CiM Testing: Lady of the Lake

Lady of the Lake is the same hue as Sea Glass but it is more translucent, without the ethereal misty opal quality that Sea Glass has.

Again, it was a very nice glass to work with but it was fussy when it came to adding stringer. I totally expected this as a lot of the CiM opals absolutely hate stringer.

The photo below shows Sea Glass on the left and Lady of the Lake on the right. The difference is subtle but it is there.

The beads were photographed indoors in natural daylight except for the last one. That was indoors under LED light.

CiM Testing: Sea Glass

Oh my. This is an absolutely beautiful glass. When I posted a photo of it in my Instagram stories yesterday I received so many comments from people – everyone loves this glass.

Sea Glass is a beautiful pale blue-green and it’s a misty opal which means it has that almost glowy translucency about it.

The glass melts smoothly and it’s actually quite soft, but not in a gloopy soupy way. No shocking or bubbling.

It didn’t like stringer being added to it – it made the stringer go all feathery and distorted – but it doesn’t matter because it’s one of those glasses that just speaks for itself.

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.