Messy testing - Birchwood, Cafe Au Lait and Saddle Leather ltd run

Thes ocean hearts are made with neutral and brown CiM ltd run colours that will soon be available in the UK to buy. I have teamed up Birchwood, Cafe Au Lait and Saddle Leather ltd run with blues an teals and a touch of fine silver leaf...

...and boy do all 3 of these glass colours love silver leaf! There are earthy and organic reactions galore....

To create these darker patches and shiny silver droplets I burnished parts of the cream/brown colours with silver leaf and vapourised it the torch flame.

Please ensure you have adequate ventilation if you are using any kind of metal leaf or foil in your lampwork bead making.

First up is Birchwood ltd run with Effetre mid blue. In rod form Birchwood is a pale cream opaque glass. 

In the areas where I have added the small pieces of silver leaf the glass has darkened to a deep caramel toffee colour. I am loving the effect.

The second combination I have put together is CiM Cafe Au Lait ltd run with Poolside. I rod form this glass is a warm creamy looking mid brown. 

The areas where I have added the silver leaf have darkened up  beautifully. The shade of the reaction is very similar in hue to what I previously saw with Birchwood.

This heart is made with CiM Saddle Leather ltd run and Aegean.

The areas burnishes with silver are very dark indeed. There is a wonderful organic looking earthy crust with a smattering of silver droplets. Yummy!

Check these lovely beads out on Etsy...

Jolene xx

 

 

 

 

Messy testing - Diaphanous, Fjord, Pond Slime and Aquamarine Ice ltd run

Today I am looking at some of the new colours available soon from Creation is Messy. I have beads made from 4 new opal colours, all of which are available in a Misty and Milky  version.

The first hearts here are made with Diaphanous ltd run. The beads on the left are Diaphanous Misty decorated with white dots. The heart pair on the right are Diaphanous Misty decorated with Reichenbach black stringer and dots.

Both pairs of these off white glass hearts are beautiful though for me the more translucent misty version just has the edge. 

Fjord ltd run is a stunning new aqua blue opal addition to the CoE 104 palette. I find the misty (white dots) and milky (black stringer) versions have a similar opacity with the Misty version only looking more obviously translucent when the beads are held up to the light.

Creation is Messy make absolutely fabulous opal green glass and Pond Slime ltd run is no exception. Again the misty (white dots) and milky (black detail) versions appear to be quite similar until you hold them up to the light and then it's easy to see that the Misty version has much more translucence.

Arctic milky ltd run looks to be a pale opal blue shade in rod form. When I opened the kiln I was very surprised to find these lovely warm grey hearts. 

As before the misty version of this glass has more translucence (white dots) but also I find that Arctic milky opal looks more pastel than it's misty counterpart.

 

Additional pictures taken under bright artificial lighting....

Jolene x

Messy testing - Lumen, Gossamer and Avalon Misty/Milky ltd run

There are several new opal glass shades in the spring 2021 range of ltd edition glass from Creation is Messy, which have just become available to buy in the UK.

These pairs of fish beads were made with Avalon ltd run which is a very pale pastel green opal glass. It is available with two levels of opacity. The set with Fremen (light turquoise) fish is are made with Avalon Misty ltd run. The pair with Oobleck (bright lime green) fish are made with Avalon Milky ltd run. 

It's easy to see the differing levels of translucence between the two as spacers but less easy to tell them apart as larger beads. 

These little fish beads are made with new white opal colours. There are two shades with different hues and level of opacity.

The set with Fremen (light turquoise) fish is are made with Gossamer ltd run. The pair with Oobleck (bright lime) fish are made with Lumen ltd run.

Gossamer is much more translucent than Lumen and seems to me to have a pretty ice-like quality to it. 

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 - 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

Messy testing - Wisteria ltd run and a look at more CiM opal purples

This new colour from CiM is an absolute stunner. Wisteria ltd run is designed to be a misty opal version of Crocus - misty opal means just a hint of opacity. This glass utterly delights me, the result is this precious looking glowing lavender purple.
Wisteria seems to have a very slight colour change/reaction with fine silver foil. These floral hearts have been decorated with encased stringers - Effetre white encased with Gypsy ltd run and Elphaba encased with Eden ltd run.

For comparison I have made a set of similar beads with the original CiM Crocus formula, a very beautiful opal glass which is almost completely opaque. 

This too reacts slightly with fine silver leaf to give small areas of colour change.





 

When I opened the drawer to find Crocus I rediscovered lots of other pretty purple opal/moonstone colours and it was an irresistible temptation to take out a few more to melt and include in this show and tell blog post.

This lovely pale blush pinky toned pastel purple is called Bubblebath ltd run. It's name is very evocative and this glass is so pretty it's own right that it doesn't seem to need much or any other decoration.

Plum is a staple in the Messy Color palette but surprisingly I have not created beads with it often over the years. It is much paler in rod form than as finished beads, a pretty mid purple that can be struck to a couple of different shades as you can see clearly in these heart beads. The subtle colour variation makes me think of Lavender Jade.

The last pretty opal purple I want to show today is called Byzantium ltd run. It is a rich dark purple semi transparent opal glass. CiM describe this colour as a purple moonstone and I can totally see why, it's lush.

Jolene xx

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

Messy testing - Aiko, Troi and Weeping Willow ltd run

Today I am looking at a trio of new colours coming to the UK from Creation is Messy this spring. The first I want to show is called Aiko ltd run. It is a very pretty mid teal transparent shade.

This first set of beads have been made with a core of Aiko encased with Effetre clear glass. I then used a diamond saw blade to take little nibbles out of the surface of the beads and tumble etched them for a couple of hours to give them a matt finish.

The body of these pretty flower bud beads is made with another gorgeous new colour, Troi ltd run. It looks like the perfect opaque version of Aiko to me and these colours work so so well together. Both colours are a pleasure to work with, Troi melts smoothly and has a buttery texture and Aiko does not scum or bubble even when worked quite hot.

Another Troi/Aiko combination, this time with a wrap of silvered ivory stringer to separate them. Troi seems to give some streaks and striations depending on how you layer it but I like the additional detail this can give to a  bead and I don't consider that to be an unwanted quirk in the slightest. There are no effects of fuming from the silver in this stringer on either colour.

This lentil was made with a core of Trio encased with Aiko then decorated with Troi stingers. The  dots and stringer lines have darker pooled areas of colour giving the illusion of that a second layer of dots and lines were placed on the bead.

The larger round bead shown here has a core of Aiko encased with Effetre clear and has been decorated with Weeping Willow ltd run stringers. As fine stringer, Weeping Willow is very close to the same shade as it appears in rod form.

This pair of heart beads are a Weeping Willow/Aiko combination with a wrap of silvered ivory stringer to separate them. As with Troi, you can see some striations and streaks that give clues to how additional glass was added to form the shape. I think it looks very pretty!
Weeping Willow does not seem to be affected by fuming from the silvered ivory stringer.

This colour would be perfect for making little glass leaves!


16.1.19 Edit to add one last picture, some Weeping Willow leaves...

Jolene xx

Messy testing - Cerulean and Cerulean Sparkle ltd run

Creation is Messy are bringing out some experimental glass this January by adding aventurine sparkle to this gorgeous aqua blue glass called Cerulean ltd run. These two sets of hearts may look the same - they are from the same melt but the pair on the right are made with Cerulean Sparkle ltd run which has been given tiny sparkly golden inclusions. The effect is very subtle and doesn't show up very well in a photograph but does show with movement when the beads are outdoors in the sun. I am looking forward to working with other glass like this in the future and hope CiM experiment more with blingy inclusions in the future.

This pair of little textured heart beads show what Cerulean looks like under a layer of clear encasement.

Happy Melting, Jolene