CiM 901 Cotton Candy - Revisited

Realizing that Cotton Candy is one of the Moonstone glasses, like Cirrus - oops! - I went back and tried it again.

When I first tried it - it had a vaguely milky appearance in the unworked rod, (which I can't show you, as I used all of mine up before I photo'd it.) I expected it to be a little cloudy, and I actually encased a black bead with it - which came out of the kiln looking - black - and left me wondering - wtf was I thinking? (A not uncommon occurrence, btw.)

So, when an astute and tactful reader said "Did you get the moonstone effect?" I was, "Huh?"

The key is you have to strike it for the cloudiness, or, you can work it quite cool, and it seems to develop quite subtly. You don't really see it happen, you notice that it HAS happened.

It is actually very pretty, a nice soft pink. If you get it very hot, you lose the cloudy effect, and you need to really let it cool and then strike it. Gentle reheating at the tip of the flame or just touching the underside edge of the flame. If I have to strike a glass, I generally work multiple beads at a time, so I have something to do while waiting for the glass to cool, and working four at a time was too much for this glass - it gets too cool and cracks - I had significant breakage while working, and had to keep reheating to heal the bead, and then lose the cloudiness and start all over again to strike it.

Here, however, it worked much nicer - this is a hollow, Cotton Candy on the left, a little clear, and the darker pink is CiM 907 Rose Quartz. This application worked much better, as the initial application of glass is fairly cool, and it isn't until you go to round the hollow that you lay the heat in.

It requires some attention to get the moonstone effect in this glass, but some bead shapes and types lend themselves to it better than others.

Anyway - Cotton Candy is a Moonstone, like Cirrus, Halong Bay, and Peacock Green.