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: Tuscan Teal, Trade Winds & Absinthe

Yet more beautiful glasses from my CiM testing bundle.

This time I put Tuscan Teal, Trade Winds and Absinthe together. All three of them next to one another screamed "Mermaids! Underwater! Marine!" at me so I decided to listen to them and I made this 'Aqua Marina' set.

The patterned beads have cores of Tuscan Teal and Trade Winds encased in Effetre Pale Aquamarine and are decorated with Effetre Periwinkle. The heart is CiM Absinthe.

These three CiM colours are all similar to others in the existing CiM palette but they're just a little bit different at the same time.

*Tomorrow's World face* Let's have a look ...

Tuscan Teal

The Tuscan Teal is similar to Great Bluedini but in my opinion, Tuscan Teal is a touch more blue. This greenish-blue (or is it a blueish-green?) is pretty intense on its own so using it in moderation really allows the colour to do its thing. It's another no-fuss CiM colour and it melted smoothly. It also etches very well. If you like making ocean-underwater-marine type beads then this one is a definite must.

Trade Winds

A beautiful transparent blue that's very much like Leaky Pen except again, I'd say Trade Winds is a tad bluer. It's not quite as intense as Leaky Pen but it's still best used in moderation as opposed to on its own. This deep kingfisher blue is gorgeous but like Leaky Pen it does have a tendency to pit and fizz whilst in the flame; you just need to keep working it and the pitty-fizziness will stop happening. It etches with no trouble at all.

Absinthe

Now, when I looked at this in rod form I was all "Absinthe? But it's a bit blue?" and I've seen enough Moulin Rouge and read enough books about 1800s French art to know that Absinthe is green. Not just green but greeeeen. Admittedly, this glass loses a lot of its blue and becomes more green when heated but it still has a blueish hint about it but ... hey, that's just its name, Laura, now can we talk about the actual factual glass itself, please?

Why, yes, of course we can. The glass is a stunner. I love it. I want to buy all the Absinthe glass because it's truly magnificent. This is one of CiM's 'moonstone' glasses which means that when used for anything more than about a 10mm plain round, it'll start to develop milky, translucent wisps. The greenish 9mm spacers in the 'Aqua Marina' set at the top are Absinthe and they are transparent but the heart is a different story.

The more you work and re-work this glass (the act of striking, I guess, whether intentional or not) the more likely you are to achieve the 'moonstone' effects. I've tried my best to capture these effects in a photograph but nope, it's one of those things that your eyes have to look upon in real life. 

It's a pretty similar glass to CiM Peacock Green and just like Peacock Green, Absinthe won't etch. Mind you, that's no bad thing because the light playing through shiny Absinthe beads is a thing of eye-pleasing wonder.

Stash Busting

Yesterday I was sorting through my glass stash and I kept finding rods of glass that have been sat there for years.  I looked at them and thought 'Why don't I ever use these?' and do you know, I didn't have a decent answer for myself.

Actually, that's not one hundred percent true.  I kind of do know why I avoid certain glasses.  Some of them do things that I don't like.  Take Effetre Turquoise for example.  I rarely use it and when I do it is in the form of stringer.  I can count on the fingers of one hand how many times I've used it for base beads in my whole beadmaking life.  It has a tendency to go a tad streaky and it also has a habit of developing a grey metallic sheen which can make the resulting beads look grubby. 

But my reason was naff.  Turquoise is a nice colour and many people love to wear it.

So I decided to make a set of beads out of plain, un-encased Effetre Turquoise and then I decorated them with some fine scrolly stringerwork in CiM French Blue.  Yes, the turquoise went a little streaky.  Yes, it got a grey sheen which I've now removed.  But hey - those are some nice beads, even if I do say so myself!

These will be for sale on my website at 8.00pm UK time tonight.  Now if you'll excuse me I'm off to dig out some long-forgotten glass and see what I can make with it .....

Blue & Purple

This weekend there was a definite blue and purple theme happening with my beadmaking.  I am still in love with CiM Sepia Unique - its gorgeous tanzanite hue is utterly lovely.

These need stringing and photographing in their respective sets and then they will be for sale in my Etsy shop at some point this evening.

Have a good Monday!

CiM Testing : Sepia Unique 2

I was delighted to find a rod of this beautiful glass in my testing package from Creation Is Messy.  As a fan of Sepia I was intrigued to work with this Sepia Unique.  It's not at all brown.  In fact it's a gorgeous smoky blue with a tiny hint of mauve about it. 

It was a total pleasure to work with and if you're a fan of blue you need, need, need to grab some of this while you can.  It's a Messy Unique so it's best to be quick before it's all gone.

This Sepia Unique looks fabulous with silver.  Here it is with  fine silver and Vetrofond Clear :

And it looks gorgeous when etched.  Here it is with Effetre 268 Pearl Grey polka dots and etched to a velvety finish :

As I say, if you love blue then I highly recommend this Sepia Unique.  It's just totally lovely!