Dramatic

Bold, elegant, powerful, suspenseful and, unquestionably, DRAMATIC. Of what do I speak? Why, the color 'black', of course. Black is considered a basic color, a solid and reliable, trustworthy standard. The kind of color you turn to in order to hide those extra inches or highlight those classy curves. Black also has the ability to lend an air of completion to a look. An indispensible color, in my book.

With those thoughts in mind, I took some time to compare various blacks in the glass world. You might be of the opinion that 'black is black', but that is not so, my friend. Blacks vary widely and some are far preferable to others. As far as glass is concerned, I have used Effetre Black for quite some time. I find it to be an annoying glass color simply because it is NOT truly black. Oh, it looks black in rod form. But you try to use it in making a glass bead and, suddenly, it is deep purple. I just hate that. Unless deep purple is what I am trying to achieve, which then would make it perfectly acceptable. But if I want a true black, I look elsewhere. I have been testing out the blacks from Creation is Messy. They have two blacks to choose from, with interesting qualities in each black. In the above photo, the two beads to the far left are made with CiM Hades (another great name). CiM Hades is quite comparable to Effetre Intense Black. It is a true black. Both of these blacks are very reactive to heat. Effetre Intense Black has a tendency to 'web' out, or spread out in little spidery tendrils as the glass is heated. CiM Hades also likes to spread out into a webby pattern as it is heated. The difference is that the CiM Hades does not get as intricate in its webbing and it leaves a smoky haze in its wake. You can especially see this effect in the bead that is second from the left. The three beads from the right are all made with Effetre Intense Black. You can see that the webiness is more intricate. The bead on the far right was super-heated and the bead developed some fine green veining, too. Interesting. The Effetre Intense Black did not get the smoky haze that the CiM Hades developed. I think both of these blacks are great for achieving various organic looks, just depending on what look you want.

The second CiM black is CiM Tuxedo. This is described on the CiM website as "a regular black". Compared the the regular Effetre Black, it is far superior, in my opinion. Why? Because it is a black that is truly black. One big difference as well, the CiM Tuxedo has a tendency to spread and even web a bit when heated. The Effetre black is a bit more stable. But the Effetre Black is not really a black at all. It is a deep purple. So, if you want a real black to accent your beads, I recommend CiM Tuxedo for the job. It is in the third bead from the left in the photo. Please compare it to the CiM Hades. Very similar, minus the smoky haze. I used ivory glass as a base for all of these beads. As a result, I probably achieved more of a color reaction than you might experience using the Tuxedo glass on another color base, as ivory tends to spark color reactions.

So which black will be right for you? Well, that depends on what you want to achieve. If you want a dramatic organic look, try CiM Hades. For a true, dense and more controlled black, try CiM Tuxedo. Embrace the drama.

"A good many dramatic situations begin with screaming."- Jane Fonda

"Save your drama for the stage."- Unknown

Zachary

This is a test of the emergency glass-testing system. This is only a test.

Such fun! Testing some glass colors from Creation is Messy, one of my favorite glass companies. So many glass colors seem to crossover from one company to another; but CiM (Creation is Messy) has some truly unique colors that I don't see in other places. Case in point, the CiM color, Zachary. It is a lovely shade of rich powdery blue. At first glance, it almost looks like the Periwinkle color you can get from most glass companies. But it most definitely is not Periwinkle. It is lighter and lacks the purplish tone of a true periwinkle color. Really, I would describe it as a true baby blue. This is a terrific base color and had some nice reactive qualities.

As you can see in the photo accompanying this post, I tested this color in various ways to see how much you could play with it. Some of my observations are as follows:

1) Zachary topped with a silvered ivory stringer leads to very organic reactions. I really liked the dark lines that popped out!

2) Zachary rolled in Effetre intense black frit led to an interesting reaction. I usually use intense black with ivory and get a very webby look over the ivory. On the Zachary, the intense black had a tendency to sink in and minimally web out on the very edges of each black spot. Actually, the intense black turned out more of a deep, deep purple against the Zachary. And, around each black/purple spot, the pretty powdery blue blooms out; but the background turns a grayish-blue and does not look like the original Zachary blue. Interesting! I can see using this combination to achieve an animal print look.

3) Zachary rolled in Raku frit- not particularly outstanding. The Raku changed color a bit; some soft peach and yellow tones popped out which look nice against the Zachary blue. Dark reactive lines hardly presented themselves at all. Using the Raku frit is a good way to achieve a soft, pastel accent on the Zachary, but nothing too exciting. Very quiet effects.

4) Zachary looks quite pretty encased in clear. I imagine this would etch beautifully, though I did not do an etch test.

Overall, Zachary is a very nice color to work with. It is described on the CiM site as an opaque baby blue and is part of their regular glass line. I highly recommend it!