Messy testing - Mantis and Eclectus Parrot ltd run and a look at Dark Velvet ltd run

Creation is Messy have been experimenting with the translucency of their opal glasses in their newest collection of CoE 104 ltd run colours.

Here we have leaves made with Mantis ltd run (left) and Eclectus Parrot (right). These lush greens are the same basic colour but Mantis give what CiM call a misty opal look - a barely there opal quality that seems to give these leaves an apparent luminescence.

Eclectus Parrot - henceforth known to me as EP is engineered to be a translucent opal - so an opal that lets just a hint of light through and gives these beads a kind of semi precious gem like quality.

Here are some heart beads showing a direct comparison between how the light travels through both greens. I have used Dark Velvet ltd run, another of those lush super dense purple glass colours that CiM do so well, to create encased stringers to decorate them with.

Mantis, on the left, is decorated with stringer made from Poi encased with Dark Velvet ltd run. EP on the right is decorated with a cane made from Glacier encased with Dark Velvet.
By switching up the core colour you can create some wonderful subtly toning stringers.

Again we have Mantis beads on the left, EP on the right, and some more ideas on what you can do with some lovely thin encased Dark Velvet stringers. The vines and leaves here were made with layered canes that have a core of Elphaba encased with Eden ltd run.

The lentil pair below are made with EP and dots of Glacier/Dark Velvet encased stringers.

These last beads I want to show today show what tiny dots of Dark Velvet over white look like inside an encased floral bead. Very delicate and pretty. The other glass colours I have used here are CiM Poi, Vetrofond light purple and Effetre clear with a bit of Elphaba/Eden layered stringer.

Happy melting, Jolene