CiM Testing: Cranberry Pink
I barely use Effetre Rubino Oro or CiM Cranberry Pink because they mess with my stringer. They sort of ‘swallow’ stringer and dots and create weird reaction effects. Sometimes you can use this to your advantage for interesting designs but 90% of the time I’m aiming for a clean and crisp finish to my work. Yes, I can overcome this by encasing the colour with a layer of clear to separate the stringer from it but, well… sometimes I just can’t be arsed. *shrugs*
The other reason I avoid Effetre Rubino Oro is that they just don’t make it like they used to. It used to be a rich, deep ruby but the last ten years or so I’ve found it to be inconsistent, ranging from a weak, patchy red-pink that you can’t get an even strike with to an overly-saturated ruby that goes livery or takes on a weird foggy orange haze in the kiln.
I’ve only ever tried CiM Cranberry Pink once or twice, years ago, and I found it to be a nice colour but again I had issues with that orange fogginess so I didn’t touch it for yonks.
However, I was sent some CiM Cranberry Pink in with my testing bundle and reading up on it, (and this is where my avoidance of lampworking forums and groups bites me in the bum because if I was more bead-social I’d have known about this sooner) it seems Creation is Messy are producing a much more consistent and reliable Cranberry Pink these days, and do you know what? It’s blooming lovely.
Yes, it’s tricksy with stringer but that’s absolutely to be expected with a gold-rich glass. It takes no faffing with striking – you just work with it and it sorts its own colour out. Saying that, remember that I work cool and slow so maybe it is possible that greying or reducing could occur if you work this glass too hot or fast.
These beads were made with a thin layer of CiM Cranberry Pink over CiM Heffalump. The polka dots are CiM Peace and I melted them in at a snail’s pace in the cool part of the flame to avoid them being swallowed by the pink.
The photograph was taken outside in daylight. (Obviously daylight because I was outside. Oh, you know what I mean.)