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!

Not So Secret Testing for Tuffnel Glass!

So this morning an exciting little package arrived from Tuffnell Glass with the new colours from Effetre from the left above : Green Cave, Light Umber, Yellow Barlotti, Turq. Grey Pastille, Moss Green, Antique Green Pastille.  I was so busy making the larger beads I  ran out of mandrels so there are the two rods infront as well, Marc Pastille that beautiful mocha colour and Wood so 8 new colours in total.  You will be able to see those in action in the beads below!  My first observation was that the Turq Grey Pastille is a fabulous colour but it reduces quite heavily, personally I liked the slightly antique shiny finish that appeared but might not be for everyone and the Antique Green Pastille also reduced slightly too.

I usually use much brighter colours so to play the game, I limited myself to the 8 new colours and added white and clear to complete the palatte. I then created a range of beads with this restricted colour range.  I work quite hot and I was looking for crisp lines and in this instance all the glass passed that test apart from the Yellow Barlotti which had a tendancy to go blurry if used for small detail, but it is a fab egg yolk colour and you can see on the other beads where the  Yellow Barlotti is used to create lines and shading it behaves beautifully.  It was only as small dots like the ones on the wheel that blur but it was in the flame for a long time!   I loved the greens and the 5th bead in the row below was my favourite the colours all blend so beautifully together….You have a touch of the Light Umber then Moss Green, Antique Green Pastille, Green Cave and Wood, the base of the bead is Wood as are the bumps, Wood is a great cream colour and a lovely alternative to white.

All in all lovely colours and the Light Umber is a great addition to the brown palette as is the Mark Pastille both are rich tones and great to work with.   I will be updating on new glass that arrives at Tuffnell as and when they ask me to to show what they look like within designs so exciting.  Thank you for reading my blog and if you want to find out more about me do join my Facebook Page the link is on the right of the page.