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!

Glass Testing: CiM 529 Frost Ltd. Run, 535 Duck Egg Ltd. Run and 906 Sakura Ltd. Run

Over the holidays, I got a new box of color to test from CiM, and I finally had some time to break open the box and start melting! Let me tell you, there are lots of new colors, and a lot of them seem to have great promise. 

CiM seemed to fixate on aquas and blues this time around, and bright yellows as well. I am not so crazy about the yellow shades, but the blues are all really gorgeous. There are also quite a few translucent opals and moonstones. I will likely stick with the transparents and dense opaques, though, because I love layering glass. 

First up, we have a really pretty subtle opaque color called Duck Egg, which is a nice shade of pale blue/green. CiM stated on their website that this color was meant to be a bluer version of their Dirty Martini, and it fits that description pretty well.
This glass has a nice consistency - it melts smoothly and is not too stiff or too soupy.  It really behaves a lot like Dirty Martini does. 

As you can see in the spacers, Duck Egg can striate a little bit, but that will disappear when layering the glass. If you melt in dots and leave them uncovered, you may get lines of separation, which can be pretty as part of the design.

Beyond that, Duck Egg is a dense color, which means it stays opaque when layered, and holds the shade well. No bleeding or pitting from what I can tell, also. 

Duck Egg is used here as the layering color behind Frost (shown below)

Next up we have Frost, the lightest of the transparent aqua/teal shades in the latest batch of new color. from CiM. 

There are two things I like best about CiM's many, many shades of aqua/teal/blue.  First is that they tend not to scum or bubble or pit like Effetre/Vetrofond blues and teals. The second is that most of their shades are a step or two brighter or darker than any of the other brands' shades - which broadens the palette!

Frost is no different.  This shade of pale blue is a little more saturated and slightly bluer than Effetre's Pale Aqua, and behaves much, much better.  It's a gorgeous icy aqua color that stays clear of bubbles, and layers like a dream.

Frost has a wonderful consistency. It's stiff enough to hold its shape, but not too stiff.  It makes gorgeous encased stringer (used above, with Duck Egg), and equally lovely spacers. It even works well as an encasing color over a pale opaque.
 I'm buying more of this as soon as it's available (February, according to their website).

Lastly, we have a wonderfully odd color called Sakura. When I first saw this color, I thought it was just a medium pink transparent - but when I looked closer and when I melted the rod, I got a glorious shade that sits somewhere between peach and pink.  It's much more saturated than either the Vetrofond or the Effetre version of light transparent pink.  I would call it a kind of pale cantaloupe color.

Whatever you call it, it's freaking gorgeous. Sakura is Japanese for Cherry Blossom, I believe, so that fits the bill pretty well.

This glass is a little on the stiff side, but not too bad.  Just be careful when you layer it with any opaque pink - opaque pinks that are Effetre tend to be on the soupy side. I will still able to make flower petals with it, and they turned out really lovely. This shade also makes gorgeous encased stringer, because it's more saturated than any other transparent pink I know of, so the color doesn't wash out.

Like the Frost, this glass doesn't seem to bubble or scum at all, and stays perfectly flawless when melted.  

Sakura is going to be a spectacular spring color, I think, and I am going to buy a ton of this when it comes out, provided it's not too ridiculously expensive.

All of the new CiM colors I got this time (around 27) are limited run colors, which means you need to get them as soon as you can!

The bead sets shown in this post are made with the following colors:  CiM Frost, CiM Duck Egg, CiM Sakura, Effetre Petal Pink, Double Helix Aether and Vetrofond Black.

(I know I'm going to get asked - Effetre Petal Pink is a pale opaque pink that's not around anymore - you can replace it with pretty much any of the Effetre opaque pinks you like - they are all so close it really doesn't matter.)

Points to those who get the play on words with the name of these beads (Anna May)!  It's a Big Bang Theory show joke. :)

CiM Glass Testing: 765 Chai Ltd. Run and 204 Peachy Keen

So, a couple of weeks ago I got a new box of color samples from Creation is Messy.  I was surprised, given that there are only four new colors listed on the CiM color preview page.  Kathy usually doesn't send test samples when there are so few colors.  However, when I opened the box, there were quite a few colors bundled up, and I didn't recognize most of them.  I'm not sure if they are all new - or if maybe some of them are coming back after being out of production for awhile - or what.  But I am happy to test them, regardless!

The two colors I am testing today are not new colors - one wasn't even in the batch I just got.  But when I saw an opaque peach in the bundle (Chai), I had to bring out my stash of the transparent color Peachy Keen to put with it. So I am blogging about Peachy Keen and Chai today, because we have very few choices for peach in the 104 glass lines, and I LOVE peach.  I'll get to the newer colors soon, I promise!

CiM's Chai Ltd. Run was a color I never had a chance to try before.  I don't recall when it came out, but I do remember some of the odd lots that came from it. I am not sure which version this is, because it's just labelled 765 Chai Ltd. Run.  However, the rods are much lighter than the old version seems to be, so maybe this is one of the odd lot formulas.

At any rate, this color is a light opaque warm peach, that is lighter when melted than in rod form.  It's not a dense color, but almost has a consistency of a CiM opal.  Chai can go translucent, but not as much as an opal color does.  When encased in clear, Chai goes very very light - almost ghost-like. I prefer encasing it in Peachy Keen to bring out the deeper peach tones.

Chai is also slightly stiff, and can pit and shock a little bit if you're not careful. Make sure to melt it all the way, or it won't pull smoothly into stringer.
It can still be made into encased stringer, and looks good with Peachy Keen as the encasement, but does go a little translucent at times. 

Layering this glass in melted dots can be tricky because of its lack of density, so I recommend a couple of layers of it to make sure it doesn't wash out.

Chai can strike slightly darker if you take your time with it. The longer it's worked in the flame, the darker and warmer the color gets.

All in all, I think I like Adobe better as a choice for warm peach, but Chai isn't bad.  I prefer it over Peaches and Cream - the opal peach shade that CiM had awhile back.

The counterpart here is Peachy Keen - a color that came out at the same time as the Peaches and Cream opal, but that I hadn't tried yet (waited for a good peach opaque instead of an opal, so I could layer).  I'm happy to say that this color is not a limited run - it's in the regular line up and I hope it stays that way.

Peachy Keen is a stable, light peach color with more saturation than Lauscha Peach or Effetre Pink. It's a perfect shade of peach!

Not too stiff, not too soft, this color can burn/scum if heated too quickly. Other than that, it's a wonderful glass to work with.  It layers well, encases nicely and has a beautiful clarity and shine.

This is a great color for any time of year - especially spring and summer.  Here, I paired it with navy blue for a soft, neutral look.

You can see how the Chai goes a little translucent, especially when layered with the Peachy Keen and melted in, as is show in the bead on the far right.

CiM Glass Testing: 795 Adobe Ltd. Run

Last year I was asked by my cousin Andrea to make her some beads so she could make jewelry in her wedding colors for her bridesmaids. Her colors were peach and aqua - really pretty, right? I of course wanted to say yes, so I did. No brainer.

However, as many beadmakers know, the 104 COE line has no color that can be decisively called peach - in either opaque or transparent glass. The exception is Lauscha Peach, a light transparent which I don't really like using because it's very pale and doesn't translate to peach unless used alone.

So.... I had a challenge for myself - experiment with earth tones and layering to simulate a peach color. I found the solution after a lot of wasted glass and gnashing of teeth. CiM had come out with a new color recently called Adobe. It's a limited run (damn!!), and is described by CiM as an opaque brown.


There's absolutely nothing in this color that says "brown" to me.  In rod form, it looks like some kind of bright caramel candy -  or maybe a light, vivid terracotta. I didn't see peach at first, at all, so I waited awhile before trying it.  When I finally melted it, it went much lighter.  And when I tried layering it with a pale pinkish transparent, I got a warm, sweet peach color.  Yey!!

Peach is one of those colors that we beadmakers have been wishing, pleading, and begging for over the last decade.  I don't know if anyone else knows that Adobe can translate to peach - but I do know that this color is extremely limited.  Frantz only allows people to purchase 1/4lb at a time, and CiM has stated this is a limited run - so it's, well, limited.  I only hope Kathy at CiM has her manufacturers make something similar to add to their basic line so we can have peach whenever we want.

Now, down to the knitty-gritty.  Adobe is a joy to work with.  It has a medium density - it doesn't wash out very much when layered, even against black, which is nice.  I didn't have any problems with it bleeding or spreading out, or overtaking any other color. 

I don't have photos of it used with the aqua colors when I made beads for my cousin last year, but I do have some more current photos.  Here Adobe is layered with Effetre Rose Quartz, which is very very pale pink transparent - just enough to nudge the peach color out of the Adobe.  The peach is paired with soft purple made of layers of Effetre Violet and CiM Purple Haze.  Black is thrown in with clear for contrast.  The effect is a sweet, springy combination.

Adobe acts like most opaque CiM colors - nice and stable, with a tiny bit of striation when left solid.  It didn't burn easily, didn't pit and basically stayed put where I wanted it. Adobe is brightest when left raised - it warms up a little when melted in.  Hope you like the pics - the beads are on Etsy if you're interested.  :)