CiM Testing: Peacock Feather

Peacock Feather is an opal teal green-blue and I love it. It’s not like any other colour I’ve used.

No shocking, no bubbles, very well-behaved.

The photo at the top of this post shows a heart made of just Peacock Feather next to a pair of white heart spacers where I put Peacock Feather over Effetre White 204.

You know how in the last post I said that a lot of the CiM opals absolutely hate stringer? Well, the ones that only have a mild dislike of it can be handy because you can use this to your advantage to create stringer designs that have a sort of batik feel to them. The stringer loses its defined edges slightly and it separates to give a darker line through the centre of it. You can see this effect in the second and third photos.

The photo above is Peacock Feather over Lady of the Lake, with scrolls in Effetre Light Turquoise 232. The picture below is Peacock Feather with Effetre Periwinkle Blue 220.

The beads were photographed indoors in natural daylight.

CiM Testing: Watermelon

Watermelon is an orangey red cloudy transparent and it’s lovely.

Again, it’s a very well-behaved glass and it requires no striking or faffing to get consistent results.

The photos above are all Watermelon over Effetre White 204.

The photo of the heart pendant above is just Watermelon on its own. Used this way the colour is dense and you can just about see its wispiness.

And finally we have Watermelon with CiM Hollandaise.

All photos were taken indoors in natural daylight.

CiM Testing: Heather

CiM describe Heather as ‘a cloudy transparent magenta’ and I’d say that’s accurate. It’s like a pinker form of Crocus but instead of being a solid colour it’s a mix of clear (I think) and translucent purply-pink.

A lot of these new CiM colours are this cloudy glass and it’s really nice. You get a kind of wispy, ethereal effect which is ever so pretty.

Heather melts smoothly with no shocking or bubbling. It’s a nice middle-of-the-road consistency too.

All the beads pictured here are Heather over Effetre White 204.

The beads were photographed indoors in natural daylight.

CiM Testing: Firedragon

Yes, yes, it's been an age and all that but I'm here to write up my Creation is Messy testing findings. I posted the last wodge of them on Instagram but that makes it harder for Kathy to lift images and text for use on her website so here I be, back in the old blogosphere.

These new CiM colours will be available some time in April 2020.

There are about sixty new colours in the newest batch of CiM glasses and working out where to start was a conundrum but I eventually decided to begin with the beautiful Firedragon.

Oh, this is a gorgeous glass. In rod form, Firedragon is similar to Sangre, and it works like Sangre too but Firedragon ends up as a much more orangey red.

I used Firedragon like I do Sangre: make the bead, heat it until no wisps are visible, bring it out of the flame for ten seconds, where it will cool to a pale orange, then gently reheat for ten seconds so the red blooms, then I give it another ten seconds out of the flame before putting it into the hot kiln. Timing the reheating is important as I found the longer you reheat it the darker red it goes.

No bubbles, no shocking and no livery brown streaks that sometimes occur in reds.

The first three photos above are Firedragon over Effetre White 204.

The big hole bead above is Firedragon over Effetre White 204 with spots in Effetre Light Turquoise 232. The Firedragon is darker red here where I kept it in the flame longer. It’s also gone a bit more translucent as opposed to being really transparent. Still a mighty pretty red, though!

The beads were photographed indoors in natural daylight.