CiM Testing: Sea Glass with Dichro

This is CiM Sea Glass but with added sparkle in the form of silvery dichroic inclusions.

The glass was pretty shocky and I had to warm it very slowly and even then it popped and cracked. When I eventually got it molten enough to work with it was fine. I tried to make a second bead with the glass that was left and I got off to a good start but then I encountered a line of trapped air within the rod and it produced such huge bubbles that it was impossible to work with it any further.

In my opinion, aesthetically, this the most successful of the CiM dichroic glasses and the resulting bead glimmers prettily when it catches the light.

The bead was photographed indoors in natural daylight.

CiM Testing: Teal with Dichro

It’s that beautiful green-blue teal colour again, like the one with mica that I tested last week, but this time it’s got dichro inclusions instead. If you remember, the dichroic didn’t really show up in the clear version of this but it’s more noticeable in this teal glass.

You can see tiny little flecks of silvery dichro in the bead and when the light hits them they do sparkle. However, there’s a lot of tiny microbubbles in there too. As I watched the glass melt (it’s never not fascinating to watch glass melt) if the dichro came into contact with the flame, which is unavoidable with this glass, it sort of fizzed away into nothing, leaving a tiny bubble in its place.

The effect is not horrid, though. You end up with a bead that is a tiny bit sparkly, a little bit bubbly and a lot “Oooh, that looks nice!” and that’s no bad thing.

The glass was a tad shocky but nowhere near as much as the Teal with Mica. Just go careful when you first introduce it to the flame – warm it up nice and slowly.

The bead was photographed indoors in natural daylight.

CiM Testing: Clear with Dichro

When I posted this glass in my Instagram stories yesterday a few of you thought I’d added the dichroic to some clear myself. Nope, this is a new CiM glass that is clear with dichro inclusions – tiny little particles of it. Thing is, there’s not enough of them and what there is scums up if it comes into contact with the flame so I ended up with a bead that has a few silver sparkly bits here and there but also some bits which look like flecks of stuff that shouldn’t be there.

The glass itself was fine to use; nice clarity, smooth, and no shocking.

The bead was photographed indoors in natural daylight.

Twinkly Focals

These are my take on the 'Barbie Bling' tutorial from Sarah Hornik's Think Pink! E-Book.

Swathes of colour and ribbons of glittery dichroic glass for a touch of twinkly loveliness, encapsulated in crystal clear glass and shaped into smooth cylinders. I spent more time shaping these beads than I did layering all the glass!