Archive for May 2009
Five New Glass Colors from Effetre (5/29/09)
A week ago, my husband Mike Frantz came back from a trip to Murano, Italy. Mike made many visits to the Effetre glass factory while he was there and he found five new colors for the lampworking community. They are:
- Very Cherry
- Butternut
- Dark Matter
- Rosewood
- Lace Agate
These new colors will be available on our website in a few weeks as they will be winging their way via air to the U.S. and more will arrive a bit later by sea. We will be having a few auctions the first week of June to introduce these new colors, which will be auctioned off as assortments. Mike will be showing the paddles and beads I have made out of these new colors at the Bead & Button show in Milwaukee as well.
Butternut Paddle
Very Cherry Paddle
Lace Agate Paddle
Dark Matter Paddle
Rosewood Paddle
I have had the pleasure of making for display, a paddle and bead out of each of these five new colors and I really like this group of new colors. The Very Cherry is a bright transparent Christmas red that looks very dark in the sample bead I made, but would come out a fabulous red used over white to make a White-heart bead or used for detail work where you need a bright Christmas red. This red is a blue red and not an orange red, which is what is usually available to lampworkers. Butternut is a rich, warm golden yellow with streaks of soft orange running through it and looks good enough to eat! Dark Matter is a mysterious and surprising dark brown/gray that will blush a little dark green here and there on the surface. Rosewood looks a lot like its namesake when you heat it up and make a bead out of it and it is a truly unique blend of warm reddish brown tones swirled together. Last but not least is Lace Agate; this color is one of those organic WOW glass colors, it reminds me of variegated beach rocks that I have collected since I was a kid.
Lace Agate Bead
Butternut Bead
Rosewood Bead
Dark Matter Bead
Very Cherry Bead
Great colors for for the Bead makers and Lampworkers (05/22/2009)
Great colors for for the Bead makers and Lampworkers.
I am happy to announce that there are five new Messy Colors from CiM that have arrived. (05/22/2009)
They are “Olive”, a wonderful pastel olive yellowish green,“ Commando” that is also a pastel green that is a similar tonality as the Olive but has a bluish over tone instead of yellow. There is a dark, dark chocolate brown that is called “Adamantium” after the comic book metal that makes the Wolverine character in X-Men so strong, “Tamarind” that is a mocha cappuccino brown pastel and a fabulous coral color called “Phoenix” that can be struck from a warm beige-peach to a brilliant coral- orange color in the torch flame.
Olive bead with black & pink feathering
These five new colors add a new dimension to the Messy Color palette, providing some much desired greens and browns. Phoenix has the look of the much loved Coral “Peach Persimmon” that has been very popular. Unlike the Peach Persimmon Coral from Italy, Phoenix has a wide range of colors that can be developed in the flame by controlled striking. Some people might think that it looks a bit like Creamsicle when you look at the color coins on the website, but Phoenix is a way different kind of glass which is pastel in nature rather than translucent or opal.
Phoenix bead with goldstone swirls
Olive and Commando are two greens that have been missing from the lampworking palette and in my opinion are great additions. There have never been greens like these produced in Italy that have been available to beadmakers.
Commando with Triton dots & Goldstone swirls
Adamantium is the missing super rich dark brown which is another color that just hasn’t been available from Italy and is another super addition to the beadmakers color palette. Tamarind is yet another color that just hasn’t been available to the lampworking community and the color palette used by beadmakers. The rich mocha brown color is different from anything produced by Messy Color and widens the available palette, providing beadmakers more earth tones to use in their work.
Adamantium with Triton dots
Tamarind with Hades/Triton Ribbon & Blue Dots
Commando with Corksrew Dichroic & Goldstone
Phoenix with Triton Dots & Goldstone Swirls
Tamarind with Triton Dots over Silvered Ivory
Vetrofond - the Other Italian Glass Factory
Most beadmakers have heard of the Effetre (Moretti) glass factory on Murano near Venice, Italy, but fewer beadmakers know about the other Italian 104 COE glass rod manufacturer Vetrofond. Vetrofond is located across the lagoon from Venice on the main land in a suburb of Mestre, which is the main industrial port of the area.
Cullet Storage Yard at Vetrofond
Carts of Glass Rods at Vetrofond
Vetrofond is mostly involved with making custom modern looking blown glass lamp fixtures, but they have a large set up for producing 104 COE glass rods. In past years, they have gone out of their way to produce interesting limited runs of odd lot colored rods for the international lampworking community, like River Rock, Parrot Green, Poppy, Ocean Green, Frosty Blue and Key Lime.
Currently, there is a huge selection of odd lot colored glass rods made by Vetrofond with names like Cosmic Storm, Jupiter,Seashell Swirl, Dark Lichen, LemonMeringue, Orange Punch, Yellow Ice, Jungle Twilight, and Sweet Lime. There are over 50 odd lot glass rod colors from Vetrofond that greatly extends the color palette of glass beadmakers.
Jupiter with Triton & Dark Pink
Vetrofond Transparent Yellow with Triton and Goldstone
Vetrofond has a very unassuming front to the building which masks the intense levels of activity going on inside the factory. It is a factory which is both dangerous and thrilling to see in operation with hot furnaces, huge metal equipment and lots of organized glass shards. There is such a swirl of activity that it is mind boggling.
I have personally made only a modest dent in the huge selection of available Odd colors from Vetrofond, but I have been please with the results none the less. All of Vetrofonds colors are compatible with other 104 COE glasses and I highly recommend that every beadmaker take a spin through the Vetrofond palette, for the adventure that is contained within each glass rod.
Nyx over Vetrofond Emerald Green
Vetrofond Seashell Swirl, Ivory & Black
Review of New Messy Color Blues
I talk a lot about Messy Color glass because I really like the quality of the glass and how wonderful it handles in the flame.
A few months ago, Messy Color came out with a group of new blues to add to their line of colors. They are Freman (turquoise pastel), Smurfy (dark turquoise), Grumpy Bear (periwinkle) and Cornflower (dark blue). All four colors are of the pastel variety.
Smurfy with Triton Flower
The two turquoise colors are a fabulous addition to the current lampworking palette because of their working proprieties. If you have ever used one of the Italian turquoises, you know that they have a tendency to pit as you work with them. The Italian dark turquoise turns black /gray on the surface the more you heat it in the flame and is such a frustrating color to work with, that I stopped using it 15 years ago.
Cornflower & Pumpkin with Triton
The good news is that both Freman and Smurfy are wonderful creamy pastel turquoise colors that don’t pit or turn black. I was thrilled when I tried them out and discovered this fact.
Freman -Triton – Hades
Smurfy with Ivory
Cornflower is a dark, rich blue and the Grumpy Bear is a periwinkle blue, both colors have the same fabulous working proprieties as the other blues mentioned above.
These four new blues are the latest addition to the Messy Color palette of blues of which there are ten. The other blues are mostly transparent or Messy Colors fabulous opal colors, with the exception of three opaque blues. The other blues in the Messy Color palette are as follows:
For those who have not noticed, Glacier looks a lot like that infamous Italian Odd Lot color that was call Frosty Blue that you can’t find for sale any more.
Freman
Grumpy Bear with Rose
Cornflower