Are Gaffer 198 and 199 new Zimmerman 99? (Also a comparison between the Gaffer colors and the recent new Reichenbach color R733 and Z99).

I received some samples of Gaffer’s new glass to work with this week and I was super excited. The new colors are Gaffer 198 Royal Purple (G198 on the top above) and Gaffer 199 Purple Rose (G199 on the bottom above). I am always excited by the possibility of new colors. With the very cool Zimmerman 99 Purple Rose Special (Z99) no longer being made, it is neat that the other companies are trying to create something similar. Even if not exactly the same, they are all pretty cool on their own.

I found both new colors VERY SOFT. As I work fairly hot, this can be interesting. I also found the Gaffer glass some how less think or less sticky than the Zimmerman. Not sure how else to describe this. I have read on some Facebook and LE posts that this glass does not devitrify. Well, that is not the case, it does, just like Z99 and R733 and EDP. I find that all of these 96 COE purples do not devit as badly as EDP and the shiny is very easily recovered by heating up the bead. I found G198, R733 and Z851 devit the quickest. I got devit on these purple colors only after cooling and reheating and it is worse when cooled with a tool.

Above you can see a group of beads from each of the new Gaffer colors. You can see the G198 as more red undertones and the G199 is bluer. I like the blue better. Not just because it is closer to the original z99, but I like a blue purple over a red purple. In each grouping you can see a set of solid colored spacer beads on the left hand side, these are were cooled quickly (as was the chubby focal in the G198 set). After talking with Gaffer, I was told to get more color use a cool slow down, not quick with tools. The other two focals of the G198 group and the one in the G199 group were made with this slow cool down. I formed the bead, shaped it, then let it cool down, then spot reheated, let cool and reheated again, I got more colors to develop this way. I even got some peach on the tall barrel bead. The pinker spacer beads in the front of each photo were also treated this way.

FOCALS

Above is Z99 frit on Opal Yellow Effetre (OY) and shaped with gravity. You can see a lot of orange and red forming. Also seen here is the pitting I got a lot when super heating furnace glass frit. You can see this more on the bead below. Find this bead on Etsy.

G198 on Opal Yellow. Bead shows the reaction between the purple frit and Opal Yellow being medium orange.. You can see in this bead some lighter areas of color, this is devit (I could not heat it out without getting rid of the raised twist. I actually like how it looks. It adds some texture to the bead. G199 on Opal Yellow. You can see the blue showing up on this bead and a little bit of reaction between the frit and the Opal yellow. I like that the dark yellow hasn’t taken over the entire bead. I think because it was not worked as long as the G198 or Z99 bead.

R733 frit on Opal Yellow and shaped with gravity. This bead has a lot of blue left over and not as much mustard. Again, I think if it was worked longer, more dark yellow would have developed, you can see it starting on top. Check out this bead on Etsy.

ROUNDS

All of these round beads were made the same way: a twisty of Opal Yellow and the purple color on top of Copper Green Effetre. These were the first beads I made with this technique and they are the Z99. This is what is so cool with this glass, you can do the same technique and the same colors and get something different. You can see here more yellow that orange and that one bead with the fuchsia.

On the R733 beads the Opal Yellow turned very mustard, much darker than the Z99. I think they are not as pretty as the Z99 beads, but still very interesting. A couple of the beads didn’t turn mustard at all (they are hiding in the back). Check these out on Etsy.
These G198 beads were made before I heard about the slow cooling. I made these beads, shaped in the roller tool, heated to get the chill marks off and then put them in the kiln. As you can see they have a lot of mustard/orange, no blue and lots of pits.
These beads made with G198 show a lot more variation in color than the original set. With these I shaped in the roller, then reheated, cooled and reheated to get the colors to bloom. Still a lot of orange reaction color between the OY and the G198.
These beads used G199. You can see a lot more blue and light purple variations in these beads. In fact these are the areas that devitrified (but has been reheated to a shine). This is the type of reaction I like to see with these purple 96 COE glasses. Also there is not as much orange than the previous beads.
Here is a bead I made with all the colors of purple I have. I think I have the lines drawn correctly on this bead, but it was a little hard to find the difference between the G199 and R733. I think that it maybe the line below the black line, but I really can’t tell. As you can see the G198 really looks redder in this photo. Typically my Z851 is bluer than seen here too. Just goes to show you that the colors are pretty close to each other. Finally I have a side by side comparison of beads made separately. Top = Z99, 2nd from top = R733, 3rd from top = G199 and bottom =G198

Conclusion – I think G198 is the most similar to Z99, but I love having the variety of colors the play with and there is a color that will work for everyone’s like and style. Pick one you like and have fun. I think