Sasha's Silver and Luna

Sash's silver is another high silver content glass, from Precision104 (you might remember it as one of the Rocio Bearer glasses.)

A lovely shade of blue, it is a different colour whether encased or not. The bicone was made with a core of clear. Trails of Sasha's Silver in the middle, and Luna (Double Helix) on the end. The whole bead was partially encased and shaped. Some fo the Sasha's Silver and some of the Luna is encased, some is not.








These lentils were made pretty much the same way, but the trails of glass are smaller and thinner, and are mingled together instead of staying discrete. Again, they are a clear core, and partially encased. Mashing them into a brass press cools them more rapidly and seems to affect the colours as well.

Double Helix: Khaos and Psyche

It takes much longer to get one's head around the complex colours of the Double Helix glass than it does an ordinary, non-reactive glass. With all the variabilities and possibilities, sometimes, I'm not sure at first what is making the difference. But here are some of the possibilities!

This vessel is made with the top made of Psyche - which looks black, until you hit it with a reducing flame.









The body of the vessel is made with Dark Ivory (Vetro), and striped with Khaos. The Khaos looks ivory when applied, after being cooled and reheated many times in the creation of the handles, it looks purple. It comes out of the kiln darker than when it went in.

Notice that the reducing stage appears to have fumed the ivory as the high silver content of the Double Helix has an effect on the ivory glass.









This bumpy bead is Opal Yellow, dotted with ivory, dotted with Psyche, and reduced.

Note the fine black line that formed around the Psyche dots.















And finally, this is a yellow opal base, with stripes of Psyche, raked, and reduced. Note each stripe looks like about 7 different stripes. The Psyche here is a less intense colour (less glass to begin with) and is more greenish.

The Opal Yellow appears to have fumed as well.

I love exploring and playing with these colours!

CIM 645 Heffalump

What a stunningly beautiful colour in the rod. What a b---- to photograph!

Heffalumps and woozles - anyone with kids knows the nightmarish heffalump, a soft purpley-elephantish beast. The rods of glass are a truly beautiful colour, exactly heffalump colour, but photographing them! Oh my! I'm no slouch in the photography department, but the first photo on the right is the best I can get, which is under pure incandescent light and grossly underexposed.






These next pictures (the wrap is EDP) shows how washed out the colour becomes. This glass does NOT show an obvious colour change to the human eye, unlike Alexandrite or the colour shift blue/lavendar of the Moretti colour palette. It is just exhibiting a colour that the CCD of the camera cannot capture.

Overall - a pretty colour, a soft, pale purple but those who make beads for sale online will curse it - as getting a good picture of it will be a challenge.























This last picture is CIM Sapphire over Heffalump. A pretty purple combination - I had to adjust it in Photoshop to get an accurate colour representation though.

CIM 543 Sapphire

CIM Sapphire, a transparent medium blue before heating, comes out of the kiln a much darker blue, and actually, more of a true gemstone sapphire colour, as opposed to the very blue sapphire colour that is usually indicated in the world of commercially made glass beads!

It's a very nice, sophisticated dark blue, with a hint of streakiness to it. Quite a surprise, really. I can see definite uses for this one!

CIM 644 Dusk and CIM 742 Sepia

Dusk and Sepia - sister colours with a secret! These two shocked me, as they are completely not the colour that they are in the rod before being worked!

Dusk and Sepia arrive as light transparent purple rods, Dusk reminding you of warm summer evenings at dark - in that special time I think of as "in between the can and the can't." Sepia just looks misnamed. I grew up with pen and ink drawings. I know what colour sepia is - purple it ain't!

However! Both colours come out of the kiln a transparent brown! Sepia is well named after all, and Dusk is the inappropriate name, unless we're thinking Dusk in some desert city with a sandstorm coming in!

Dusk is the darker of the two shades, but otherwise, they are very similar. Left, is Dusk over Heffalump (more on that in a bit) and on the right is dusk over ivory.

I was quite surprised at the colour change in these two, and I hear that one of them does interesting reactions - although I haven't tracked them down yet.








This vessel is sepia over silver foil, and has produced a nice rich antique gold look, much like the very expensive Moretti Straw colour.

CIM 346 Ghee

New colour from CIM - called Ghee. Ghee, as you may know if you indulge in eastern cooking, is clarified butter, and that is exactly what this looks like. Right down to the odd little streakiness that it has. Way cool!

It goes when hot, it turns white, and then strikes back to yellow. It can be struck more or less - the single bead was heated only on one side - so if you do nothing to strike it - it will go a light colour, like the rod, and if you work it longer, it will develop more colour. (Like the lower beads.)

This is a pretty cool colour - despite my not being a fan of yellow in general. I can definitely see a use for this in the earth tone palette and for those that love streaky glass. (That would be moi!)

Moretti 419 Apricot

Another yummy, yummy streaky orange colour. Odd that I would be so enthusiastic about this colour set - I am soooo not an orange person, but I think, after this long snowy winter, some happy orange fruit colours are just the thing for bead happiness.

This rod has a dimpled texture (odd for Moretti - tend to see this more from Vetro) and you can see a variety of colour in the cross section. It works up nice and streaky, with the colours tending to more orange where the heat was applied last, and where there was more cooling, i.e. around the mandrel - the colours are yellowier. A very sunny colour!




The dotted beads are made with light ivory.

Further thoughts on Orange Africa, American Beauty, et al

Those streaky colours - the oddlots from Moretti, wisps of colour in a clear base - that I mentioned a few days ago - Orange Africa, American Beauty. Someone suggested I try them over a light colour, such as white or ivory, and indeed - they are much more impressive. This is Orange Africa over Light Ivory. Much nicer looking.

Moretti 654 Brown Rock and CIM 140 Lipstick

On the left is M654 - it was labelled CIM 654, but I can't find a 654 on their site, and I was supposed to get a Moretti 654. BTW - you should check out the Creation is Messy site if you haven't already. It is the glossy dark brown of a horse chestnut (but a little darker than a chestnut horse!). It is called Brown Rock.

The bead on the right is Lipstick, and it is a brick red colour, that would not be a fashionable lipstick today, for sure. And *%$# hard to show accurately on the monitor, for sure.

I like the very dark brown of the chestnut Brown Rock. That one's a keeper!

CIM 241 Creamsicle and CIM 140-1 Unique Lipstick Light

New Odd lots from CIM (Creation is Messy) - the new Chinese made glass that is offering some lovely new colours.

On the left is Creamsicle (Not to be confused with the Vetro odd lot of the same name.)

This is a totally yummy colour, a bright mango color that can be struck to a bright mandarine orange colour - note the colour variation in the photo from the top of the bead to the middle front. That is actually colour difference, not an artifact of the camera. Love this colour!

The bead on the right is Lipstick Light Unique - CIM uses the Unique designation for it's odd lots.

The actual colour is better represented in the second picture - which I have colour corrected to better show accurate colour (some shades of red are really very hard to shoot accurately.) This is a fun shade, very lipsticky, although not the shade of mankiller red that is so popular these days - more of a mid-eighties au naturel lipstick colour. A bricky shade of red, but not unpleasant.

Moretti 642 Orange Africa and Moretti 643 American Beauty

Two more very streaky translucent glasses. Translucent isn't really the right term - transparent with wisps of colour.

The colour on the left in both pics (and the first pic is the more accurate for colour) is Orange Africa. The orange is a dull sandstormy kind of orange, not a happy orange. The bead on the right is American Beauty, and the colour fails to live up to the promise of the rose of the same name. The rod is significantly redder - but it goes grey when heated, and never really comes back to a nice red again. Both of these colours look much nicer and brighter in the bead when backlit. On a dark surface, they look quite dull.

Still, the wispiness is very nice and you may find a use for it in your palette.

Both of these colours look pretty nasty when hot, btw. Grey and unappealing.

Moretti 653 Red Rock and Moretti 685 Hawaiian Clay Odd Lot

Red Rock, on the left, a dark brownish burgundy velvety red, a little streaky.

On the right, Hawaiian Clay. This is a nice adobe brick colour, or a little darker than a clay pot. I like this colour a lot. Very nice addition to the earth tone palette. See the entry for Green Tea - I've used the Hawaiian Clay with the Green Tea for a nice combo.

The Hawaiian Clay spoon shows the nice streakiness and variation in this colour.


Like the Coral colours, this colour goes grey when hot, but goes back when cool.

Confused Mustard - Moretti 650 Mustard Rock and Maybe 651 Yellow Rock Odd Lot

My hand labeled assortment of the new odd lot colours from Moretti contained two colours, both labelled 650 Mustard Rock. However, the rods were two different colours, one being a dark English mustard colour, and the other being a brighter yellow French's mustard colour. Ok, it's actually a bit greener than French's mustard, more of a snot colour, really. However, the list of colours that came with it, had a 650 Mustard Rock and a 651 Yellow Rock - so I'm guessing that there was a mixup in the labelling, and the lighter, yellowier one is the Yellow Rock. That's my theory and I'm sticking with it!

The left bead is the Mustard Rock (I think!) and the centre bead is the same colour, with light sky blue dots (which have reduced, I have not soaked them in CLR or anything to remove the reduction - obviously, as it is still on the mandrel!) There does appear to have been a colour reaction, making for a nicely delineated edge to the dots.

The bead on the right is the Yellow Rock (IMHO).

These are both really cool, streaky organic looking colours - although, once heated, they are not as different as they look in the rod.


This is a horse bead made with the Mustard rock layered over Light Ivory. You can see that is has developed a lot of streakiness, especially where the glass is in different thicknesses.

These are both really cool colours, and definitely deserve a place in the studio of those that like nice, organic streaky colours! (the paddle sample is the darker of the two samples.)

Moretti 640 Mimosa Yellow, Moretti 641 Deep Mimosa Odd Lots

Two nice, streaky, translucent colours!

On the left, the Mimosa Yellow delivers the same colour in the bead as it did in the rod - with a few black marks, (see bottom left of bead) but in all fairness - I didn't clean the glass before I used it, so I'm not sure if the glass scorched, or it was just dirty.

It did shock a little, but is a really nice colour. Worth buying for a nice happy yellow that seems to have an inner glow, due to the partially transmitted light.

The Deep Mimosa, right, is a rich juicy orange punch colour. Equally streaky and translucent, it is slightly redder after working and annealing than the rod colour. This is also a lovely, happy orange colour - this definitely has a place in my studio too!

Moretti 683 Fossil Odd Lot

Fossil - waaaay coool! A very streaky coffee and cream colour! Kind of looks like a wood grain in the picture. I really like this, as I really like streaky glasses. I will be stocking up on this one!

It did shock a little, but not really bad. I can forgive it, seeing as how it is soo cool!

Moretti 684 Tuxedo Cool Odd Lot

Tres kewel - this looks like a plain grey rod, but closer inspection of the cut end reveals three tiny dots of black.

Working this, it comes up with this wonderful streaky look, very dramatic.

But, it turns out, those streaks are Moretti's distinctive purple-black, and the bead comes out of the kiln as a swirl of shades of mauve, not grey.

This is a really cool colour - I would definitely stock up on this one - remember, these are odd lots, and who knows if there will be any more. The name, Tuxedo Cool - doesn't really fit with the mauvey shade - I would think "Blackberry Swirl" would have been more on target - but by any other name, this is a cool and dramatic colour!

Moretti 681 Strawberry Shake, Moretti 682 Cherry Shake Odd Lots

Two more in the new oddlots from Moretti. On the left is "Strawberry Shake" and on the right is "Cherry Shake" - they are well named, in that they really have that streaky fruit swirled into ice cream look, but these are both very subtle colours. They are pretty hard to tell apart, The Strawberry Shake is a little more orange, has a little more colour, but the Strawberry and Cherry are pretty hard to tell apart in the finished bead - in the rod, the Cherry is the noticabley darker colour.

The Strawberry is also very soft, softer than white, I think. The Cherry shocks a little. Both benefit from a little striking to bring up their colour streaks.

These two colours are so similar, I wouldn't buy both. I'd go with the Strawberry because the colour shows a little better. Mostly, they are too subtle for my own tastes.

Moretti 644 Marine Wave, Moretti 680 Green Tea

New odd lots from Moretti - as they respond to the popularity of the odd lots being offered by Vetrofond, I should think.

New up, on the far left, "Marine Wave" - a very pale aqua that is uber-bubbly. This is kind of fun - normally, one wouldn't think of praising a transparent that is just LOADED with air bubbles, but these could actually work with the design. I'd try doing a really aquarium or undersea scene with this for the encasing. Could make a fun background for florals too.

Center bead is Moretti 680 "Green Tea." This is a nice streaky, pale green tea ice cream colour. I thought it would behave like Turquoise and react with Ivory, so the third bead (or the bead on the far right) is Green Tea dots on light ivory. While there are some interesting smudges, there is not the classic turquoise/ivory reaction dark grey line.

This final set is Green Tea dots on "Hawaiian Clay" - more on that new colour in a later post.

I like both the Marine Wave and Green Tea. Thumbs up on these two.

just plain beads - Book

A new book from by Deanna Griffin Dove, partnering with Marjorie Langston. This is a slender volume that is big on good stuff.

Covered are lots of things, very basic, but very frustrating for the novice bead maker with maybe 10 - 20 hours of practice - who is starting to notice that their beads aren't quite as nicely shaped as they would like, bead holes aren't perfect, and how do you actually get the bead to be round, instead of donut shaped?

Gratifyingly, most of what I say in my remedial classes is right here, and with great photos to boot. If you are getting frustrated and want to go further, getting some control over your shapes and getting them to be the shape that you wanted (instead of what the glass wanted!) - then this book is definitely worth checking out. I would also suggest checking their website too: Beadmaking Books.com.

Vetro 970 - Streaky Sapphire

Another odd lot - and this one is truly hard to photograph accurately.

The rods themselves have an odd feel - they are frosted and have a light matte texture - and appear to be a deep aqua. But when worked and annealed - they come up a beautiful sparkling deep sapphire colour - with tiny wisps deep in the glass. This is really a stunning shade of blue - the pictures do not begin to do it justice.

Over all, I would say, you do not want any of this glass - this is truly horrible glass and a nasty colour (besides, who needs blue glass anyway). If you have already been unfortunate enough to buy this glass, I suggest that you box it up and ship it to me, and I will put it out of your misery for you. ;-)