a single name to the hue followed by the tag Milky or Misty.

These pretty pinks are called Dollhouse. The beads on the left are made with Dollhouse Milky Opal ltd run and below is a picture of Dollhouse Misty Opal ltd run beads.

Beeswax is a new opal yellow glass hue which has also been formulated with two shades of opalescence. On the left is Beeswax Milky ltd run. Below is Beeswax Misty ltd run.

The difference between Milky and Misty glass in these two shades is much easier to see when you have the beads in your hands. I have found it very tricky to capture in a photograph.

 

The last picture I have to show toady is a side by side comparison of all 4 pairs of beads. 

Milky beads on the top row, Misty beads on the bottom row. 

I hope it gives an idea of the very subtle difference between them. 

Milky beads look whiter or more pastel to my eye.

 

Thanks, Jolene x

Messy testing - Prometheus and Sea Anemone ltd run

In this post I am looking at two more of CiM's "Streamers" that will be available soon. 

The first is called Prometheus ltd run. It is clear glass that has fine lines of red, orange and pale blue running the length of it inside. To make this large heart, I  have wound Premetheus around a core of clear glass and shaped. I finished the bead with some handmade twistie cane.

Below are some Prometheus spacers and a pair of Effetre dark teal hearts encased with Prometheus. You can create areas that have a latticino type of look to them if you twist a streamer glass rod as you lay it down over the base.

These next heart beads were made with core of Efftere black glass encased with Sea Anemone ltd run. It's not easy to see from this picture, but with Sea Anemone the fine lines (streamers) are encased within very pale purple glass rather than clear glass like Prometheus.

Happy Melting, Jolene x

Messy testing - Kismet and Jacaranda ltd run

 

This large glass heart features two of the newest Creation is Messy glass colours coming out this spring, a core of Jacaranda ltd run encased with Kismet ltd run. 

Jacaranda is a fabulous pale purple glass which is wonderful to work with. I tend to work hot and find many pale colours fussy and easy to boil but Jacaranda takes all the heat I can throw at it without any drama! 

Kismet is part of CiM's new range of Streamer glass. Streamers are rods of glass that have very fine lines of colour running the length of them. Below are more pictures of Kismet, by itself as spacers and over Effetre mid purple in the heart pair.

Here is a close look at Jacaranda as spacers. It is such a beautiful bright spring time lavender purple.

It looks great by itself but also makes a wonderful layering colour. The hearts below are made with Efftre dark teal and Effetre mid purple encased with Jacaranda. The lilac purple layer has given the darker core colours a real lift and the resulting hearts have a kind of gem-tone quality to them.

Happy Melting, Jolene x