26.12.12

.... boxing day connection

... now has me back in the land of communication! Who would have thought that a little IT malfunction could make a girl go stir crazy? Well - its almost all sorted now so I can feed you with some pix of the new test beads Ive been working on. I will share some of my discoveries over the next few posts - I'll start with these!

Tranquility Ltd Run (511608)

This lovely transparent glass slightly, tinted in a lavender shade could easily become one of my favorites. It has the perfect colour saturation to make an ideal base for my floral themed cottage garden beads.
This glass was easy to work, melting quite quickly in a neutral flame. It has similar characteristics of the transparent lavender glass in the Effetre range for both light and dark shades and has a hint colour morphing characteristics depending on the light source! This is a wonderful addition to the CiM colour palette and no doubt be added to the purple page :)


Absinthe Ltd Run (511412)

I fell in love with this love with this colour at first sight! It has a beautiful soft Green - Jade transparency about it that becomes slightly opaque  the more it is worked in the flame giving it an almost milky moonstone quality!

As a result, my water-like transparent beads have opaque striations through the centre which gives them an interesting look!The glass tends to be a little stiff to melt in the flam but behaves nicely with used with blended frits made from 96 and 104 coe glass and floral canes created using Effetre glass.
These were the second batch of beads I made with this glass but the large focal bead I made initially cracked due to thermal shock .... I wonder if stiff glass cools faster that softer melting glass? I decided not to take anymore risks and made smaller beads with the glass I had left! I love everything about this glass .......

Tangerine Ltd Run (511208)

When I first saw this glass in it's rod form,  I actually thought it was a filagrano style glass similar to that made by Effetre.
The rods in my sample pack were inconsistent in look with some rods being completely transparent while other rods took on the classic filagrano style appearance with an opaque seam of colour running through the centre.
If you look closely at my fluted discs you can see the classic characteristics of the transparent encased glass: striated ribbons of colour layered over each other cushioned with a layer of clear glass in between.

Like many other CiM glass, it was quite stiff to melt and I had to work quickly in the flame in order to avoid my discs from cracking. I used Double Helix Aurea to create the lustre dots along the fluted rim.

More pix and notes to come over the next few days. Hope everyone is enjoying Boxing Day! It's lovely and  peaceful at my house - everyone getting some uninterrupted time to do the things they love to do! See you soon!