CiM Testing: Goji

Goji is the perfect name for this colour. It’s a goji berry orange-red that is not transparent enough to call transparent but also not fully opaque.

I didn’t strike the glass as such; I just made beads with it in my usual way so if there was any striking it would have happened while I was rounding up the beads and adding the spots.

These beads have a core of CiM Creamsicle encased with a thin layer of Goji. There are slight colour variations towards the holes where I moved the glass with a brass tool, and this normally occurs with reds, oranges and yellows, but they barely show. 

The glass was smooth to work with and it didn’t shock or bubble.

The spots on the beads are CiM Quetzal and the spacers are CiM Peacock Feather.

The beads were photographed outdoors on an overcast day.

CiM Testing: Pizzazz

I’d been trying to save this one because it’s purple and purple is my favourite colour and for some reason I’d decided I had to keep it until last as some kind of treat but then my friend Jelveh asked me if I’d tested it yet and so I caved. 

Pizzazz was an attempt to recreate Jacaranda which was a transparent purple that had a hint of mistiness about it. Pizzazz is mistier than Jacaranda.

I’ve gone around the house with the beads trying them under different lights to see if the glass shifts colour to a more blue tone but most lights we have are LED and they don’t induce the same colour shift thing as older style lighting and fluorescent lights do so I can’t give a definitive answer on that one.

The glass itself was fine to work with. No shocking or bubbling.

For these beads I used the Pizzazz as a thin encasing layer over a core of CiM Heffalump. Because of the slightly foggy quality of the Pizzazz I thought I would get some sort of stringer reaction happening so I opted for Effetre Light Turquoise 232 stringer to test this and NO! No dark reaction lines or feathering. I really heated the scroll bead seeing if I could get a reaction line (a darker line running through the centre of the applied stringer) to happen but nope, it stayed crisp and clean. Interesting.

The purple spacers here are plain Pizzazz.

The beads were photographed outdoors in between rain showers on this frankly miserably-weathered Saturday.

CiM Testing: Aquamarine Ice Milky & Misty

These icy blue opals are a re-engineering of CiM Poseidon. The photo above shows Aquamarine Ice Milky on the left and Aquamarine Ice Misty on the right. As the names suggest, both are translucent but the misty version is a bit  more transparent.

Aquamarine Ice Milky encased in clear, with white spots

Aquamarine Ice is a really lovely shade of blue and for for the milky version I encased it with a thin layer of Effetre 006 Super Clear and applied spots of Effetre White 204. The spacers are plain Aquamarine Ice Milky.

Aquamarine Ice Milky encased in clear, with white spots

I hardly ever encase the CiM opals and I don’t know why. I think it must stem from my beginner beadmaking days (before CiM was a thing) and it was an absolute no-no to consider encasing any of the Italian opalino and alabastro glass because it would crack, so I think I got it into my head that it would be the same with the CiM opals. However, on the few occasions that I have encased the CiM opals I’ve not had any troubles.

Aquamarine Ice Milky encased in clear, with white spots

This round of testing I decided that I was going to use the misty and milky opals for my more usual type of beads instead of plain hearts or un-encased rounds. I’ve added the thin layer of clear as a barrier so that any decoration stays neat and clean because the opals have a tendency to make stringer and spots feathery and wibbly. That’s fine because you can use it to your advantage, like I do for my ‘batik’ style beads, but more often than not I like my dots and lines to be as crisp as a Krisproll.

Aquamarine Ice Milky encased in clear, with white spots

When testing the Aquamarine Ice Misty I thought I’d put some beads with white spots in the kiln – as a sort of sister set to the Aquamarine Ice Milky ones – but no. Obviously some knobhead (that’s me) picked up a stringer of CiM Birchwood halfway through making them so some of the beads have white spots and some have ivory ones, and now I’ve ended up with two trios instead of the intended set.

Aquamarine Ice Misty, encased in clear, in the sunshine

Aquamarine Ice is a proper blue sky blue and when the sun shines through the misty version of it it’s very swimming pool on a summer’s day.

I didn’t find either version of this glass at all shocky and it wasn’t bubbly or scummy. Really fab.

Aquamarine Ice Misty encased in clear, with ivory spots

Both versions are lovely but Aquamarine Ice Misty is definitely going on my glass shopping list. Hopefully I’ll be able to nab some.

All photographs were taken outdoors in the shade unless otherwise stated.

CiM Testing: Douglas Aster

Douglas Aster may sound like a character from an Agatha Christie novel but it’s actually a little daisy-like flower that has pale purple petals.

Creation is Messy’s Douglas Aster is a very pretty opaque pale purple that has a tiny hint of translucency to it. Only a bit – enough that when you pull it into stringer it’s not quite fully opaque.

It melted with no troubles and for these beads I encased it with a thin layer of Effetre Super Clear 006 and added spots of CiM Lapis. The spacers are just plain Douglas Aster and Lapis.

The beads were photographed outdoors in daylight.

CiM Testing: Almandine

Almandine is another cloudy transparent. It’s the same as Lake Baikal but with way more red pigment which has resulted in this burgundy kind of colour. Unusual and very nice.

Again, no working issues.

Almandine will only be available at L’Age du Verre.

The beads were photographed indoors in natural daylight.

CiM Testing: Lake Baikal

This is one of CiM’s cloudy transparents – transparent glass with cloudy transparent pigments added to it – and it’s a beauty.

Lake Baikal is a transparent blue with red and pink pigments that give the blue a soft purple glow when the light hits it just right. It’s flipping lovely.

More hollows because I was in hollow bead mode, or to be more precise, refining hollow bead mode, and figuring out how to get consistent results with them. I get like this with certain beadmaking techniques.

Hollow beads made with various CiM colours

I’ve always been quite hit-and-miss with non-blown hollows and occasionally I like to buckle down and spend a while trying to figure out why the misses occur. It’s always a good exercise in learning how glass works and calculating what you have to do with it (or not) to get the results you’re after.

Anyway, Lake Baikal is a really well-behaved glass and a gorgeous colour. Nice one, Creation is Messy!

All beads were photographed indoors in natural daylight.

CiM Testing: Streamers

The new Creation is Messy Streamer glasses are all transparent with stripes of various opaque colours running the length of the rod. When used they result in ribbons and wisps of colour suspended in the glass.

I’ve put these together in one post because usage wise the Streamers are all pretty much the same. They melt smoothly with no shocking, hazing or bubbling. Great to work with.

This glass needs to be used carefully to get the best out of it. You can’t just slap it on the mandrel all cattywampus (I recently discovered that word and I’m so pleased I was able to just use it) and expect it to look great. You need to wrap it or layer it on with care so that the streamers can stream.

I feel that this glass lends itself perfectly to discs and hollows due to the way these types of beads are constructed. I opted for hollow beads and all of the ones pictured were made with the two disc method, not blown.

Sea Anemone

Transparent pale purple with orange, yellow, green and white streamers

Prometheus

Clear with red-orange, orange and blue streamers

Solar Storm

Clear with red-orange, orange and purple streamers

Bird’s Nest

Clear with orange, yellow, green and black streamers

Bewitched

Clear with indigo and purple streamers

Carefree

Clear with green, purple and blue streamers

All beads were photographed indoors in natural daylight.

CiM Testing: Jacaranda

Obviously I was going to love this glass because it’s purple.

Jacaranda is like a less translucent/more transparent version of Crocus.

Jacaranda is transparent in rod form but it developed a soft mistiness as I used it and it has retained this after annealing. The effect is really pretty.

The rod was ever so slightly shocky in that it fractured several times but not enough to send fragments flying. Apart from that it’s fuss-free.

These beads are CiM Foam encased with Jacaranda – three with a thin layer and three with a heavy one – and the polka dots and spacers are CiM Lapis.

The beads were photographed indoors in natural daylight.

CiM Testing: Lingonberry

Lingonberry is a transparent, utterly gorgeous cranberry pink.

When I test CiM glass I tend to avoid reading other testers’ posts (don’t hate me for this, other testers – it’s nothing personal) until I’ve used that colour myself, so I’m not influenced by what others have done or discovered. After I’ve used a new Creation is Messy colour and I’m writing up my findings on my blog, I go and fetch the link for the colour on the CiM website and I have a read of how other testers found the glass. Pretty much every tester mentions that Lingonberry has a ‘butterscotch cast’ or that it yellows in certain lights. I didn’t find this at all. I notice that Alexis Berger used Lingonberry to make a glass flower on her Hot Head torch and she didn’t get the butterscotch/yellowing either which makes me think it could be a working temperature thing? I work slow and cool (not the Fonzie kind of cool) so maybe that’s a reason for no yellowing?

Now, on to the unfun part of my findings… . I made six beads with Lingonberry. All of them were CiM Foam encased with a thin layer of Lingonberry. (The polka dots are Reichenbach 104 Deep Black if you’re interested.) As I was cleaning the beads three of them cracked. The other three are okay at the moment but that doesn’t mean they won’t develop fractures further down the line. We shall see.

The cracks are compatibility ones as opposed to thermal ones. The photo below shows the fractures.

Obviously this only means that I found that Lingonberry has compatibility issues with Foam. It doesn’t even mean that others couldn’t combine those two glasses and create stable beads. As I always say, there are so many factors and variables involved in beadmaking – torch, working style, technique, what phase the moon is in etc – and two beadmakers can use the same two glasses but get entirely different results. So yeah, I got cracked beads but that doesn’t mean you will; I’m just telling you what I found.

The beads were photographed indoors in natural daylight.

CiM Testing: Scotch Broom

CiM describe Scotch Broom as a transparent yellow but I’d say it’s more translucent. It’s my favourite kind of yellow; a warm, rich mango one.

The glass is very well-behaved. It does require a little bit of striking to get an even colour but a waft through the cool part of the flame as a final step is all that is required to do this.

These beads are CiM Foam (white) encased with a thin layer of Scotch Broom. The polka dots are Reichenbach 104 Deep Black and the spacers are Effetre Black 064.

Scotch Broom is a delicious-looking glass and I do hope I’ll be able to get my hands on some.

All beads were photographed indoors in natural daylight.

CiM Testing: Marmalade

Marmalade is a transparent rich deep orange. It's pretty much the same hue as Kniphofia. It has a lovely working consistency and it’s not at all shocky or bubbly. It does require striking but it’s an easy one to strike. Like the Kniphofia, I just used it as I would any other transparent and by the time I was done making a bead the colour was even and rich all over. Do note that I work quite slowly, though, and I swear that’s the key to a good strike. Cooler, slower working conditions where you repeatedly remove the bead from the flame and then reintroduce it (which is what naturally occurs when you make an encased bead with surface decoration) allow the colour of a striking glass to develop without much effort.

These beads are CiM Foam (white) encased with a thin layer of Marmalade. The polka dots and spacers are Effetre Dark Periwinkle 222.

Marmalade is a glorious orange and I like it a lot!

The beads were photographed indoors in natural daylight.

CiM Testing: Robert E.

Robert E. is a transparent medium blue. It’s lighter and brighter than CiM Sapphire. The glass is slightly stiffer to work with than the Effetre transparent blues but it doesn’t haze or fizz like they often do. No shockiness. Robert E. is a very nice colour and a well-behaved glass.

These beads are thin and thick layers of Robert E. over CiM Foam. The spots and spacers are Effetre Dark Grey 252.

The beads were photographed outdoors in natural light.

CiM Testing: Beeswax Misty and Beeswax Milky

There are two versions of Beeswax, which is an opal yellow.

I found Beeswax Misty to be quite soft to work with. No shockiness. The beads in the photo at the top of this post are just plain Beeswax Misty with polka dots in Effetre Turquoise 232. As I expected it to, Beeswax Misty reacts with stringer; you can see the polka dots are slightly darker in the middle. The beads above were photographed outdoors in the morning sunshine.

CiM Beeswax Milky

The milky version of Beeswax reminds me of the lemon part of a lemon meringue pie. This glass isn’t as soft as its misty partner but it reacts with stringer way more.

These beads are plain Beeswax Milky with polka dots in Effetre White 204. I had to go really careful and slow melting the dots down flat otherwise they distorted quite badly. No shocking, no scumming.

The Beeswax Milky beads were photographed indoors in natural daylight.

CiM Testing: Kniphofia

Kniphofia (Latin name for the red hot poker plant) is a deep, rich, translucent orange.

Kniphofia melts smoothly with no shocking and it’s got a nice working consistency. Like other transparent oranges, it does lose its colour as you work and it requires a level of striking to get it to return but fear not, it’s dead easy to strike; just use it and it’ll do the work for you. The photo below shows a bead with its polka dots added, before I melted them down flat, and you can see that the colour of the Kniphofia is uneven. I didn’t do anything to rectify that except for melting in my polka dots (quite slowly because that’s how I work) and by the time I’d done so the Kniphofia was a uniform orange all over.

These beads have a core of CiM Foam encased with a thin layer of Kniphofia. I stuck with the red hot poker theme and used Effetre Pastel Yellow 418 for the polka dots and spacers.

The first two photos were taken indoors in natural daylight and the one just above was taken outdoors in full sunshine.

CiM Testing: Burnt Sugar

Burnt Sugar is a transparent brown that has a beautiful warmth to it due to its subtle coppery and almost rosy tones. It has a great working consistency – not too stiff and not too gloopy – and it melts smoothly without any scumming or hazing. Not at all shocky either.

These beads have a core of CiM Foam encased with a heavy layer of the Burnt Sugar and they’re decorated with polka dots in Effetre Red Roof Tile 440. The spacers are plain Burnt Sugar and they are slightly paler than the main beads. I reckon that this is because the longer you work the glass, and the more you cool and reheat it, the warmer and more saturated the end result will be.

Burnt Sugar is a glorious colour and a really well-behaved glass. I love it.

CiM Testing: Avalon Misty and Avalon Milky

Avalon is a very pale green and there are two versions of it - misty and milky. The photo above shows the misty version.

CiM Avalon Misty

Like most of the other CiM opals Avalon Misty does that ‘batik’ effect thing with stringer. This bead is pure Avalon Misty with scrolls in Effetre Lavender Blue 247.

In the top photo and also in the one above you can see the yellowish flash that the CiM misty opals have when the sunlight shines through them. Avalon Misty is a very pretty glass that was fuss-free to work with. Guaranteed to get you humming Roxy Music too!

The milky version of Avalon is denser opacity-wise than its misty counterpart, but still a bit see-through.

CiM Avalon Milky

Avalon Milky is such a lovely pale mint green and I always want to pair this kind of colour with lavender.

The beads here are plain Avalon Milky with polka dots and spacers in Effetre Lavender Blue 247 and you can see that the polka dots have done that darker-in-the-middle, slightly feathery batik thing.

Avalon Milky was a tiny bit bubbly but that’s pretty standard with a lot of these translucent glasses. No shocking or scumminess, though.

The picture below shows an Avalon Milky bead next to an Avalon Misty bead so you can see their differing opacities and that ethereal opal-like flash of the misty version.

CiM Avalon Milky (left) and Misty (right)

All beads in this post were photographed indoors in natural daylight.