Testing a CiM - Creation is Messy Color Rod Sampler# 1 from Nortel

On my visit to Nortel in January, I was lucky to grab up some CiM- Creation is Messy color sampler packs.

Over the next couple of weeks, I will be creating and sharing some bead creations. 
These sampler packs are great for artists that:
- want to "try" a new color without the commitment of purchasing a minimum 1/4 pound of a specific color
- want to create multi-colour beads from a coordinated set of colors.

First sampler that I tried contained the following colors:
Poolside 511553
Bone 511826
Desert Pink 511957
Rapunzel 511627
Enchanted 511626
Venus 511911

As I love using silver glass in my testing, I created some big hole bead sets using silver glass frit and some handmade shards.

The following sets uses Double Helix Triton fine frit. 
Triton is an extra strength super luster on a cobalt blue base that produces a satin iridescence bling when reduced. Fine graded frit is the size of salt grains and as a result needs to be treated very lightly to keep it from melting completely into the surface of the bead.

With Poolside, the silver glass frit provided a golden sugar effect with no impact on the base glass.

With Rapunzel, the frit held it's blue in the reduction flame and also fumed the base glass to a slight golden tint.

With Enchanted, the golden sugar was more evident but there is a slight blue back tint at the surface of the bead.

With Bone, I created two silver frit beads to demonstrate that when it was quickly reduced, the gold/ blue sugar shine comes forward, but the neutral base was greatly fumed to a golden ivory. Once the frit was melted in to the surface, Triton's true blue returns to the metallic shine's surface.

For Bone, silver glass definitely fumes the surface, so if you are looking for it to stay as a whiter neutral, keep it away from silver glass.

The last 2 CIM Sampler colors were matched with handmade shards created from Double Helix Helios silver glass. This glass is a golden-yellow citrine, jewel tone super luster that gleams of gold shine!

With Desert Pink, there was a definite golden fuming when the Helios silver glass shards were added. The true color of the pink rod is the color in the spacer beads.

With Venus, there was little golden fuming and it retained the peachy pink hues of the base glass.

The photo below shows the beads together to show how the fumed Desert Pink bead looks so lovely coordinates with Venus beads.

I hope you enjoyed looking at these bead sets. I encourage you to contact Jean at Nortel to pick up a sampler pack and try these colors soon!

Til next time,
D.