CiM Testing: Marine

This is the colour from the latest Creation Is Messy testing batch that really made my eyes light up. Marine. It is just beautiful.

CiM describe Marine as 'a dark transparent aqua blue' which I agree with but I'd say it's got a hint of teal green about it too. Remember Tuscan Teal and Trade Winds from a previous testing post? Well, it's like those two colours mixed together to create a rich, deep oceanic blue of utter wonder. (I love it, can you tell?)

The beads in this set are Marine thinly encased with CiM clear and Effetre white thinly encased with Marine. The decoration is Effetre turquoise. The spacers are just plain Marine and turquoise.

I always fear that a green-blue glass will bubble and pit when heated but Marine didn't. It's smooth and bubble free and is lovely to work with. It reacted with the turquoise and this can be seen very well in the polka dotty bead; the turquoise has done its darker-in-the-middle thing but more than it usually does.

I had a funny feeling that Marine wouldn't etch very well because it's quite similar to Leaky Pen and I've not had brilliant etching results with that. Sure enough, even after fifteen minutes in the Dip 'n' Etch, this plain Marine bead is still a bit patchy in places.

But heck, why would you want to etch such a vibrant, gorgeous colour anyway? This glass just sings when the sun shines through it and even though I've tried my best I've still not captured its gloriousness in these photographs.

I think Marine would look superb with oranges, ambers and purples. I'll have to get me some more to play with so I can see if that's so.

Marine is available now and I reckon it's a definite must for your glass stash.


EDIT: Another CiM glass tester has reported incompatibility issues betwixt Marine and Effetre white. I made these test beads on Monday morning and at the time of this edit I have had no such issues. I'll report back if that changes.