Glass Color Testing: CiM 436 Leaf Men

It's officially fall and one of my favorite fall colors is green.  The glass color I am reviewing today is one of the pretty new greens by Creation is Messy, called Leaf Men. This green is similar to Olive, but a little lighter and somewhat less yellow-y. It's a wonderful shade for autumn, and seems to go well with other fall colors.

Leaf Men was a tiny bit shocky - it cracked and split just a little when introducing the rod to the flame.  Slowing down helped somewhat. The glass isn't too stiff, though, which made layering pretty easy.

Leaf Men does striate a lot. Lines of darker green will form, especially when used alone as a base. I think it's pretty, but you want to keep that in mind when layering.

I found that CiM Mojito made a really nice transparent complement to Leaf Men, bringing out the olive tones while keeping the color saturated.

 Like most CiM greens, Leaf Men didn't bleed much, and encased well, making it a wonderful color for florals and melted decoration when used under a transparent. When melted into dots on its own, you can see the color separate and form darker spots in the center of the dot.

This color fits right in to CiM's extensive green family, making up for the discontinued Shrubbery, Army Men and others. Keep making those greens, CiM - I love them! :)

 

 

 

 

Glass Testing - Cim Limited Run Colors: 720 Autumn, 719 Moccasin, 718 Indian Summer and 621 Emporer

Finally, another glass testing post! I haven't posted in so long - time flies when you're busy. :) I got another batch of gorgeous new Creation is Messy glass rods recently, and this post is about four of the new colors.

 All of the new ones are limited runs, and are supposed to come out sometime in the middle of September.

 Now, when I opened my lovely box of new glass colors, these four just jumped right out at me and insisted on being tested together. :) Sometimes colors have a mind of their own! I haven't been this excited by new colors in quite some time - these just make me feel good. You know when you look at a color and just can't come up with the proper language to describe how it makes you think and feel? This happened for me when I combined these four colors. So bear with me while I try to make sense out of all of that for you all.

What's interesting is that before I even got these rods in the mail, I bought yarn in this color combination because I was so taken with how these colors blended. Serendipity!

There are four colors in this post - two opaques and two transparents. The transparent colors are both striking colors, which CiM hasn't done often.


The first opaque is called Autumn, which is kind of a strange name for this glass I think, since it's actually a lovely peach color. In rod form it's a bit darker, which might lead one to believe it's a fall color, but it works up to be kind of a lighter version of Adobe.I love this pretty peach color because it's more dense and more saturated than CiM's other attempt at peach - Peaches and Cream. And it's not an opal color.

Spacers, along with a small faceted tab to show Autumn's color.

The one thing that does bother me about this glass is that when melting it there are a lot of little bubbles. It's kind of like Primrose that way - almost like seeded glass. However, once it cools off, the bubbles aren't really visible, so it's not that big a deal - it can just be somewhat tricky to work with - you have to just ignore all the little bubbles.

Autumn was also somewhat shocky, so either preheat it in your kiln or on a hot plate, or introduce it to the flame very slowly to avoid flying shrapnel.

Other than that, Autumn works up nicely, leaving you with a smooth, relatively stable color that is good for layering. Pale reaction lines happen when used as a base - pretty much like most light opaques. You'll see later that I used this color in a bit of an unconventional way, but I think Autumn will be a great base for Sakura or Peachy Keen for some pretty springtime color.



Next up is the weirdest color of the bunch - a transparent called Emporer. I have no idea why it's called that. :) In rod form, Emporer is kind of a pinky amethyst color.  I got two rods of this - one was darker than the other - and it did make a difference in the outcome.

Emporer is a striking color that kind of reminds me a little of Effetre Rubino, but not as bright, not as red. It's a lighter, plummy-er (is that a word?) color that spreads kind of like Rubino does. The nice thing about Emporer though is that spacers made from it don't go cloudy. It can be tricky to get the color to strike properly though.

You can see that in the batch of spacers I did. Some were washed out, some were a kind of grey color, and some struck nicely. The lighter rod struck lighter. The faceted tab I made struck just fine - it seems that Emporer will get darker the longer you work with it.

Emporer works up nicely - no bubbles or scumming, no shockiness.  Striking happens quickly - taking it in and out of the flame and letting it cool slightly helps bring out the color. 

When using Emporer as a plain color, it's a pinkish amethyst that doesn't have the brown tones that Effetre's amethyst purples do, which is nice. But I think this glass is probably better used as a layering color to expand your palette - because boy does it layer well!!

In this bead, I used Autumn as the base, put a layer of Emporer (the darker rod) down, and then encased it in clear. The effect is a gorgeous shade that sits between watermelon and kind of a muted fruit punch. Then I put down dots of opaque Dark Pink and layered Emporer on top and melted, for a sweet shade of pink.

Emporer spreads out a little, but doesn't feather like Rubino can, which made it easier to use for melted floral petals. And boy, does it make a pretty peachy rose color when used with Autumn in raised decoration. I'm buying as much of this as I can when it comes out. It's likely to be expensive, though. :)

Next we have the other opaque - a pretty tan called Moccasin. This color is pretty basic - a lovely shade of tan that is not unlike Effetre Sage.  It has less of a green cast though and is a little more caramelly, which I really love. Not as much of a caramel as Tamarind. It's the camel tan I have been dreaming of.

Moccasin has a really nice density, and layers really well. It keeps its color, so even though it's a light opaque, it can hold its own. Moccasin wasn't shocky at all when I melted it, and didn't bubble up like Autumn did.

There's not much else to say about this color - it's stable and consistent.  It does show light, ghost-like reaction lines when layered, not unlike Dirty Martini, but these are attractive. Striations all but faded away when I made spacers.


Last we have the other transparent - a hue that sits somewhere between topaz and caramel. It's called Indian Summer, which seems to be a perfect name for this striking color. I got two rods of this as well - one darker and one lighter. I hope when these colors come out we get to choose the tonality, because it does make a difference.

Indian Summer is a gorgeous shade for fall I think. It's not as bright as other amber/topaz shades, and can strike darker or lighter depending on how long you work it. It's not a vivid striking color, though - the variations are subtle. It kind of reminds me of iced tea and honey. Or beer.

I have to tell you, Indian Summer is one of the easiest transparents I have ever worked with. It has a wonderful clarity to it, and has no scumming or bubbling issues. It seems to be the perfect consistency, and is really easy to strike. And as you can see from the pulled petal sample, it would be wonderful for making leaves! I adore this color.

Layered on top of Moccasin, the effect is kind of a spiced shade of caramel that is just dreamy.

So I have gushed enough about these new colors and will just show off the beads I made by combining just these four, along with clear for encasing. These are called Desert Spice. I hope you love them too!

CiM Glass Testing: 116 Mahogany Ltd. Run

Lots of reds and neutrals were in the latest batch of test glass from CiM last month - which I really like.  Today, I'm talking about Mahogany, a limited run color that is an unusual shade of reddish brown.

I couldn't quite figure out what this color was supposed to be when I saw the rods - it was a shade or two lighter than Effetre's old Cinnamon Chocolotta, and was labelled an opaque red on CiM's website.

For me, the name is kind of confusing.  When I think of mahogany, I think of the wood - a rich, dark reddish brown.  This color is more like cinnabar, or even a brick color, but not as orange. It sits right between red and brown for me, making it difficult to classify. Whatever we try and call it, it is a color we don't otherwise see in the 104 COE lines, which is great.

Mahogany is a nice fall shade - it goes really well with the ambers and browns of the season, and fits right in.

I love the density of this glass - it's well saturated, so it doesn't wash out or go translucent under encasing.  Layering is easy - it stays opaque.  The glass itself isn't too stiff or too soft, and didn't have any shocking problems.

Mahogany does have a tendency to striate - and strikes just a little.  You'll get little reddish streaks if you work the glass for awhile. Under clear, the color goes more brownish than red, especially if it's not melted in. 

It  encases like a dream, and doesn't bleed or spread much at all.  The glass is stable and the color stays put, even when used as encased stringer.

In these sets, I paired mahogany with Effetre Opal Yellow, Medium Topaz, Light Topaz and Black.  Clear was used for any encasing or layering over the Mahogany. 

All in all, I really like this addition to the color palette.  Nice and spicy for fall!

CiM Glass Testing: 632 Thai Orchid, 482 Mojito, 403 Army Men Ltd. Run

For me, the end of summer/start of fall means combining deep purples and lush greens. Yum!  This time, I started with one of the newest CiM colors - Army Men - and layered it with Mojito. I then combined the lovely result with one of CiM's older colors - Thai Orchid. Later, I added shades of amber to the mix for a really pretty autumn combination.

CiM Army Men, one of the latest colors in the CiM palette, is a subtle, muted pine green.  It falls somewhere on the bluer end of olive, with a lot of grey in it.  When I saw this color for the first time, I was reminded of the new version of CiM Commando.  In fact, Army Men sits right between Commando and Olive in tonality.  Olive has a bit more yellow.

I love the consistency of the glass - it was a dream to melt!  It is slightly soupier than some opaques.

Army Men is a dense color, despite its subtle shade, and can be layered and encased without washing out.  As many greens do, this color can bleed under encasing, and can take over other color just a little bit.  It's not as bad as some Effetre greens, but it is something to watch out for when melting in your decoration.

Army Men is also one of those colors that tends to streak and separate, which can either add variety visually, or be a pain in the a**, depending on your application. I found this only slightly irritating - for the most part, this glass behaved well and did what I wanted.

Alone, Army Men is kind of a "behind the scenes" color - one that works well as a background or filler in your designs. It made lovely spacers! This color really shined when I layered it with Mojito, which I will talk about next.

CiM Mojito is a wonderful companion to Army Men, and a lovely color in and of itself.  I've been remiss in waiting so long to review it here for you!  In pictures, this pretty pale olive green can sometimes look like just a plain yellow-green shade.  I personally think you need to see this one in person to appreciate the subtle, muted olive that it represents. It's slightly grey with only a bit of a yellow undertone. A great layering glass - with any green you want to lighten up and make a bit more subtle. It's the perfect fall green.

As a transparent glass, Mojito is smooth and not too stiff.  It didn't bubble or scum for me, nor did it react with anything at all.  It's very consistent and has a nice clarity to it.  I used it with Army Green for encased stringer, and it was very light and soft. If you want to go darker, stick some Slytherin in there!




Next we have a color that came out really early on, when CiM first started - Thai Orchid.
When it comes to opaque purple, CiM has at least half a dozen that are all really similar at first glance. They are all kind of reminiscent of Effetre's Violet shades.  They all have a slightly different way of acting, which is at the same time frustrating and fun.

Thai Orchid is at the dark end of the purple spectrum - a deep, dense violet purple. It shares some of the same characteristics as Effetre Dark Violet, but is more saturated and a little less reactive, depending on the batch you get.

I had two different batches of Thai Orchid - one that was significantly bluer than the other.  Both are lovely, though. You can see the difference in the spacers here.

As an opaque glass, Thai Orchid acts like most other opaque violets - it's streaky in the extreme, tends to spread out and bleed a little, and can pit or silver when exposed to different flame environment.  It does layer very nicely, though.  Without a layer of encasing, the lighter batch of this color doesn't do much for me.  Like most other violets, the shade is just too browned out.  But layer it with a transparent light purple or even clear and the brownish hue magically disappears, and you're left with a velvety deep violet.

In my Autumn Song beads, I layered both batches of Thai Orchid with the now discontinued CiM Count Von Count (you can get a similar effect with Effetre 081 Dark Lavender), for a lighter but slightly more saturated purple.  Wonderful for fall, I think.

Have fun playing!  :)