Sherwood

"Welcome to Sherwood, my lady!"- Errol Flynn as Robin Hood, from the 1938 film.

I continue to love the color names that Creation is Messy bestows upon their glass rods. I am an old movie buff, especially those old swashbucklers. One of my favorites since I was a little girl is "The Adventures of Robin Hood", starring Errol Flynn and Olivia DeHavilland. A little corny, sure, but such fun! When I saw the glass named "Sherwood" by CiM, I knew I couldn't wait to test it. Instant attraction. Sherwood is a beautiful glass from CiM's regular color line. It is described on their website as "an opaque forest green". In my opinion, however, I really would not describe this color as a forest green. I guess I think of a deeper green as 'forest'. Sherwood is a lovely mid-tone green with a hint of blue in the undertones. It is a great color to use for leafy accents. I think Sherwood especially shines when paired with most purples, as pictured on the far left of the photo. It just 'pops' beside plummy tones.

Just for kicks, I experimented with Sherwood a little bit. I always like to use silver in my beads as well as reactive glasses. In the photo above, the second bead from the left has a Sherwood base that was lightly rolled in Effetre Intense Black frit. Any glass artist who has used Intense Black knows that it can achieve some interesting affects when paired with various glasses. Sherwood was no exception. Oftentimes, the Intense Black will spread out in a web-like fashion. But when paired with Sherwood, the Intense Black caused the base of the bead to turn black, leaving little Sherwood spots in its wake. Very 'intense', indeed!

Next, I used a second CiM color, Dirty Martini, as an accent with the Sherwood. First, I made a silvered Dirty Martini stringer (which means, I melted the Dirty Martini with some pure silver foil and pulled it into a teeny rod). Then I put that on top of the Sherwood. I love the reaction here. It is subtle, but the glass around the silvered portions seems to 'glow' and the Sherwood base turned a wee bit bluer in shade. Very cool and refined!

Lastly, I tried a traditional silvered ivory stringer on the Sherwood. This time, the reaction was much stronger, leaving dark grayish lines on the Sherwood. A much more organic look than the silvered Dirty Martini provided.

In conclusion, I think I especially like the Sherwood used straight (without silver to influence it) or used with the silvered Dirty Martini stringer. I think this color is sensitive to silver and a lighter use of silver shows it to best advantage. It is a beautiful color that I don't really think has an equal in other glass lines.