Rising Star: CiM 618 Simply Berry & 618-1 Simply Berry Unique

When it comes to introducing new colors into the soft glass palette, CiM has really been impressing me lately.  Simply Berry, and it’s little sister Simply Berry Unique, was CiM’s answer to a request by beadmakers for a transparent magenta shade.  Now, when you look at this color in rod form and melted into swatches and spacers, you probably don’t see much of a resemblance to the color magenta.  Neither do I.  But that doesn’t mean I don’t like it very, very much! 

At first glance, the one rod of the original Simply Berry that I had acquired to test appeared to be so much like Effetre’s 042 Medium Amethyst that I had a hard time telling the difference between the two. 

A preliminery melt however told me that the CiM version was stiffer and had slightly less of a tendency to go a dull shade of burgundy brown-ish when melted into spacers.  I still wasn’t all that thrilled though, and set the color aside, after telling Kathy of CiM my impression of it. 

 

 

 

Later on, I discovered that CiM was releasing another version of this color - Simply Berry Unique (a lighter version and later a darker version, numbered 1 and 2 respectively).  I was intrigued enough to check out the color again - and to ask what the deal was with the new Uniques coming out for some of the CiM colors, including Simply Berry.  Kathy had this to say about Uniques in general, and Simply Berry in specific, in some email exchanges we had.

“…I don’t keep stock on Uniques as they are usually just mismelts (Simply Berry that melted too light or too dark).”

“…What you said about Simply Berry Unique is fascinating because it is the same formula as Simply Berry.  The melt just happened to come out that way”

That’s pretty interesting insight into how glass is made at CiM - and how certain colors can really come out differently in each batch.  It’s worth noting that if you find a color you really love, and it’s not a production color that will be available forever, buy as much of it as you can.

Simply Berry in its original form worked out really nicely as a layering color - a pretty, slightly less brown/pink than the Effetre Amethyst.  You can see how I have used it and the Unique version together in this bead set, and how layering the two adds depth and clarity to the overall purple shade.

Simply Berry Unique (the light version, number 618-1) is an entirely different animal.  Even though CiM calls it just a batch mistake, I have to say that it is my favorite glass mistake EVER.  Yes, I even like it better than the Streaky Pink debacle.  Oh, yes.  People might not believe me - because of the huge deal I made over pink a few years ago.  But I am totally over that.  LOL  Love is fickle - and I am now in love with Simply Berry Unique.

This sweet color is quite a bit lighter and less pinkish than the original.  And the clarity of this light color is just absolutely amazing.  It’s saturated enough to work on its own as a base, but not too saturated.  It makes amazing spacers that are a color I just can’t really describe with accuracy, but I will try.  It works into a deep transparent orchid lavender shade.  If this glass were a liquid, I would want to drink it.  It’s a luscious blend of raspberry and grape.

Aaaaanyway.  Simply Berry Unique is relatively stiff like the original, and very, very nice to work with.  Both shades have a wonderful clarity when melting - no bubbles or scum have appeared for me.  The glass holds its color for both shades, and neither shade bleeds, reacts or sucks up other colors.  They are just straightforward and pure - perfect for layering with the various opaque pinks and purples - and even white.  I can’t wait to try this paired with my traditional fall favorites of coral orange, black and more greens this year.

I bought a bunch of this color, and will lament when it finally runs out, as colors like this tend to do.  Hopefully the formula CiM uses will mess up like this again.  LOL.  CiM in general is fast becoming my favorite glass manufacturer - first becasue they are willing to really listen to us beadmakers on color, and second because the colors they are coming out with lately are just really nice additions to the 104 coe palette.  Yey, CiM!!

First Impression & Testing: CiM Cranberry Pink 926-2

This is the second installment of testing for this brilliant new color - see the post below this one for the first test.

Now we’re talking!  The second batch of CiM Cranberry Pink is a lot darker than the first, and in my opinion is virtually a home run as far as transparent fuschia pink goes.  It’s not quite as vibrant as the darker batches of Rubino, but it’s really close.  In fact, I would say this is almost Rubino’s twin, with a couple of exceptions.

First off, this rod is slightly darker than the last, and in the picture of the rods, it’s the second from the bottom. The color does not stay the same as you melt it - unfortunately, but it’s still pretty.  As you can see from the swatch, there’s darkening and a little bit of the butterscotch reduction effect, too.  But that effect is not nearly as pronounced as it was in the first batch, especially if you’re not using it as the base.

The spacers turned out darker as well.  The encased spacer isjust a bit cloudy, while the plain spacer is a deep fuschia with a hint of the cloudiness as well.  This version of Cranberry was even easier to strike than the first batch - but also slightly easier to burn out as well.  Just remember to keep the fuel on the low side and your flame fairly small and you should be okay.

When I compare it to Rubino, this glass is a bit stiffer to work with, easier to strike, is not quite as vibrant, and doesn’t spread or “bloom” nearly as much as Rubino does.  In fact, it was really stable laying on top of the Lauscha Cocoa and Effetre Dark Pink in the beads below.

Here are some pics of the beads I made with this version.  The only bead made with the lighter version is the encased floral that is in the middle of the set - that’s the one I made for the first post. You can really tell the difference between the versions in that one bead versus all the others in the set.

Also, that set is being sold in my Etsy shop. More tests coming soon!

First Impression & Testing: CiM Cranberry Pink 926-1

What a lucky duck I am!  I get to test the new Cranberry Pink from Creation is Messy.  The next few posts will be about the ongoing test  - posted in several parts because there are five different batches of this pink so far.

 I’ll start with the rods - there are five in the picture , starting on the bottom-left they are numbered 926-1 - 926-5 as seperate batches.   The rods themselves are really pretty - ranging from an almost opaque deep burgundy to a lovely saturated medium pink. I’m pretty sure that the vendors are only carrying a couple of these batches - I know number 3 (the really dark one) isn’t being sold yet for sure.  The color in general is still in testing phase and only available from a couple of different sellers.

So far, I have only tested number 926-1 - the lightest of the bunch (lower left). I was so incredibly excited to test this particlar batch - the rod is so pretty and I was really hoping it stayed that color.  Alas, when I pulled the swatch, it was not the case.  This version of Cranberry Pink pulled out a very streaky, somewhat cloudy color that ranged from a pale pinky lavender to an orangy-cloudy pink with streaks of fuschia. 

The consistency of this rod is actually really nice - and at first it really acted a lot like the lighter versions of Rubino.  However, with further melting, three things became clear.  First, this version of Cranberry strikes a lot faster and easier than most versions of Rubino I have used.  Second, you have to be a lot more careful that you don’t burn this delicate color out.  Third - it reduces like mad.  Even a slightly higher amount of fuel in your flame creates that cloudy reduction effect that a lot of Rubino has.  Is this coming from a high concentration of gold, maybe?  I’m not sure. So keep your flames oxidized if you don’t want the reduction to start coming through.

After making a couple of spacers, I could really see the “butterscotch” effect that a lot of people have been talking about - which I suspect is just the color reducing very, very easily. While Rubino does this to come degree, Cranberry does this a lot more readily, and that can really be heartbreaking.  Faded orange clouds immediately coated the strong, saturated pink shade, and it was a lot of hard work to keep the pink without the orange, with only minimal success.

The nice thing is that this first version of Cranberry encased pretty well (I used Vetrofond Super Clear here).  No cracks appeared.  However, encasing does wash this color out quite a bit.  At least this is only the lightest version - I am hoping the dark versions encase with brighter results.

I tried several different techniques on my test beads - I’ll list them below.

This bead was made with plain clear and scrolled in a plain stringer of the 926-1, and then reduced.  Talk about easy.  This is one of the nicer things about this shade - it reduces quickly to a golden sheen.  You can just barely see the pink underneath, and this is decidedly more golden than Rubino’s more gunmetal reduction effect. 

This bead was made with a base of Lauscha Cocoa and decorated with Effetre Dark Pink and the light Cranberry shade. It’s then encased in clear.  You can see that the darker pink flowers are the ones with the Cranberry, but they are very, very light.  The nice thing is that there’s no butterscotch orange in this bead.  The pink struck nice and light. 

This is my favorite test bead, and the one I worked the hardest on striking the pink and keeping it bright.  The base is Effetre Silver Pink (a very nice cream color) and the raked dots are Effetre Dark Pink and the Cranberry.  The bumps are Cranberry as well.  There’s only a little butterscoth on these - but mostly a nice, muted pink shade.  I really like this one. It’s not as bright as Rubino, but the dots did “bloom” like Rubino - spreading out nice and even on the base. I honestly thought the pink would streak and sink into the base, but it didn’t - a pleasant surprise.

The last bead is a cube made with a base of Effetre Dark Pink, layered with Cranberry and encased in clear.  A stringer of Lauscha Cocoa encased in clear is scrolled onto the surface, and then the bead is finished off with raised florals in Dark Pink and Cranberry.    The Cranberry does butterscoth and fade just a bit in both the base and on the flowers.  This is actually not bad - it’s not like Rubino, but is pretty in its own right.  The color did strike under the casing pretty easily, so that’s really a nice trait.

Sooo - my preliminary opinion is that even though a lot of people are looking at this color as a clone of Rubino, just made by a different company, I don’t think it is at all.  It’s in the same general class, I think - transparent pink with lots of interesting effects - but it’s really its own color.  I’m really anxious to try the rest of the batches - I’ll post here when I have more test results!

Rising Star: CIM C0508 Leaky Pen

This alluring shade of blue-green is probably my very favorite from the new Creation Is Messy glass color line. There’s nothing like it in any of the soft glass lines that I know of - with the exception of perhaps Bullseye. The combination of this color and the dark purple shade I talked about earlier makes my knees positively weak. Yum!

Leaky Pen is a very saturated transparent color - almost black looking if you’re not paying attention. It’s a pretty stiff glass to work with - it reminds me a little of Lauscha in that regard. It can also get a little bit scummy - but that scum tends to burn off quite well.

I’ve encased it a number of times with clear - sometimes layered over light grey, sometimes over light blue - and it does pretty well. Use it sparingly, though - because as most stiffer 104’s, it can crack if you use a ton of it under an encased layer.

This color pulls into the most gorgeous stringer ever - you can use it alone, or even make encased stringer with it and grey or blue. It reminds me of a stormy Caribbean ocean. Or, yeah, pen ink.

The CIM website has more info on this and other CIM colors - and some of my beads are even pictured in the Leaky Pen section.  :)