This is the first post to cover off new beads made with The folks at CiM - Creation Is Messy glass have been cooking up some amazing colors for 2020.
They have changed some of their production working habits to produce limited edition colors in small batches to accomodate the current global market.
Using limited run batches, the goal is to work closer with the lampworking community to determine what colors are the best to reproduce in future.
As an artist, I am always chasing that new color that is unique to the glass palette and having the opportunity to test colors first is something I look forward to each year.
This year, the colors did not disappoint and they have brought fresh color to my studio during these uncertain times of Covid-19.
For those that follow my Facebook, you are aware that my long awaited knee replacement surgery has been cancelled due to hospital operation room closures. Let's hope and pray that we "flatten the curve" and life gets back to normal. Until then, I offer you eye candy with the new colors over the next few weeks. There are almost 50 new colors, so let's get started!
CiM’s new Blueberry Muffin Ltd Run is a very dense opal royal blue. Imagine blueberry jam.
The glass is so dense, that focal beads below are made with a clear glass core with Blueberry Muffin encasement. This is awesome as the glass goes along way rather than waste using as solid beads only. The focal beads have a sprinkling of Val Cox Silver Lake frit. This is a dense white blend which is quite rare to find now and the mix brought out shade from light blue to dark midnight blue.
I created some handblown glass shards using CiM’s new Blueberry Muffin with Val Cox Silver Lake frit.
The base of these beads is CiM’s new London Fog Ltd Run.
The bead with the 99% fine silver wrap has a layer of Silver Lake frit under the shard and it didn’t react as much as the frit did on the darker glass. Spacer beads are pure London Fog.
This are classic beads!
CiM’s new London Fog Ltd Run with gentle sprinkling of Val Cox Trickster frit.
Beautiful for spring. There is a gentle pink blush to these beads from the frit.
Spacers are London Fog.
Now this is a fun glass!
CiM Circus Tent Ltd Run with it’s color streamers suspended within the clear glass. I capped the ends with Double Helix Aurae silver glass.
So happy that the CiM glass had no reaction against the silver glass so that I can be confident to try more bead designs without worry.
Study of new CiM color for spring - CiM Peony Ltd Run, an opal pink that stays translucent after annealing.
First photo left to right: Shards of Double Helix OX459, Peony with Val Cox Abigail frit and fine silver wire and Peony with Val Cox Trickster frit.
The silver glass fumed the Peony pink with a golden peachy glow.
Spacers are showing in 2nd photo.
Hand-blown glass shards of CiM’s new Chocolate Ltd Run with silvered ivory. Chocolate is a cloudy brown transparent that is true to it's name.
This set has a base of CiM Candlelight Ltd Run, a lovely transparent yellow, with these lovely shards created subtle patterns.
This set of beads was created with a combination of two CiM new 2020 colors - Chocolate Ltd Run and Lunar Ltd Run, a blue opal.
These colors work well with Double Helix Aurae Light silver glass droplets producing a glittering result.
This set of beads use the new CiM pink called Ballerina Ltd Run.
It is a soft pink that I had a bit of a challenge in getting anything but a transparent.
The single bead is a base of Ballerina with my hand-blended Pendragonfyre frit.
Apart from the spacers, the remaining beads are Ballerina over a core of CiM Peace with more of my frit. This would be lovely for a summer wedding bracelet.
Combining CiM’s Adriatic Ltd Run, a bright blue misty opal and Ra Ltd Run, an opaque silver laden yellow, created these beauties!
A twisted stream of silvered ivory fumes a golden hue over Ra but kept the misty blue hues as rich as the sea!
CiM’s new fresh green, Avonlea Ltd Run absolutely sings when combined with Double Helix Melia silver glass. This set of beads shows surface and encased decorations.
Spacers are solid Avonlea.
Last but certainly not least is result of cleaning out a drawer in my studio. A large sheet of pure copper foil that I purchased over 10 years ago caught my eye along with some scrapbooking cutout stamps.
CiM’s new Summer Haze Ltd Run is a yellow misty opal.
Experimenting using it as a base and encasing copper foil with Double Helix clear glasses Aether and Zephyr.
I add a few drops of silver glass for a bit of added glitter.
So that is the Roundup of the first set of test results. Check back next week for another post of glassy goodness!
D.
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#cimtesting
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#cimblueberrymuffin
#cimlondonfog
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#cimadriatic
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@creationismessy
This is the first post to cover off new beads made with CiM - Creation Is Messy glasses within Nortel's Bountiful Harvest sampler.
This sampler is available via Nortel's online order site.
The 15 colors included in the sampler are:
CIM277 Phoenix
CIM720 Autumn
CIM442 Prairie Grass
CIM465 Oobleck
CIM718 Indian Summer
CIM216 Monarch
CIM217 Harvest
CIM106 Fire Cracker
CIM780 Maple
CIM121 Garnet
CIM487 Poison Apple
CIM729 Serengeti
CIM211 Orange Crush
CIM308 Ochre
CIM470 Eden
Although this sampler seems to be more of a "autumn" set of colors, I thought the colors are bright and cheerful for this first day of spring!
I recently used a few of these in previous posts, so as I work thru this sampler, I will"throw-back" to beads where I have already used up the sample rods.
For this post we will cover off 5 colors, so let's get started.
These 2 beads were created on a based on CiM Serengeti. This is an opaque earthy brown with red undertonesI made hand-blown glass shards of a Double Helix test glass named DH OX459. These shine beautiful when added to the Serengeti base bead.
I had a bunch of shards on a shelf in my studio that I purchased from thepurplelilydesigns.com. I hadn't worked with them since I learned to make my own. I pulled them out to spend an afternoon using them.
CiM's Poison Apple is a dense, saturated opal green that has always seemed to turn into an opaque glass after it is worked and annealed in the kiln. It has been in production for many years, artists have asked for CiM to try and re-engineer this glass to keep it's translucency.
I received a rod of the new formula, so I will review it in a future post.
The beads below are the older formula.
You can see in the bead set how some beads are more opaque than others. this is due to the heat and amount of time the glass was worked. The shards are named Rainforest.
This bead shows the difference from the centre of the bead to the glass closer to the surface.
CiM Autumn is an opaque peachy brown.
In this set of beads I used shards named Mood Swings.
I wasn't overjoyed with the shard results, but the end result of the 99% fine silver wrap helped make these beads look a bit more rustic and I may try etching them to see if that endears them to me more. CiM's Autumn is still a beautiful glass color with a bit of a reaction to silver.
CiM Firecracker is an opaque dark cherry red that I have tested in the past with silver glass and it really sings!
For this test, I used Midnight Shards and the blue/ silvered ivory against the rich red is really pretty. My only observation was that Firecracker was a bit shock with a few small air bubbles in the rod.
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CiM Maple is a transparent warm golden brown. I have used this glass many times in the past and it is a go to brown when paired with silver or silver glass.
This set of beads were decorated with my own hand blown shards of silvered ivory.
Happy Spring!
D.
I have been away from the blog busy with life but had been posting quick peeks on Instagram as I work through Nortel’s CiM glass sampler named Queen’s Court.
You can order this sampler of 17 colors that are both new and former favourites via Nortel’s new online shopping cart here.
Please check out Nortel’s new online ordering website as many of these CiM colors are in limited runs only.
Although the following sets have popped up on the Pendragonfyre Instagram feed, I like to keep record in this blog as my online journal of working notes and test results.
Let's get caught up!
These beads use CiM Baked Alaska with fine silver swirls with CiM Sacre Bleu skies!
That glittery moon is Double Helix Aurae.
The blue is stunning in person and the beads found a home with a happy customer very quickly.
CiM's Merryweather is a pretty blue opal glass. I sprinkled it with Fortune Teller Lumiere Lusters by JetAge Studios. I have to be honest, I have never been a fan of pixie or mica dust as it flies everywhere in the studio, so if I need to use it, it is the last set of beads for the day's session... followed a cleaning of the torch table.
I loved working with this now rare glass, but not so much a fan of the dusty result.
So I will make another attempt to tame the glitter and see how it goes. Silver glass has just as much impact without the mess.
The color of Merryweather is a happy blue so looking forward to using it again in some future beads.
Three more colors from the Queen’s Court CiM glass sampler.
These colors match well and love silver.
I call this set The Jester. Let's cover off the details of the CiM glass colors:
Ocher, an opaque yellow
Quetzal, an opaque blue with green undertones.
Coronation Day, a dark opal purple
This created an amazing combination. Each glass melts smoothly, layered without issues and the silvered ivory stringer detail on the focal bead was beautiful.
I have to say, the color selection in this sampler set is ample.
I was able to use 4 CiM colors in this new set of beads. I wanted to test with both silver wire and silver glass to see if there were any reactions to the two types of glass.
CiM Colors in this group:
Merryweather, a happy opal blue
Mantis, a vibrant misty green opal.
Clockwork, a vibrant orange striking glass
Byzantium, a purple moonstone
When these emerged from the kiln, their translucency reminded me of Lifesaver candies. The glass was smooth to work with with little to no bubbling. No reactions to silver, so these will go into my list of base glass for future silver glass designs.
These beads are created on bases of CiM Rainforest, a greenish teal opal and CiM Atlantis, a bluish teal opal. These are rich base glasses with jewel tone hues.
Handmade shards of CiM Tahitian Pearl were gently added to create a tactile feel and medieval look.
Stay tuned for Part 3 of the review of the Queen's Court Sampler!
D.
