Messy Color

CiM / Messy Color Has Four New Colors!

Oh Boy, its spring and Messy Color has come out with some wonderful new colors to add to their palette.  There are two transparent and two opal colors and they are call Rainforest, Azure, Atlantis and Appletini.

• Rainforest – 511499
• Appletini     – 511497
• Atlantis       – 511598
• Azure          – 511500

Rainforest #511499	Appletini #511497

Atlantis #511598	Azure #511500

These new colors are yummy, yummy, yummy and I had a blast melting them to find out how they work when I made them into beads.

I made beads with silver foil cores that were encased with the two transparent colors Azure and Appletini and they came out great.  I discovered that if you apply the encasement gather when it is too hot, it will yellow your foil.  All I had to do to correct this problem was to apply the encasement gather just a little cooler than white hot and it didn’t yellow the silver foil.

Tabular bead with core of Azure wraped in silver foil and encased with Azure.

Tabular bead with core of Appletini covered with silver foil and encased with Appletini.

Rainforest and Atlantis are both opal colors and I have to say that Messy Color has the nicest and easiest opal colors I have ever used to lampwork beads.  These two new opals are succulent and I couldn’t help myself and I mixed dichroic into three of the beads I made with these new opal colors with good results.

Check out the beads I made out of these new Messy Colors and decide for yourselves, but I give them a huge thumbs up!

Core of bead is made with Rainforest that is covered in dichroic pieces and encased with Appletini.

Bicone of Rainforest with a diagonal band of blue on clear dichroic that is edged with a goldstone ribbon cane.	Bicone of Atlantis with a band of dichroic dots on clear with goldstone ribbon cane.

Round bead made with Appletini decorated with swirls of Mermaid.	Core of bead is made from a twisty made of Azure, Rainforest, white filigrana and a light sky blue filigrana.

Glass Colors I Like and Why (10-15-10)

The new shipment of “Odd” neutral colors from Vetrofond are a fabulous base color for working with many of those expensive silvered glass colors made by Double Helix, Trautman Art Glass and Precision 104. Read more

News about the Boatload of Colors in the New Messy Shipment

A new shipment of CiM/Messy Color glass has just arrived at Frantz Art Glass and there are loads of new unique colors and nine new special assortments. Read more

Tips & Techniques: Making Bright Transparent Beads with Shards

I have been experimenting for a while with using some of the denser Messy Color/CiM transparents as shards over clear beads to create brighter, lighter versions of these beautiful colors. Read more

Did you know that CiM/Messy Color has Fabulous Stringers? (6-10-10)

In spring 2010, CiM began producing stringers of some of their more popular colors that would translate well to smaller diameters. Read more

A Bonanza of New Glass Colors by the Big Three for Lampworkers

Spring has brought an amazing number of new glass colors from the three big glass factories that supply Frantz Art Glass & Supply. Read more

Need More Information and Inspiration?

When you click on the Web Gallery, a web page appears that shows links for the three different sections of the web gallery that are Focal Beads, Spacer Beads and Strands. Click on one of the choices and you will be taken to a page of thumb (small images) to pick from. When you click on a thumb image, a large image will appear with a list of the different glass colors that were used in that bead and the glass colors are linked to the Frantz Art Glass web page for easy purchase, plus pertinent information on how the bead was made. Read more

Tips and Techniques: How to Make a Rose Cane

One of the most basic and useful detail elements used in lampworking beads is the rose cane. I notice them being used in the old beads I saw in the catalogs of antique beads that I looked at to teach myself bead designs.  Through experimenting I discovered that the cane needed to be both transparent and opaque to make an effective embellishment.

Though a rose cane is a very effective way to depict a rose on a glass bead, it is also a great detail cane for other decorative applications like feathered lines or bright pink squiggles.

To start making a rose cane, you need a rod of white (I chose Peace by CiM) and a rods of Gold Pink (I chose Cranberry by CiM) and a third rod of clear for the second punty.

Start heating both the white and the pink rods at the same time, but heat the pink more by holding it below the white in the flame because the white will slump much faster than the pink and you need it a little stiff to apply the pink.

Heating Peace and Cranberry rods in torch flame.

As you get a gather of pink on the end of your rod, start applying strips of the pink to about 1 to 1 ½ inches of the white rod.  Continue applying the pink around the white rod until you have coated all the way around.  You can vary the depth of the pink you apply to the white rod depending on how dark you want your rose cane to be.

Applying first strip of Cranberry Pink to rod of Peace.

Once you have the desired thickness of gold pink applied to your white rod, you need to marver the rose cane into a smooth cylinder to insure that the cane pulls evenly.

Stripped cane and next gather of Cranberry Pink.

At this point you need to keep your rose cane warm and apply the second punty to give you a handle to hold onto during the pulling process.  Once the punty is applied and cool enough to not stretch, start moving the pink coated section back and forth in the flame, being sure to rotate it frequently to heat it all the way through.  I like to pull the cane into a football shape when I am heating it to get more of the mass of the cane in the middle and not so much on the punty.

Encased rose cane in flame.

When your cane is thoroughly heated, start pulling slowly at first because white tends to get very liquid and thin out the cane if you pull too fast at the beginning.  When you start feeling a little resistance in the glass, start pulling faster until you achieve the desired size of rose cane that you want.  I like to use a punty that is at least 13 inches long so that I can move my hand down to the far end to extend my reach which helps to get the maximum length out of your cane pull.

Marvering rose cane to smooth surface.

Once you have stopped pulling the cane, hold the cane still and straight until the glass firms up.  White glass stays flexible for an amazing length of time and holding the cane until it is firm saves you from having crooked cane.

Applying punty to rose cane.

Next lay the cane flat on a table placing the right punty down to cut it into usable lengths and let cool until you can pick it up.  If the rose cane appears too light, don’t worry because gold pink tends to strike and un-strike as you heat it and it will develop the desired color when you use the cane.

Heating cane for pulling.

Starting to pull rose cane slowly.

Cutting rose cane with nippers.

Pieces of cut rose cane.

Rose bead made with rose cane.

Bead made with Mermaid (CiM), goldstone ribbon and rose cane.

Oval rose bead encased in blue dichroic.

What You Didn't Know About Goldstone!

Aventurine Marron is the Italian name for a specialty glass the Americans call Goldstone.  Before I got into lampworking I would see cut stones and beads made out of goldstone in lapidary shops and I have always thought it was really cool looking glass.

Large chunk of Goldstone with smaller piece.

Strips of Goldstone ribbon cane.

Frantz Art Glass buys its goldstone/aventurine from Effetre, but on one trip to Murano, Italy we found out that Effetre didn’t actually make the goldstone, but instead was a middle man for another glass company.  This lead us on an adventure to find out where and how it was made because we were looking for a source for larger chunks (fist size boulders), so that we could offer a larger range of goldstone piece sizes.

Gold and red dichroic with swirled goldstone design.

Two toned olive shaped bead with goldston swirls.

The formula for making adventurine /goldstone has been a much guarded secret through the ages in Europe.  The story goes that it was originally developed by glass making monks, but I can’t say how accurate this charming tale is.  I know for sure that the goldstone we buy from Effetre is made in a glass factory in Northern Italy.

One of the reasons that this particular type of glass is so expensive is the fact that when they make a crucible of goldstone, only one third of the batch is “A” quality with the familiar bright flakes in it.  The other two parts of the batch are “B” quality that has a lot of veins of brown in it and the last third is waste and they have to break the crucible off the glass when it has cooled, so they lose the crucible ever time they make a batch and crucibles are expensive.

You can get goldstone/aventurine to use in five sizes from powder to large chunks that you can use as is or process into what ever stringer or cane you like.  Last year we were fortunate to obtain a batch of specially made goldstone ribbon cane that was made by a glass artist that we know on Murano.  Recently we received another batch of ribbon cane and this batch is really great!  It is thicker, brighter and easier to use than the last batch and I have been enjoying using it.

Goldstone ribbon zig zag design with magenta-blue and teal dichroic.

Goldstone ribbon design over tabular bead made from CiM "Mink".

The ribbon cane is really nice to use because it has a very thin coat of clear glass over the goldstone which keeps the ribbon cane looking brilliant even when exposed to high heat.  I learned the hard way that to get goldstone from pieces to look bright after being torched, it is best to have a thin layer of clear glass over it.  When I first started messing around with goldstone, I would have the raw goldstone in the flame and it would turn kind of khaki brown-green with almost no sparkle to it – very disappointing!

Aventurine/goldstone comes in a few other colors which the most common are blue and green, though I have seen red goldstone in the past.  You have to be careful with the really rare colors of goldstone because sometimes it is not compatible.

Strand of encased goldstone beads.

Goldstone ribbon cane and a rose cane over CiM Mermaid.

A special goldstone ribbon cane with black line on dichroic bead.

Small flat diamond shaped bead made out of goldstone ribbon cane and covered with pale aqua.

Band of goldstone ribbon cane around a half Sangre and half Poison Apple bicone bead.

More New Colors from CiM – Messy Color

here are three New Colors from CiM this week, that were made at the request of the lampworking community.  The new colors are:

• Poison Apple
• Mink
• Mermaid

Poison Apple – # 511487

Mink – # 511788

Mermaid – # 511586

I have had the pleasure to make beads with these three new colors this week and I must say that I was pleasantly surprised with the results of my experimenting.

In rod form, Poison Apple looks very translucent bright green, but as you work it in the heat it becomes denser and loses some of its translucent look.  The first bead I made with it was a straight forward Sangre (red) and Poison Apple (green) short bicone with a band of goldstone ribbon cane and red opaque bumps.  I got many comments that the bead looked very Christmassy.  The next bead I made had a core of Poison Apple with a band of reduced Triton that was twisted into swirls around the bead and encased in Aether.  That combination really popped and the bead was both simple and flashy at the same time.  I made an even bigger Poison Apple bead with a spiral wrap of reduced Triton that was swirled and encased with Aether.  I really like this bead, it made me a lover of Poison Apple and I have never liked any of the greens similar to Poison Apple before.

Poison Apple with Triton swirls

Poison Apple and Sangre bicone.

The next big surprise was the Mink which is a medium opal brown.  I have never seen any color in soft glass that looks like Mink and that alone makes it an important addition to the available glass color palette.  I was wowed when I paired the Mink with goldstone ribbon cane and Sangre, it looks so good I wanted to eat it.  I also made another bead with goldstone ribbon cane and reduced Triton around the middle and was really pleased with the results.

Mink with Sangre and Goldstone.

Mink with band of goldstone and swirled Triton.

The last color is Mermaid which kind of looks like a cross between Petroleum Green and Dark Turquoise.  This color has received the strongest positive response from most beadmakers and rightly so because it is beautiful and fills an empty place in the present glass color palette.  I have made several beads out of Mermaid and I like them all.

Mermaid with Triton swirls.

Mermaid designs over Ivory.

There is a fourth color that arrived this week that is a remake of a previously released green called Commando.  I was told by CiM that too many beadmakers complained that Olive and Commando were too close in hue, so Commando was reformulated and the result is a drab camouflage green that looks a lot like what the plant “Green Sage” really looks like.  The reformulation of Commando has given the lampworking community yet another green thathasn’t been available until now which I think is great.

New Commando with swirl flower

Triton swirls over Poison Apple.

Mermaid with swirl flower.