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.

CiM - Creation is Messy New Color - Bone

CiM - Creation is Messy created a new opaque neutral glass in this fall's release of Limited Run colors.

Bone Limited Run is a light neutral shade that is not an ivory. It seems to be a shade between white and ivory that some testers say reacts to silver but not to colors that normally react with ivory.

I don't use many neutral glasses so I was stumped as to how I would use it in a test. When in doubt, test with Raku!

For this set, I sprinkled each bead with Glass Diversions Persian Paisley glass frit and twisted and swirled the frit into the surface of the CiM Bone glass.

We got lots of brown hued reactions along with the highlights of pinks and blue.

New CiM Colors for Fall 2017 - Blues and Greens - Tardis and Juniper

Blues and Greens - CiM - Creation Is Messy offers many hues of limited runs and the color palette is wide across the spectrum from olive greens to teal greens, from grey blues to deep indigos.

This season only two blues was introduced, CiM's Poolside teal transparent and CiM’s Tardis Ltd Run. 

Tardis is an opal blue that I paired with a basic frit and formed it into cubes.
It is a muted blue base and flowed beautifully as a great background for Valerie Cox’s Sunflower Fields artisan frit.

There were 5 true greens in this season’s offerings. I first tested Chrysalis and Siren Ltd Runs. Click here for the post. 

I have another to share with you below. 
This is CiM’s Juniper Ltd Run. It is a dense opaque green that I tried in different ways.

I tried it with Double Helix silver infused Triton and melted it in a hot flame and allowed it to flow and stream. I was testing to see if when worked hot and then encased with CiM Siren transparent green and formed in a heart.

I also tried CiM's Juniper Ltd Run paired with other CiM colors, Tardis, Bone and rare Indigo within a multi-layered spotted bead. 
CiM’s Bone Ltd Run is new and melts as a nice non-reactive ivory that spread evenly. 
CiM’s Indigo Ltd Run, now sold out, is a dense dark transparent blue and stood out on the bead’s shoulders. 
I found Tardis, being an opal, seemed to become washed out as it spread over the centre of the bead.

Finally, the last bead (left side) was a base of Juniper and portals of Double Helix stormed Triton layered over drops of CiM Indigo and capped with clear glass portals.

Til next time,
D.