CiM 503: Mint Lozenge Ltd Run

In the latest colours from Creation is Messy - is an intriguing looking translucent seafoam green.

I always am curious to see if translucent colours will stay that way, or if they will turn opaque,  so I could hardly wait to try this one.

And the answer appears to be ... yes and no!

This pair of self-coloured spacers have retained their translucency, except, on the far right of the rightmost one, where is has started to opacify (is that a word?) - turn opaque.

 It's a little clearer in this view of the side.

This is a thin layer of Mint Lozenge over clear, and it has a nice, nebulous quality to it.

This is Mint Lozenge dots on white (left) and on ivory (right). The dots have sunk in like transparent, making a nice effect.

 

 And this is done on the Sirius system mandrel -  and here you can see the opacity vs translucent very strongly. 

When making these, I keep the "leading" edge - the smooth edge (bottom - this picture) -warmer, to smooth the ridges together, so this it brought back to glowing several times - vs the trailing edge - which just generally cools and I leave it alone. This accounts, I think, for the opaque vs translucent. 

 Here's another view. I think the way to keep this glass translucent is a little like not letting the EDP devitrify - so bring it back to glowing before it goes into the kiln. That's my theory, anyway.

CiM Mint Lozenge - lovely colour, Sea Foam or Amazonite - definitely a must for me.

Effetre 032 Green Rosetta

Another Uber-dark transparent colour that looks black! This is Effetre Green Rosetta!

If you hold the rod up to a strong light - you can tell that it is really green.

And this is some white cored cane - because apparently - that is now what I do with very-dark-almost-black transparents.

This is a self coloured spacer in Green Rosetta.

And this is Green Rosetta over clear.

And Green Rosetta dots on white. Some apparent separation in the white - you can see lines between the dots.

And this is the white cored cane, over white.

Diluted, Green Rosetta is an awesome, brilliant shade of green. It's a bit dark to use on it's own, but as a thin layer on something else, it's excellent!

Sirius System

I just can't think "Sirius System" without thinking Sirius Cybernetics - but I guess that dates me. Most folks probably think satellite radio, but I just hear:

"Come on," he droned, "I've been ordered to take you down to the bridge. Here I am, brain the size of a planet and they ask me to take you down to the bridge. Call that job satisfaction? 'Cos I don't."

Go here for more awesome quotes from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

However, what the Sirius System is actually is "a series of mandrels, stainless steel inserts, and findings that allow you to make a multitude of jewelry by changing out the bead."

In other words - this works like the drawer-pull inserts - except - you have a nice smooth mandrel, and the inserts are much smaller. Jewelry sized, as a matter of fact.

Here you see the mandrels.  

 A close up of the end with the threads.

 And the threads, with the insert in place, and some bead release, in case you get sloppy with the glass and get it on the mandrel.

It's a little different making on the insert - because it is like working on the end of a mandrel, and whatever  you are making can get hot and flop around, without the mandrel inside it to stop that.

However - when this happens - just take the glass out of the flame and let it cool until you have it back under control.


TIP - Important Tip. The insert will loosen when it gets hot, and as you apply glass, it is easy to accidentally unscrew the insert from the mandrel. To prevent this, crank it on with a pair of pliers, don't just finger tighten it. If you tighten it good and hard, it will stay in place much better.

After heating and cooling, your bead unscrews easily.

Here's a couple of samples.

 And here they are, with the findings screwed into the insert. This is a nice, plain bail.

 This is a larger, fancier bail - well - it was labeled "bail" - I would have taken it for a ring actually.

Of course - as you don't have to clean out the bead after, you have a savings of time and frustration in making these.

I really like this - it seems to work well, and I started out with a goodly stash of inserts and mandrels. (I just hate having "one" specialty mandrel - like I'm going to make one of anything!)

I've made a number of things on these now, and I'm really enjoying using them!

CiM 702 Auburn Ltd Run

First up in the new colours from CiM - first for no better reason other than - I dropped the rod and broke it and wanted to use it before I lost the end with the label ...

Anyway - CiM Auburn looks like an opaque red - but ...


In cool light (fluorescent), Auburn looks like a brown - a dark brown. In this photo - it looks black even, but I didn't colour correct - so that you can see the contrast.

 

And here is the same rod end - under a nice, hot incandescent light bulb. 

Beads - under my carefully controlled - and expensive - studio lights ...

 And - under the cheapo reading light on my desk. So the short answer is - photographing the beads you make with the this glass is going to be a b1tch.

The rest of these photos will be in incandescent light - as the fluorescent light makes this glass a tad unattractive.

This is a thin layer of Auburn over a clear core. Looky - it appears to be transparent - if used thin enough. It is also cracked, but I think that was me - paying more attention to the other beads on the mandrel.

 This is a self-coloured spacer.

 And this is spacer, with trails of Triton, reduced.

 This bead was half Light Ivory, Half Auburn, with trails of Auburn over the ivory and ivory trails over the Auburn, raked, and mashed.

 Notice, on the side - there has been some interesting fuzzification of the ivory on the auburn.

 

And here we have the same bead on the other side - a desert at sunset look. 

Auburn is a very dense red - that will mostly read as an opaque - is a little redder when worked than the unworked rod, and looks brown in cool light.

Where it was very thin on the last bead - I did get it hot enough to lose it's colour, but it struck back to red easily. There are some interesting orangey effects/areas - I think this is sort of a bleeding effect - the red actually spread out more than I thought it did and covered some of the ivory in a very thin layer.

Goodies to Come ...

Whoo Hoo! New colours from CiM (Creation is Messy) to play with! A coffee, an audio book, and a pile of new glass. Does life get any better?

More on Fire Lotus

I continue to play with Fire - Fire Lotus that is! These two dragon eyes have Fire Lotus frit for the pattern on the iris of the eyes, and also Fire Lotus (rod) for the lids.

I think these are working out nicely because the method of working them coincides nicely with how Fire Lotus wants to be worked - which is, get it white hot, let it cool and blush amber, then re-heat. To make the eyelids - I get a big gather very hot, and form the upper eyelid - then leave it alone while I go make the lower lid. Then I go back to shape the ridges in the upper eyelid - the process of which strikes the upper lid. Then the same for the lower lid, and ditto - it strikes the lower lid.

CiM 804 Indigo

Ah - Indigo. A very dark, but transparent, blue from Creation is Messy.

Here is another very dark, intense colour that just begs to be used in white-cored cane, twisties, and other ways that need very intensely coloured glasses.

Here you see, from the top, a sample of white-cored cane, the original rod - yeah, might as well be black until you hold it up to the light, and some beads. When you do hold the rod up to a light - it shows more purple - more like violet - than the end result shows.

This is a self-coloured spacer - solid Indigo. You hold it up to the light - you can't see through it. The mark of a good thick wine, or glass.  ;-) 

 Indigo encased over clear.

 Indigo dots on white.

 Indigo/white cored cane squiggled on a white bead. Notice the way it almost looks like writing with an ink pen.

 And the white-cored cane on an ivory bead. The streaky texture of the cane is quite lovely.

Quite a beautiful shade of blue - on white it has that classical blue and white porcelain look. How can you go wrong with blue?

Effetre 688: Earth

Effetre 688 - Earth. It's blue.

I respect out of the box thinking - I really do. But Earth? Blue? Ok - maybe they were thinking of "that blue marble, Earth." Maybe it is named for the planet.

Earth - you tell me what colour you'd expect it to be.

It did look like it might be a streaky blue green while it was hot, but it cooled down to be a streaky blue. Streaky blue/green would have been cool. This is the second time this week that I've been disappointed that a glass is not a streaky blue/green.

Really - it looks more like Light Lapis - but I'll have to get some to confirm that. I don't seem to have any here.

Two self-coloured beads.

Disappointment notwithstanding - it's a lovely shade of blue. The Frantz website shows a sample paddle that is turquoise and blue - but I sure as heck didn't get that. Maybe because those are mashed. Guess I should test it some more.

Update - Effetre 687 Streaky Denim

Ooops - misread the label on the Effetre Streaky Denim. It is 687 - not 637.

 Just for fun - here's another picture of it - second bead from the left has white dots with some random blue on top.

Reichenbach 104 L 3206: Iris Dense Blue

Another 104 CoE colour from Reichenbach - this is Iris Dense Blue. It is a dark, opaque blue rod - the ones I got are super skinny - not sure if that is typical or just normal variability.

You can see that it goes quite a bit darker. When I was working this glass - it looked like a nice streaky blue, but appeared to strike to a dark green in the flame.

This is a self-coloured spacer. You can still see a little of the streakiness, but it was much more dramatic when it was hot.

This is actually over a clear base, although you would never know. When they say "Dense" - they really mean it!

This is dots of Iris Dense Blue on white. You can see that the white has fumed significantly - telling us that this glass has a significant silver content. There has also been some bleeding and some separating - so it looks like this glass has some potential for some interesting effects.

I should have tried reducing it. Interesting - interesting possibilities.

Effetre 263 Mou

Slotting into number 263 in the Effetre colour palette (between striking Powder Pink and Ivory) in a relationship that I think is probably meaningless - we have 263 - Mou. Frantz Art Glass calls it a "Premium Translucent" with a whack of cautions about "variations of colour and diameter from batch to batch and within batches. With a 1/4 pound limit per customer - this is a "you get what you get and you'll probably never get it again" glass.

The unworked rod appears as a very handsome golden, dark wheat colour - perhaps a little translucent looking - but we are used to glass that looks translucent but works up opaque.

After heating - the end of the rod appears to be more of a clear-to-amber colour.

 

While hot and working - the glass has an "opaly" quality - a milky translucence. It also appears to devitrify if cooled and gently reheated - causing me to wonder if this was a blend, like Calico - but the ends of the rod don't show that it is made of layers.

These two beads are self-coloured - and quite a handsome colour - amber - with a blush of pink in it - like a berry-cider blend. I chased away most of the devit with reheating to glowing and only a hint of it remains - not visible in this photo. It is, in fact, translucent. Cool.

 

And these two beads have been reduced - making them a dark bronze - with a metallic lustre. 

 

So - what I tried looks to be a very intriguing glass -  but with a caveat such as listed above, and a small sales limit - good luck finding out what this glass is really like, or duplicating results!