Cake Batter, Mushroom Melon, Absinthe.......lots of new glass to play with

So earlier this week I had a message from Martin at www.tuffnellglass.com asking me if I would have a play with the new release colours from CIM Glass.    Well what should a girl say???    YES PLEASE!   Two days later I had 17 shiny new rods of glass to stroke arrive in my mail box.

My colour palette normally is bright and on first glance this glass all looked autumnal and once again out side my comfort zone but who knows what they are gonna do till you melt them.   The rods are from the left : Alley Cat, Daffodil, Cake Batter, Mushroom Melon, Antique Lace, Mint Chip, Shrubbery, Goblin, Radio Flyer, Tandoori, Bing LTD, Weimarner, Neon Blue, Trade Winds, Tuscan Teal, Absinthe and Aloe Juice.   My initial response was I love the depth to Trade Winds a real yummy deep cobalt opaque and the Tuscan Teal which reminded me of Caribbean Seas a beautiful deep transparent Teal.  The Absinthe a smokey water colour and the Radio Flyer an incredible scarlet colour also got my glassy antenae wiggling!!

So the first thing to do was to make some small spacer beads and see what they looked like melted down.  Starting with the transparent orange colour centre front and working right they are Tandoori, Bing Ltd, Weimeraner, Neon Blue, Trade Winds, Tuscan Teal, Absinthe, Aloe Juice, Alley Cat, Daffodil, Cake Batter, Mushroom Melon, Antique Lace, Mint Chip, Shrubbery, Goblin, Radio Flyer...

Here are the blues close up from the left Tuscan Teal, Trade Winds and Neon Blue.....

And at the front here from the left Alley Cat, Daffodil, Cake Batter, Mushroom Melon, Antique Lace, Mint Chip and Shrubbery just slipping out of shot.....

The first thing I did was to test how they all sat together so I made a big bead with lots of dots and a busy design.  Without exception they all behaved perfectly no bleeding, no bubbling and no devitrification (crystal forming) just lovely clean lines......ten out of ten for that and I used most of the glasses in this bead apart from the reds

Then it was the turn for the Reds and what better than a swirly bead encased to test those colours out

This bead was tricky to photograph but the blends of the light ochres Alley Cat and Daffodil with the reds and a touch of Mushroom Melon and the orange Tandoori created this beautiful shading.  I used Effetre 006 as the clear and all in all I was really pleased with how they performed.  Bead is in one piece so no compatiblity issues that I can see.

So then  I did this swirly pleated lentil....The main yellow in the centre is Daffodil with Alley Cat topping and tailing it.  That lovely dove grey is the Weimeraner and the red is Radio Flyer.  The dark colour is the Tuscan Teal giving it some depth.  As you can see no bleeding at all and again I was really pleased with how they performed.  Not sure about the bead though!! Looks like a Toucan!

Now I found out a while ago from a friend that silver glass tends to like the opal colours so I thought perfect lets try the Absinthe with some DH Kalypso and Oxalis on that little flower.  Guess what! I think Kalypso liked a tipple of Absinthe!!  

Now for the blue lovers! This is a mix of Neon Blue, and Trade Winds with some Mushroom Melon in a ring Topper.  Again lovely crisp finish no bleeding and it encased with 006 no problem.

Now this just blew me away I do alot of these beads and it is usually the outside layer that smudges but this just stayed so crisp right through the design.  Base is  Mint Chip then Wiemeraner then Tuscan Teal topped with my NEW FAVOURITE glass Cake Batter this glass Rocks!!

So all in all I had a lovely play day and all in all the glass behaved well the Radio Flyer was a wee bit shocky but apart from that they all melted well and Thank you Tuffnell Glass for letting me test them for you :)