CiM Testing: Cerulean
Like CiM Cerulean Sparkle, Cerulean is a bright aqua blue that is a tiny bit darker than Effetre transparent Light Aqua 034 but not as dark as Effetre transparent Dark Aqua 036. Apart from the sparkle in the rod form of Cerulean Sparkle, I can’t see an awful lot of difference between the two Ceruleans.
Before I made these beads I tested the white stringer applied directly to the Cerulean and it did exactly what I predicted it would: as soon as I melted the stringer in, it fizzed and pitted around the stringer edges. This is absolutely normal with the more saturated aqua and turquoise blues and I am by no means a scientist (GCSE grade D) but I think it’s to do with the copper (?) in the aqua glass.
As I said in the Cerulean Sparkle post, transparent aquas don’t really like being cooled and reheated and I’ve always found that they like to be kept at a consistent temperature or they can go scummy. You can blast the scum with heat and it will disperse but you’ll be left with telltale wisps in your work. (I’ll point out that there’s absolutely nothing wrong with doing this; I’m just ridiculously picky about my work. It’s problematic, I know.) Anyway, to avoid any kind of fizz-bubble-trouble here I encased the base bead of Cerulean with a thin layer of Effetre Super (Crystal) Clear 006 and then applied my Effetre White 204 stringer. The spacers are CiM Kryptonite.
Cerulean was not at all shocky and it melted and behaved like pretty much all other transparent aquas I have used before.
The photographs were taken indoors in natural daylight.
