CiM Testing : Count von Count

Like most lavender glass, Creation Is Messy's Count von Count shifts between blue and purple depending on the light that it's in. In natural daylight it's a beautiful lavender (see photo above) and in artificial light it shows up as a pretty mauve-blue:

Either way it's a wonderful colour and it's a great glass to work with. It melts nicely and it behaves a little better than Effetre Dark Lavender, which is probably its closest match in the 104 colour palette.

Whoever named the glass Count von Count got it spot on. It really is the colour of the mathematician vampire muppet in Sesame Street!

I love to use Count von Count as an encaser. If you try putting it over CiM Heffalump and add a touch of CiM Lapis you'll be in some kind of purple paradise .....

..... and if you give the glass a quick dip in a bath of etching solution it looks equally lovely!
CiM's Count von Count is now my transparent lavender glass of choice. If you're purple-obsessed like me then trust me, you need this glass in your stash!

'Crocus'

Nobody does purple glass quite like Creation Is Messy. These 'Crocus' beads are Heffalump encased in Count Von Count and they're decorated with Lapis stringerwork. The spacers are Crocus.

Purple deliciousness!

CiM Testing : Pumpkin

You know how I feel about yellow beads - I blogged about it a few weeks back. As I said in the comments for that post I am drawn to warmer, slightly orangey yellows and CiM Pumpkin is one of those.

Pumpkin is a rich, smooth mango colour. It also reminds me of tinned peaches! Below is a set of test beads that I made in order to show you how Pumpkin compares to other yellows and yellow-oranges :

Beads from left to right : Pumpkin, Pumpkin etched, Pumpkin thinly encased with Vetrofond clear, Pumpkin thickly encased with Vetrofond clear, CiM Creamsicle, Effetre 412 Dark Yellow and Effetre 416 Bright Yellow.

As you can see, the Pumpkin is lighter in colour and less streaky than the Effetre Dark Yellow. I found the Pumpkin very nice to work with - it's got a middle-of-the-road consistency. It encases really well too and looks absolutely beautiful when it's etched.

Pumpkin has an element of translucency about it and that is always a sign that the glass may not lend itself to the kind of fine, crisp stringerwork that I am do. My suspicions were confirmed. The photograph below shows Pumpkin as polka dots on a CiM Peace bead cased with CiM Simply Berry.

As you can see, the dots have lost a bit of their yellowness and as linework the stringer loses its crispness and definition. That's not just limited to Pumpkin - a lot of the 104 yellow-oranges do the same thing. As I say, I think this might be related to its slight translucent properties.

But as a base glass and for raised dots and relief work CiM Pumpkin is a stunner. The Pumpkin beads below are encased with a thin layer of Vetrofond clear and the stringerwork and spacers are CiM Lapis.

If you're looking for a smooth and fruity yellow-orange then I suggest you give the lovely CiM Pumkpin a whirl. I can imagine that it would look ace with bright pink, rich purples and darker oranges and reds.