Winter Storm Beads for December's Etsy Offerings

For this set of 6 storm beads, I used CiM Boysenberry, a dense and saturated purple moonstone, as the base glass. 

After adding a layer of ivory glass and several layers of Double Helix silver infused glasses, each bead was encased in clear glass domes and dotted each bead with more silver infused glass and reduced it to a metallic shine. 

The multi-colour portals shine with hues of blues, yellows, pinks and purple.

Seven spacer beads of shiny metallic Double Helix silver infused glass are included in this set.

For this set of 5 Storm beads, I used Cobalt Blue, as the base glass. 

After adding a layer of ivory glass and several layers of Double Helix silver infused glasses, each bead was encased in clear glass domes and dotted each bead with more silver infused glass and reduced it to a metallic shine. 

The multi-colour portals shine with hues of blues, yellows, pinks and purple.

Two spacer beads of cobalt blue glass are included in this set.

For this set of 5 storm beads, I used a teal transparent as the base glass. 

After adding a layer of ivory glass and several layers of Double Helix silver infused glasses, each bead was encased in clear glass domes and dotted each bead with more silver infused glass and reduced it to a metallic shine. 

The multi-colour portals shine with a mother of pearl appearance.

Six teal spacers are included in this set along with the crystals in the photo.

For this set of 4 storm beads, I used CiM's rare medium brown transparent named Indian Summer, as the base glass. 

Multiple layers of silver glasses encased in clear glass portals and dotted highlights were reduced it to a metallic shine.

#effetre

#italianglass

#silverglass

#nortel

#cimglass

#creationismessy

#cimboysenberry

#cimindiansummer

#doublehelixglass

#pendragonfyre 

#handmade

#handmadeincanada 

#lampworkglass 

#maker 

#lampworkbeads 

#glassbeads 

#lampwork 

#lampworker 

#beadmaker 

#softglass 

#handmadebeads 

#sodalime 

#craftsperson 

@nortel_glassgirl

February Flashback - Digging into the CiM - Creation Is Messy Archives - Part 3

With the hundreds of colors that CiM - Creation Is Messy has created in their extensive palette since 2006, so many colors are small batch offerings that I know many lampwork artists cherish and save in their collections for those perfect opportunities to use them in their designs.

In this post, I am highlighting a few more of my favourite CiM Archive glasses that I have used over the years, have still a few rods in my collection and I encourage other glass artists to explore them.

Each glass is showing as currently available through Nortel Glass in Toronto, as well I am sure may be readily available online outside of Canada for USA customers.
With the USD$ dollar exchange rate, I still lean toward Nortel as my supplier of choice.

As a CiM glass tester, my tests usually pair new glass colors with silver. 

I use 99% fine silver wire, foil and silver infused glass from Double Helix.

In all my blog posts, I document each glass combination testing notes to use an archive of information that I am willing to share with fellow artists.
I have been blogging each and every bead set I have created since back in 2008 as a newbie to glass art.

Now let's get to today's beads!

This set has a base of CiM Candlelight Ltd Run, a lovely transparent yellow, with these lovely shards created subtle patterns.
Hand-blown glass shards of CiM’s Chocolate Ltd Run with silvered ivory. Chocolate is a cloudy brown transparent that is true to it's name.

 

In response to requests for streaky rods, CiM - Creation is Messy created a new limited run color named Yangtze with "a core of clear, encased in transparent yellowish green, encased in clear."

 

 

The description doesn't sound all that exciting, so I was not sure what to test with it. When this happens, it is always better to go simple - less is more. So I paired it with 99% fine silver wire.
There was just a slight reaction to the silver with small trails. There was some scumming and micro-bubbles, but I encouraged it from the glass as it gave an antiqued sea glass glow even though I left them with a shiny gloss finish.
The result is a simple yet elegant set of beads that would be awesome in a ivory bridal set of silver jewelry.

This set of beads was created on a base of CiM Ltd Run, Frangipani, very pale opal purple. Double Helix's Aurae frit was generously sprinkled and reduced the glass to a golden sheen and metallic shine!

 

CiM's Indian Summer Ltd Run is a transparent brown that strikes to a rich color. In the middle bead below I simply wrapped some 99% fine silver wire and the glass color stayed true with no adverse fuming or color change in comparison to the spacers.

Reach out to Nortel to order these glasses before they are gone.

#creationismessy
#cimglass
#cimarchive
#doublehelixglass
#nortelinstock
#pendragonfyre
@creationismessy
@nortel_glassgirl

Torch Session - Revisiting CiM Colors - The Brown Palette

CiM - Creation Is Messy’s extensive list of colors to a new beadmaker may seem overwhelming. Beautiful colors with amazingly creative names.

The best resource to seem some time getting to know the color ranges is the CiM website.
Kathy’s organization by hue palette has allowed me to mix and match color families easily.
Over the next few weeks, I will be testing  new colors and revisiting some that deserve a second look.

Today’s post are beads from the Brown Palette

CiM's Indian Summer Ltd Run is a transparent brown that strikes to a rich color. In the middle bead below I simply wrapped some 99% fine silver wire and the glass color stayed true with no adverse fuming or color change in comparison to the spacers.

CiM's Canoe Ltd Run is an opaque silver brown that changes tone as it is worked in the flame. This can create blushes of russet and red brown in the final beads. As shown in the photo below, each bead was wrapped with silver wire and the result was clean with no reactions.
It melted easily with no shockiness.

CiM's Velveteen Ltd Run is a creamy white opal. The true color of the glass is shown in the spacer beads below. The focal bead was created with a base of Velveteen with a layer of silver foil and rolled in Glass Diversions Coffee Bean frit.

Another opal brown is CiM's Allspice Ltd Run. This glass is a deeper in brown tones but is glorious when paired with silver glass. The spacers in the photo below are CiM Allspice. The focal barrel bead was created with one half of Allspice with fine Aurae silver glass frit and the other end is CiM's Indian Summer Ltd Run.

The photo below is another look at CiM's Allspice Ltd Run in plain spacers. This opal brown is classic and rich.



Both CiM's Allspice Ltd Run and CiM's Velveteen Ltd Run are showing as "sold out" in the CiM color archives. You may be able to locate some through distributors like Nortel. Reach out to Jean if you are interested in exploring this color.

Til next time,
D.

#creationismessy #cimveleveteen #cimallspice #cimindiansummer #cimcanoe #pendragonfyre

Indian Summer - a study in Autumn colors

A relatively new color in the CiM - Creation Is Messy palette of browns was released early this year. 

It is called Indian Summer and I just got a chance to try it out with some other autumn hues.

This set of beads was created with  a mixture of the following glasses:

CiM Indian Summer Limited Run -  a brown transparent

CiM Allspice Limited Run  - an opal brown

CiM Alley Cat Limited Run  - A rare opaque orange.

Effetre Wine Red

Effetre Light Ivory

Effetre Red Roof Tile

Closeups of the long barrel beads, so the detail of the striations created by mixing the glasses together. I really like Indian Summer as it is a rich transparent that strikes into a rich hue and is smooth to swirl and marvers without surface pitting.

The barrel below shows the richness of CiM Indian Summer on the ends. The centre is Effetre Wine Red with swirls of CiM Alley Cat. Notice the striation line down the centre of each Alley Cat line. It creates a feather like look to each stream.

The two spacers at the back are Indian Summer as well.

The photo also notes the CiM Alley Cat striation reaction against CiM Indian Summer.

The remaining beads in this set highlight CiM Allspice with it's mixtures of Effetre Light Ivory swirls. The round bead on the left is a base of Allspice with dots of Effetre Red Roof Tile and Wine Red.