Messy Color™ FAQs

What are Messy Uniques?

Click here for a downloadable color chart of currently available Uniques. Need Acrobat Reader? Click here.

The Creation is Messy mission is to produce the highest quality 104 COE compatible hand pulled glass rods. We strive to produce glass that is not only consistent from melt to melt, but also to keep all Messy Color products available when you need them.

Due to our rigid color standards for Messy Color consistency, there are two scenarios where a Messy Unique may be produced. First, all glass manufacturers experience occasional variation in hue when melting, despite our best efforts to replicate formulae and conditions from prior melts. We know that it is common in this industry to ship mis-melted colors without communicating about the differences, creating confusion in the marketplace. Creation is Messy believes it is better to acknowledge the differences by re-branding the color as a Messy Unique so that artists will know exactly what they are purchasing.

Creation is Messy’s goal is to communicate clearly about all Messy Colors so that lampworking glass artists are confident that their purchase of Messy Color will be consistent with previous purchases. If a production melt is lighter or darker than our standards for that specific Messy Color, then we sell it as a Messy Unique. We’ve found that this helps keep our pricing low by offsetting the cost of some of our melts and is also an advantage for our artists. For example, those who find regular Cirrus too time consuming to strike in small bead sizes can use Unique Cirrus (511806-1) to achieve cloudiness faster in smaller sizes.

The second scenario in which Messy Uniques occur is when we transfer a formula from our test pot to the production pot. Oftentimes our test pot reveals an exciting new color, but when melted in a larger pot it loses the special qualities we targeted in the test melt. Messy Unique Sunshine (now sold out) is a good example of this. Our test pots revealed a soft cake batter yellow, but in production it became a bright carnival yellow. We chose to sell this one pot as a Unique and go back to the drawing table for a cake batter yellow.

All Messy Uniques are subject to the same standards of compatibility, quality control, and testing as our regular Messy Color line. You can read more about our compatibility testing method here. We also physically inspect each Messy Unique rod sold with the intent of selling only premium quality rods: straight and smooth, consistent 4-7 mm diameters, free from irregularities, stones, bumps, dust, scratches, bubbles, etc. You can rest assured that our Messy Uniques are of the same standard of premium quality that you have come to expect of Messy Color.

To find a particular Messy Unique, please visit the regular Messy Color page. There is a link next to each Messy Color paddle to link to the Uniques for that specific color. If you do not see a link, then there are no Uniques for that particular Messy Color.

If you are looking for more information on a particular Unique that you do not see listed on our site, please contact info@creationismessy.com.

What is Messy 96?

Creation is Messy produces Messy Color™ at a private family-owned factory in China which produces lampworked and fused products for export to Europe, Japan, and the U.S.A. The factory has produced their own rod for about 20 years for in house production to make swizzle sticks, animals, flowers, holiday ornaments, and the like. They have traditionally worked in the range of a 96 coefficient of expansion. In 2006, Creation is Messy formed a partnership with them to bring new colors to the 104 palette by adjusting the compatibility of their glass.

The factory continues to use 96 compatible glass in house for production, and as such they occasionally melt batches of custom order colors. Creation is Messy has partnered with the factory to offer these colors on a limited basis. The color selection we offered is almost completely sold out. The remaining colors can be found at Frantz Art Glass.

I like to use my rods down to the nubs. How can I remove the Messy stickers?

If you soak the sticker in water for a few minutes, it will easily detach itself from the rod.

Why are Messy rods so uniform if they are hand pulled?

CiM experiences the same difficulties and irregularities in glass production as other manufacturers. We are dedicated to producing the highest quality glass rods, so we reject pots of glass that do not test compatible or can otherwise be characterized as just "bad" glass.

When a pot does pass our compatibility tests, we hand inspect each rod to check that they are straight and smooth, consistent 4-7 mm diameters, free from irregularities, stones, bumps, dust, scratches, bubbles, etc. Basically, we only sell the very best rods of the cane pull to our customers.