Honey Mustard vs Opal Yellow

Another color testing thread from me. I read a post by DragonJools about a newish color from CIM called Honey Mustard. As soon as I could get some I ordered it from Frantz. I was intrigued by her comments about Opal Yellow and this color having some of the similar properties, especially with EDP. I made some of these lentils that I last made in 2006. What I liked about these beads is that the EDP reacts with the Opal Yellow to form a bright orange color where they meet. In this set the center three beads are made with Opal Yellow and the three on the far left are Honey Mustard (the three on the right I can't remember). I think the bright yellow and orange color is similar in both, but a tad more orange on the Opal Yellow. The Honey Mustard didn't get as pink as the Opal Yellow, however, because I can't tell on the other three, it is really close.   Click on the photo to find these beads on Etsy.

Here is a focal on the left with the Honey Mustard (HM) and Intense Black IB) and the other two are some older Opal Yellow (OY) and Intense Black beads.  It is a little hard to compare these exactly as I find that Intense Black worked differently on my Hot Head torch that I know the 2004 bead was made on (can't remember on the 2007).  I found that the IB didn't web as much on the HM, but more like a spreading all over the bead. You can see some cool blue and green colors on the HM bead and I think that is worth trying to replicate. You can see similar colors on the top OY bead.  The yellow colors are very similar and I did get some pink blush on the HM bead, which is encouraging.

 I am not an official color testing for any glass companies, so my opinions are mine alone.

Color Comparasion

I bought a newish color from CIM called Laguana. I tested it against Mermaid. It is so smiliar, I'm not sure it is worth getting both colors (especially when the price at Frantz for the Laguana is more than the Mermaid)..  The mermaid is on the left on these beads and the Laguana is on the right. I would say that Lagunana is an odd lot of unique Mermaid . It is about 1/2 shade lighter than Mermaid. It is, as most of the CIM colors, nice and creamy and buttery soft.  It is a lovely color.

New Reds from CIM

I got some new reds in the mail from CIM a couple weeks ago. I am not an official tester but did some of my own testing to see what they were like.

The first one is Crimson. Here seen from left to right : over clear, plain (with raised dots), over white (for two) and mixed with CIM Peace (white). It is an orange red leaning towards brown. I found it hard to strike. Some areas on the white hearts didn't strike as far as the other areas it took a lot longer than Effetre or BE striking reds. I do not have a problem getting those to strike as other lampworkers say they have

Here seen as a cased stringer over CIM Peace. I have not made a rose with Effetre Red (not sure why), but this leans towards orange and I was disapointed it didn't get darker, but I'm thinking that with such a thin layer of red, it just isn't dark.

This is Ruby Shoes (ok, great name by the way). It too was hard to strike. Seen here from L to R: plain bead, over clear, over CIM Peace (white) and mixed with white. Also leans towards orange or brown compared to Effetre Transparent Red, but a bit brighter than Crimson, at least in person. Dorky me, didn't make any Effetre or BE red beads to put next to these.

Here Ruby Shoes is seen as a cased stringer over Peace, again looks very orange. Same issues as above, perhaps a thicker casing layer when making the stringer would look darker. However, even though the rose isn't a deep dark red, I like the lighter color, it is a nice color for flowers. Too bad I get this one too cold and it cracked (AUGH).