Comparison: Opal Yellow, Stone Ground, Painted Hills

Effetre 266 Opal Yellow, CiM 351 Stone Ground, and CiM 313 Painted Hills.

Opal Yellow has long been known more for its reactions that as a colour to be used in its own right - somewhat unfairly, I feel.

Stone Ground is CiM's variation, and also  is used for the way it interacts with other glass colours. However, you may have noticed that Stone Ground is a bit thin on the ground right now at the distributors, and you might be wondering what is your best bet as an alternate, and how they stack up.

In which case, you might want to have a look at CiM Painted Hills. On the face of it, Painted Hills appears to be much too light to function as an equivalent, but it may actually be closer to Opal Yellow than you think.

The unworked rods, from the top, Opal Yellow, Stone Ground and Painted Hills.





 And from the ends - in the same order.


















And here is the bead, still hot, before mashing. From the left, Opal Yellow, Stone Ground, Painted Hills. The dots are Double Helix Aurae

 And after mashing, still hot.

And once out of the kiln. Again, from the left, Opal Yellow, Stone Ground, and Painted Hills. The Stone Ground base between the dots is a much richer, warmer colour, and the two ends are paler, although the Aurae dots are a better match between the Opal Yellow and the Stone Ground.

The reduced dots are so shiny - you can see at the edge of the bead it almost looks encased - that's actually just the shine on the dots.

It really depends on what you want it to do.