Val Cox Frit - King's Robe

The working notes for this frit blend say:

Opaque/Transparent. Vibrant and dramatic, mix of purple, pink and violet ... . More fussy than other (blends) - but worth it. The opaque purple is multi-hued, but prone to devitrification, work the glass in a neutral flame and avoid excessive heating and cooling cycles as with marvering.

So - think Purple Rose or EDP.

The first bead was a gather of clear, dip, melt and wind off. It looked really boring going into the kiln, as it appeared almost clear, but came out as more of a black currant punch effect.


These two happy little spacers are just white, rolled in the frit, melted in, and popped directly in the kiln, no additional heating, cooling, etc.







And this is a nice spacer in clear, and same thing, rolled in frit, melted in, and kilned without further ado. While not very remarkable by itself - I think a set of them would make up into a very nice necklace.


And here on the right, we have the King's Robe frit on black, with a bit of swirling going on. A bit dark, but fairly handsome.




And finally, the same idea, but encased. Black base, frit, swirled, encased, mashed, and the encasing grooved for good measure.

Keep this on light colours I think.

CiM 568 Fremen

Another CiM colour that I appear to have missed - very like the Effetre Light Sky Blue. This is an opaque light blue - a lovely Robin's Egg blue.

As you can see - it reacts with ivory, much like light sky blue.

There are no traces of the dull metallic silveryness that you get with the Effetre dark turquoise. And, as a matter of fact - the solitary bead on the right - I reduced it, it went sort of streaky and ugly, and then I turned the oxy back up, and the streakiness went away (except for 2 little marks.) Making it, I think, a little more forgiving of incorrect flame atmosphere.

CiM 484 Unique Algae

I'm a little confused by the name on this one - generally - Unique in CiM is like an "odd lot" - and has a -x number designation - so whether this is an odd lot or not, I just don't know. I don't think it's a new colour - just one that I missed somewhere. Anyway - I spied it lying around and thought "Oy" - I haven't tried that one yet!

It's a nice, transparent greyish green, and is rather dark when used by itself, but quite lovely over clear! Rather nice over white too.

Vetro 809 Jungle Twilight

A dark and streaky green - just like twilight from inside the jungle - with all the slithering snakes and scuttling bugs and the softy, blood-chilling rumble from the throat of some unnamed jungle cat - padding out from it's lair, in search of a tasty meal.

Works up darker than the rod, and quite streaky. Really rather wonderfully streaky - although it requires quite a bit of light to really show it.

Maybe it would be cool on clear. Will have to try that.

Effetre 441 Dark Matter Follow Up`

Someone suggest Dark Matter + Silver Glass. This is Dark Matter and Triton. Interestingly - the Triton (Double Helix) shows more Greenish than usual - usually - if you see colour in it - it tends to blue.

This was reduced, to make the triton metallic. It's rather stunning, don't you think?

Effetre 420 Coral Mango

Yet another variation on Effetre 420 Coral - although - I have to admit - I rather like this one. This is a particularly vibrant shade of orange - with streaks of light orange and the occasional streak of pinky orange in it.

Toss some purple on that you'd really have something going!

I suggest that you keep your "corals" separate - and labeled as they can be very, very difficult to tell apart and remember which does what.

I must have 10 pounds of orange glass and no hope of grabbing the same colour two rods in a row. ;-)

Effetre 704 Very Cherry: Reprise

Very Cherry again - and I think maybe I'm not that enamored of it.

It's really dark - and that's good if you want to use it somewhere thin - like this gravity wave candy bead - but it's not a shade of red that really appeals to me.

Not a bad colour - has orangey overtones - which you might want - but doesn't make my heart sing.

But hey - that's just me.

Effetre 708 Dusty Lilac

Dusty Lilac - a subtley streaky slightly mauvey pinky Angel Skin sort of a colour.

Some interesting streaks in it.




















These three spacers - the one on the left went into the kiln much lighter - but they all came out the same colour.

A useful colour for some, if you want a light pink. Cat's tongues, or maybe a background colour. Might look nice with black. Kind of bland for my taste.

Follow Up: Effetre Pinkie Winkie & Okey Dokey Artichokey

Following up on the very shocky Effetre Pinkie Winkie and Okey Dokey Artichokey - tossing them in the kiln and annealing them did the trick. They are much better behaved now.

I just put the rods in while I'm making the beads - you can put them in at the beginning of the day, before you start, but I put them in after the kiln was hot and they were fine. I don't have quite enough room for them to lay flat - not with the rests that I put the beads on in the kiln - so they lay at an angle, and they get a bit of a droop in them. But at it doesn't really make a difference to using them, and that way, I can tell at a glance that they have been annealed!

The Pinkie Winkie really is a pretty, girly colour. I wish it was more dramatic pink and blue, but it's still really pretty.

I wish the Artichokey was more dramatic too. I like dramatic streakiness.

Oh, and as you can see - the Artichokey does react with ivory.

Oh well - the Lace Agate is dramatic enough for me.





This heart has a scroll of Very Cherry on it - which is rather too dark in this application for my taste.

CiM 645 Heffalump

CiM Heffalump - the latest shipment came in a little grayer in the rod - but works up pretty much identical to the old batch.

This bead is a base of the old shipment on the left and the new shipment on the right, with dots of the new shipment on the left and the old on the right.

You'll be hard pressed to see the dots.

Which is a good thing!

Effetre 703 Mud Slide: Reprise

Just another gratuitous shot of Mud Slide. The shading on the tablet is quite interesting.

Not sure if it was the rapid cooling of mashing or the fire polishing out the chill marks that did that.

Effetre Misty Blue

Beautiful and mysterious.

The rods are a soft dove grey, some with a hint of mauve.

The first bead I made was so awesome - I was beside myself with glee.



And it looked so promising - that I hit it with a light reduction flame, and it just came up amazing! This third pic has more of the reduction on it.

















My second bead was equally amazing - and this time, I did not reduce it.

By now - I was out of the first rod - so I pulled a second rod from the bundle, and, made this tablet bead.

Now, waitaminute - this looks nothing like the first two. I reduced it a little - it went brownish on the ends, but none of the wonderful patterns.

And yet - it IS the same colour as the unworked rods.

hmmm. What happened?

Some spacers -







Same thing. The one on the far left got reduced.

So - what the heck happened. Did I pull the second rod from a different bundle of glass? I don't really think so - but I don't have a better explanation.

Could this glass be so hugely different from one rod to the next?

I don't know. Further testing is required.

You can better your bottom dollar though - that it is the glass that made the first two beads that I will be looking for!!!!

A mystery indeed.

(More experimenting last night. Still can't get that spectacular patterning again.)

Effetre Lace Agate

Lace Agate - Woohoo! Look - right there in my notes! Woohoo! FAB.U.LUST

Oh, if you like streaky or ivory with lots of texture, or river rock - then the odds are - you will love this glass. I personally have ordered 5 pounds of it - but don't come whining to me when your measly quarter pound runs out - because I'm keeping it all. It's mine I tell you, mine, mine, mine!



Streaky, variegated rods, produce ...













fabulous, streaky, variegated beads! Lookit that bead! That is just the one glass - nothing extra added!

Oh, I am so excited about this one!

This is a brown and cream - with varying shades of brown, from a red brown to a grey brown.







And here are some spacers.






































Totally Awesome. I had to restrain myself - I was just happy to wind off spacers. I love the strong contrast in the colours. I could really wish for more glass like this - with the dramatic streakiness.

CiM 277 Phoenix

Got a new batch of CiM Phoenix in - and the rods look distinctly greyer than the original - but it is not labelled as an "Unique" - CiM - for "odd lot."

(New batch is the bottom pack.)

And you can see that the new batch (on the right in the second pic) has visible layers. (Hey - nice nails, eh? What can I say? - I had a wedding to go to.)

Unusual for CiM to not put a new product number on the colour if it is going to be different.

So I thought I'd try it anyway.

And the verdict is: if you strike it - the two batches are virtually indistinguishable. But if you don't - they are quite different.








The two spacers on the top mandrel are the new batch - the layered rods.

The two spacers on the bottom mandrel are the older batch. They were made and struck and look pretty darn similar.

The center mandrel - is a cylinder bead - the new batch on the left and the old batch on the right, with dots reversed on the top, so new batch with old dots on the left and old batch with new dots on the right. This bead was made, heated - and cooled without putting it back in the flame. Notice that the colour of the old batch is more muted - doesn't develop as much, more of a peach. And the newer batch stays positively fleshy in colour.

Interesting, eh?


Two paddles - both kiln annealed - new batch on the top.

So - if you want the deep orange with the colour - old batch or new - remember to let it cool and then gently reheat in the flame to allow the rich mandarin orange colour to develop - otherwise - you might have an unripe peach instead.