Marbles

Marbles - that's what I've been working on lately. Soft glass marbles. Starting to get stuff that I don't hate.

Photographing them is a little trickier, however.

New Marble Mold

Indulged myself in a new marble mold. I made a large marble the other day that got away from me - it was actually too large for the molds that I have, so "aha," I thought - "That's an excuse to move up to a larger mold!"

I get my Marble molds from San Grumbling, who is the guy that Drew Fritts recommends in his book. I've had my other molds a few years, and I had forgotten how truly gorgeous they are when new.

These are just beautiful marble molds, beautifully made, and beautifully balanced. The graphite is silky smooth, fine-grained and highly polished.

Totally worth it - this is a tool for life!

Creation is Messy - Archived colours

In case you didn't know - Creation is Messy (CiM) listed their discontinued and out of stock colours in their colour archives, here. Useful to know if you are looking up a colour and can't find it.

Effetre Streaky Pink

This is an Effetre streaky purple pink - that I do not seem to have a number for. It resembles EDP with a Rubino core.

It attempts to devitrify - like EDP - and is somewhat less streaky than one might think it is going to turn out.

The top mandrel is two self-coloured beads, and the bottom mandrel are four beads with a base of amethyst and a stripe of the Streaky Pink on top.

 It's handsome enough - I was expecting more dramatic results, I think.

Comparison: Effetre Tawnys

All in the same picture - the tawny Effetre colours. From the top - with their rods below, Butterscotch, Honey Swirl, Tigereye, Amazon. (Weird name - Amazon, in the context of the others.)

My personal fave is the Tigereye.

Double Helix Notos

Well - you're definitely not going to get bored with this colour. If you can't get at least 4 different looks out of it - you're just not trying hard enough. 

 This is Notos, three beads, self-coloured, and reduced. The bead on the left was cooler when reducing - but they all came out pretty similar.

 

This bead is a base of Notos, cooled to not glowing, reduced, and encased.

On the left, a base of Notos, reduced while hot (kinda muddy) and encased. And on the right, a base of black, encased w Notos and reduced cold.

Reduce this one cool.

Effetre 744 Amazon

This is another streaky colour - not as warm as Effetre Tigereye - more like a dark version of Effetre Butterscotch.


Both are self-coloured beads, but the one on the left has gone darker - so re-heating may make this colour go darker.

Effetre 660 Tigereye

Woohoo! Love this! Streaky and tiger-y. Very like the patterns in tigereye - without the chatoyancy, of course. It goes very red while hot, but cools to a tawny tiger colour, going quite a bit darker than the rod.

I like this one a LOT. 

Effetre 736 Honey Swirl

This is Effetre 736 - Honey Swirl. Also a yummy colour - a lighter version than the Effetre Butterscotch.

All three are self-coloured beads. It is a little streaky also. In the flame - it looked like it was devitrifying a little, but I can't really see it now. It does seem to have gone a little more opaque, like an opal would.

Effetre 732 Butterscotch

I've had this some time - finally got around to testing it.

 It really is a Werther's Butterscotch candy colour. Yum. It also goes a surprisingly bright cherry red in the flame.

Comparison: Sherbert, Seashell, Oyster Mushroom

For comparison side by side, three of the new colours from CiM - from the top - 417 Sherbert (definitely green), 710 Seashell (close to ivory), 414 Oyster Mushroom (greenish).

CiM 414 Oyster Mushroom Ltd Run

Well, CiM calls this "an opaque greenish ivory" - and puts it in with the greens. It is an opaque pale green. Perhaps a little on the greyish side.

From the left, a self-coloured bead, a base of Oyster Mushroom with a stripe of turquoise, and another self-coloured bead.

CiM 710 Seashell Ltd Run

CiM Seashell is a pale creamy colour that could be a slightly pinkish ivory. It is actually very close to my own skin tone - which really says more about how badly I burn in the sun than anything else.

I've been hoping that CiM would make an "ivory" for sometime - and this is the closest yet.

From the left - self-coloured, with turquoise dots, and with EDP dots.

While the turquoise has bled a little, and the EDP has broken up a bit - there is not an extreme level of reaction.

Promising, promising. It would be nice to do some sculptural figures and see how it works out. 

See - flesh coloured. My flesh, anyway.

CiM 417 Sherbert

CiM Sherbert - Sherbert they called it - and Sherbert it is. A smooth cool, creamy green mint or maybe pistachio colour.

All three beads are self-coloured.

Cim 517 Breeze vs 516 Mediterranean

Just so you can see both Breeze and Mediterranean in the same picture - here they are together.

CiM tells me that Mediterranean may not be reproducible - so stock up if you love it. I do!

This is Breeze on the top, and Mediterranean on the bottom. 

CiM 516 Mediterranean Ltd Run

CiM Mediterranean - a transparent dark blue-green. This is another beautiful dark teal. It is quite dense - on left are two self coloured beads - the bead on the right is a base of clear, with the left side being Mediterranean and the right side being CiM Breeze. 

When diluted - Mediterranean and Breeze are quite similar, but Mediterranean is quite a bit darker. 

CiM 517 Breeze Ltd Run

 Ah - now we're talking. Breeze is a breezy dark aqua-teal, like a Blue Zircon colour. Very, very yummy. You could just crank out spacers in this and be happy.

It's a bit tough to photograph accurately though!

Breeze reminds me of some of the Bluedini Uniques that I loved so much. I'm gonna buy pounds of this one. 

CiM 610 Dark Velvet

Another really, really dark transparent purple-black.

The bead on the left is self-coloured, the next is over white, the next is over clear.

It is purple when thinned out. Probably best for cored cane and shards. These uber-dark transparents would all work well as shards you know.

CiM 306 Honey Mustard Ltd Run

CiM Honey Mustard is an opaque, pale yellow that immediately reminded me of Effetre's Opal Yellow.

So I right away thought I would test it for the sort of things that opal yellow is good at - and consequently - drew a blank as to what those things are.

The bead on the far left is self-coloured, the middle is with turquoise dots, the third has dots of EDP.



The two beads on the left struck to tan, and the one with the EDP dots was still white when I kilned it - but they all came out the same colour.

There is some interesting breakup around the EDP, much like with Opal Yellow. So this does look like an interesting possibility as a glass similar to Opal Yellow. As I remember - CiM Stone Ground was supposed to be similar to Opal Yellow - but this Honey Mustard might be more on the mark.

CiM 709 Truffle Ltd Run

Truffle - a super-dark grey. The two beads on the left are self-coloured, the one on the right is very thin, over clear. It looks purple when hot, like most transparent greys do, but cooled to a smokey colour.

The far left bead is much more opaque than the centre bead - despite them both being solid colour. I think, as it was the first one made, that it got more heating and cooling cycles, so it could be that this glass goes more opaque as it gets worked. It would be interesting to try it in a sculptural use.