New Colours From CIM

Last week a little parcel dropped on my doormat from Tuffnell Glass it was full of exciting glass from CIM.   They are from top to bottom in the photo above : Gypsy, Cobblestone, Mahogany, Heartthrob, Tiger Lily, Poppy, Cinnamon, Mint Chip, Ginger (I think! The rod was broken and unlabelled so I will check but it looks like Ginger!) Whisper , Bubble Bath, Trapeze, Ice Floe, Corination Day and Primrose.

My first impression of the bundle was the beautiful opal colours of the Bubble Bath and Whisper.  The fantastic light purple of Trapeze, the subtle pastels of the Mint Chip and Ginger and the vibrant red of Heartthrob.

Next step to melt them down into beads to see how they behaved (From the right to left below the same glass as the list above)

The first glass in the flame was Bubble Bath which was abit shocky and spat all over my bench but after a gentle introduction to the flame it was fine.  This glass is opal in look and had a slightly mottled finish once it had been through the kiln process.

Whisper was another opal rod which produced a mottled finish once cool but with the same opal feel to it.  Primrose was another shocky rod but what a pretty pastel pink, not quite as intense as Gelly but lovely, another bead that might look lovely etched or tumbled and it  created an even colour once cool so I suspect it would be great in layered beads.
 
The Cinnamon Jelly also became streaky in the flame and has a streaky finish when cool.  Some people like this organic feel, personally I like my opaques to stay solid and clean so this one is not for me!  The other three red/orange colours were different, Heartthrob was slightly shocky but boy what a stunning red, a truly vibrant, rich colour my favourite red of the bunch and I will be needing more.

For those of you that like the oranges the Tiger Lily melted like a dream and has a very slight opal finish...I wonder what it would be like layerd, I suspect it would be slightly transparent.  The last red was the Poppy this glass also melted like a dream and like the Tiger Lily has a slightly opal finish when cool.  It is a shame I had no more time to test these glasses in layers but I will try and find time to do that and blog but Poppy I also suspect would be slightly transparent.

The brown glasses were all deep and rich, that is the Cobblestone, Gypsy, Mahogany and the glass I suspect is Ginger.  They all melted like a dream and each rod produced a solid colour bead.  I again want to experiment more particularly with the Gypsy which is an intense black which even under daylight lighting I can detect no blue or purple in there by eye.  The Ginger if that is what it is and I promise I will find out after the Bank Holiday was a beautiful colour perfect for a base colour and that and the beautiful Mint would look just fabulous etched I suspect.  The Mahogany made my mouth water it is almost the same colour as beautiful  rich milk chocolate and created a lovely block colour once cooled in a bead. (as seen above)

Let me mention at this point the Coronation Day (above),  I was excited to see such a deep purple, the rod has a slightly opal look to it and indeed when it was melted it became streaky and the bead created had a streaky look to it to.  A shame for me as I had my eye on it for some of my big layered beads but it was not to be!

Lastly the transparent Trapeze....what a fabulous colour and the Ice Floe.  Trapeze melts and stays as it is in the rod a beautiful very light mauve.  Ice Floe was a fascinating glass it created a finish that reminded my for the Foxs Glacier Mints of my childhood!  Lots of tiny bubbles within the bead almost like it has boiled....although usually I don't like rods that create an uneven finish when melted this one is an exception and I think it may have some use in my coastal beads as it does indeed remind me of ice/water.

Usually I would make a few beads layering the colours together to see how they behave when they are put together but I was very short on time and I thought I would do something different this time.  Opal colours in my experience can sometimes do lovely things with silver glass and that Trapeze was just asking to be mixed with some silver glass!

So the first mix I tried was with my favourite Kalypso which I applied over a base bead of Ice, lightly reduced and encased with 006 Clear.  The effect was not as dramatic as I was expecting....but that is the thing with glass isn't it when you expect something it doesn't happen and when you don't it does!!

Next I made a base bead of Whisper, this beautiful opal I was convinced would do something special, then I topped with Aion 2 and lightly reduced and encased in clear.  I still think there is something happening with this glass mix as you can see in the photo below and I will be testing it with other DH glass soon.

Last the star of the show I wanted to use my favourite colour in this batch which was the Trapeze but from experience felt it was to light to use as a base so I picked the other opal colour in the batch the Bubble Bath and made a small base bead.  I then encased it in Clio and very lightly reduced it.....rather than going for clear I used the Trapeze to encase the lightly reduced bead and then applied a layer of clear......006 which I now wish had been a DH clear but will do that next time!  The result was amazing......and completely by accident

The real difference was the application of a coloured transparent to the mix but this bead just glows I took it out of my photo set up which is daylight bulbs and popped it beside me on a bead mat and look at this......very little light at all and it is still glowing!!

So that is what I have discovered so far. The Swirl Technique you see in all these last beads is available as a tutorial in my Etsy Shop

I will pop up any further findings once I continue to play with these glasses but in the meantime race you to Tuffnell Glass to stock up on those opals and the lovely Trapeze and some Ginger and Mint and Hearthrob maybe!

Thank you for reading my blog and if you do make beads using this recipe I would love to see them and hear your thoughts you can post me a photo on my FB Page

Double Helix Thallo, Effetre Lilac Pastel, Dark Lilac Pastel, Navy Blue, Canyon and Sand

This week I was lucky enough to have some new glasses arrive from Tuffnell Glass  always a great suprise to find them on the doormat!  So I am writing this blog post to tell you what I have discovered about them.

Todays glasses are from the back in the photo above are Effetre Sand, Canyon, Navy Blue, Lilac Pastel and Dark Lilac pastel.  So the first thing I did was to make some small beads to see how the glass responded to the flame.

The most interesting were the Lilacs, the rods look grey but they transform into these very subtle lilac colours, you can see the two rods at the front - dark in front with the lilac second in the line up.

Then the Navy which I really like, it is a completely new shade of blue, for me, and it is a really useful addition for shading and dotting, next is the Canyon which is a turquoise blue.  Both of these blues behaved well in the flame, like all blues you have to be careful not to work it to hot particularly the Canyon or you will get 'burning' and a grey finish to the bead.

Last in the line up is the Sand which I was very excited about, you don't find so many pretty sand colours about and this one is a lovely deep rich sand colour and is my favourite from the batch.

I then made a small barrel bead and decorated it with dots to see how it behaved with some of the colours.  You can see that the Navy went abit streaky as I think I over heated abit, The pastels held the design but personally I am not so keen on the streaky finish on these two glasses but if you love that organic look these are great.

I then made one of my 3D beads with from the centre, Navy, Sand, and finishing with the two liliacs.  Please excuse the clear it was abit scummy!  You can see that the colours sat well together and the liliacs did not produce their streaky lines when encased but the colours look almost the same.  The tutorial for this 3D design is available in my Etsy Shop

I then sat down and made some of my decorative Raspberry Beads combining some of the new colours in with some old favourites....

The Canyon looks lovely finishing the dots on here....

And you can see the Sand working well in this one....

And this one to along with the Navy and the Canyon.....

Sand on those dots around the outside edge and some of the liliacs and Canyon in there to

Navy providing the darker spots on the outside edges of this one

And you can spot the new colours in these beads, the darker Navy providing a great contrast for the Sand and Canyon  on that bead on the left.

My opinion on them is they are great additions to the palette but as I have mentioned they do streak if you work to hot but I will definitely be buying some more of the Sand and the Canyon.

So excited to see some Double Helix Thallo in my parcel and some fine copper mesh to play with.
The Thallo is a beautiful transparent green in the rod form.  I started out as before with a couple of small beads to see how the glass worked in the flame.

As you can see they worked extremely well in a light reduction flame.  I kept on flashing the bead into the propane rich flame and it created this fabulous slick of colours.

I then tried encasing.... difficult to photograph but it turns this beautiful pearlised light green colour.

Below are a couple of cabs, the photograph on the left is photographed in studio lighting and you can see the translucent quality of this glass.  I have decorated with Effetre white stringer which transformed into this pretty gold colour in the reduction and the spots of white formed gold outlines.  The photograph on the right is photographed in daylight and you can really see what is special about this glass, it is spectacular in the light and changes colours as you move it around.   The photos are of the same cabs!

I then combined the  Thallo with the copper mesh.  I like to make windows so the mesh is a suprise element to the design.   The copper itself goes a disturbing soot colour when you add it to the flame, which is just a flash to warm it but don't panic, encase quickly and you will get this stunning red copper peeping out from your bead.

This one is with DH Kalypso....

So there we are....hope this has been of interest.  Thank you Tuffnell for giving me the opportunity to have a play with glass I might otherwise not get my hands on!!   If you are interested in this Swirl techinique that is also available in my Etsy Shop.   Happy Melting Everyone!

CIM - Sepia and two Limited runs Raindrop and Fiddlehead - Playing for www.tuffnellglass.com :)

So on Friday unexpectedly I found a tube of glass awaiting me when I came back from walking my furgals.   I had read on the Tuffnell Page on Facebook that there where a couple of new CIM colours arriving but wasn't sure what they were so I ripped the package open on the doorstep.....as you do!!

I have to confess the excitement dwindled slightly when I upwrapped the parcel....expect for the Refresher Sweetie which was nommy!  I love my colours and obviously, as you can see, this was not a colourful batch of inspiring glass but I headed over to the studio and started by making some small test beads to have a closer look at the colours

So here they are....from the left Fiddlehead, Raindrop and Sepia.  My first observation was that the Raindrop boiled on me even when I turned the torch right down and was as a consequence  a 'bubbly' finish.   Now the challenge with what to do with them, obviously I had to add other glass so I started with the Fiddlehead. 

I made a base bead of Cim Dirty Martini and used the Fiddlehead for the larger dots and interspersed with small white CIM Peace dots.  The Fiddlehead behaved well and is less streaky than other greens I have used.  I made the dots more interesting by using my knife to flatten the top of each one.

 This next bead was made using Raindrop, Fiddlehead and Cim Peace.   The Raindrop makes a great 'shadow' glass for adding depth to your bead and although it did bubble a wee bit the bumps on this one look like raindrops in the flesh and I am sure it would look great on a turquoise and would make a bead look like it had been splashed in water........hmmmmm!  Theres a thought!

 

So firstly excuse the fingerprints on these ones!  I liked that raindrop look so I made a base bead of CIM Dirty Martini and encased it in Double Helix Oxalis then added dots of Dirty Martini randomly around the bead and melted flat.  I then took my  tungsten pick and pierced the centre of each of these dots then added a drop of Raindrop over each of these dots and melted flat capturing that little air bubble.  Finally I reduced the Oxalis heavily till it created this shiny finish with hints of pink and blue and green that you probably can't see in the photo but is very pretty.   Again the Raindrop boiled and the resulting dots where 'bubbly' but treated with care this is a very useful colour for your palette.

  

Last but not least the Sepia combined with the Fiddlehead green.  I made a base bead of the Fiddlehead and combined CIM Peace with the Sepia to create layers and light and shade.  Again a great shading colour although I think I prefer the raindrop it has a cleaner look to it.

 

And then Sepia.  Well this bead below is made on a black base with CIM Peace providing the white.  The outside smaller bumps are dots of Raindrop.  Those lovely large bumps are a base of Peace dotted with a small amount of DH Kalypso then flashed in a reduction flame and topped with Sepia....Yummy!!

 This one is a hollow base pod of the Sepia, I love this colour it really is like that sepia colour in old photos not really brown, more like a very deep gold.  Again I have used the DH Kalypso and Sepia for the larger spots as above and then the smaller dots are all Sepia on its own.  Pretty Pretty!!

And altogether :

So the verdict from here for what its worth is Sepia gets a big thumbs up.  If you like green then the Fiddlehead is another useful shade to your palette.  The Raindrop......yep I like it but treat with care or it will boil all over the place.

As a note CIM  Peace is a great white for layering spots and fine in small bumps but hates being fully encased and in my experience always cracks.....just so you know!! 

Thats all for now!!  Happy Melting Folks :)

www.tuffnellglass.com is the web address for our friends at Tuffnells :)

My Adventures with Anise White........so far!

I am a member of an online glass forum and I was posing a question the other day about a batch of soft white glass that I had that was shocking like popcorn all over my studio when it was introduced into the flame.   I had all but lost my patience with it and it was about to be thrown under my bench when a more experienced and talented fellow forum member Sally Carver, suggested this.....

 I think "Soft White" may possibly actually be Anice white. A few years ago I swear this glass was as rare as hen's teeth. I even remember there being fights about getting it in the US. Seems a bit odd that they're now flogging it off as white.
If it is Anice (and not some kind of Alabaster) then it's really nothing like White but it does do some REALLY funky things. Try laying stringers of it over black and you'll get a purple keyline running through the stringer. (Actually - try that anyway - to check whether you have Anice). If it is Anice you have then you can do cool things like this with it:
http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=84692

So yesterday armed with this information and having read the information available I headed back out to the studio to experiment and here is what I found.  To start with I followed the tutorial by Jim Smircich and layered up Anise White (soft white 208) with some black....in this case Reinenbach Dense Black and worked in a slightly reducing flame.  I then got out my fuming kit and silver fumed it and this is what happened the blacks turning blue and purples and the white ranging from white to mustard/ochre yellow.

So not being satisfied with that I was wondering how this would react with other glass, I have had some success with shards and stringers that incorporate Petrol Green and Iris Blue so decided to experiment with those first.  I started by layering the Iris blue with the white and did not see much reaction so being the impatient type and this being experiment time I covered this with petrol Green and white and followed the same instructions and this is the reaction I got.....this one I encased but It has some lovely sandy webbing going on there....

So then I too some black and made a black lentil and covered it in white stringers and some of my own handmade reactive stringers and produced this.....again some lovely webbing going on...this one has not been fumed just worked in the flame and then I etched it....

So now I was on a roll I was wondering what would happend if I gold fumed some of the mixes I had tried so I made a round bead in Intense Black and decorated it with Anise White stringers and some of my own reactive stringers and gold fumed it....I was stunned when this beauty popped out of the kiln this morning!

You can see on this bead clearly where the white stringers have been placed they produce that lovely dark line running through that goldy mustardy line in the bead and what is difficult to photograph is the shiny quality to this due to the fuming.  It also looks like it has been etched but it hasn't this is just what happened during the process.

So Now I thought I would experiment abit so I took a couple of my favourite glasses which for the moment I am gonna keep to myself (sorry!)  and I made a bead half in one glass and half in the other and then I laid on white stringers to create square shapes working in a slightly reducing flame as before then I gold fumed it and .......

You can see that this lovely pink appeared with definate lines where the Anise White had been, a cool effect that I am gonna experiment further.  You can also see the two shades of pink the top of the bead is a darker richer bubblegum pink.

So taking this information I then made a big lentil in the glass I used for the top half of this bead and  Anise White...layering it up randomly.  Once I had the shape I added my own stringers and Gold fumed the bead and I was stunned this morning to pull this out of the kiln.  Sadly the bead cracked as did alot of my other experimental ones....to much peering at them and not enough time in the flame!!

The stringers I used are the same as the ones I used on my etched black bead....I just love what has happened to them during this process.

So there we are....I will be experimenting more over the next week or so and really want to try and incorporate some of this knowledge into my Swirl Beads

For those of you who may not have seen Swirl Beads....this is one below and I have a tutorial on the process to achieve it available in my Etsy Shop : www.raspberryrings.etsy.com
 

And to finish I am excited to say that Milly and her Freind Patrick have been featured in this months issue of Devon Life Magazine here in the UK! and here they are flying on the long the beach at Westward Ho!

Thank you for reading my blog and Happy Melting to all you Glassy People out there!!