Messy Tester's Feedback
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A note about Cranberry Pink item numbers.
When we first produced Cranberry Pink, we categorized our melts into two different item numbers to differentiate between two distinct hues: 511926-1 for the lighter rod and 511926-2 for the darker.
After we were more confident in our ability to reproduce a consistent hue, we made the 511926-2 version our standard 511926 Cranberry Pink according to our testers' preference for this hue. If you have worked with the 511926-2 in the past, as of spring / summer 2010, it will be labelled 511926. The slightly lighter version will still be labelled 511926-1.
If you have any doubt about which item you have, feel free to contact us for clarification.
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Most testers preferred Cranberry Pink to rubino oro, with a few exceptions.
"Cranberry Pink is MUCH easier to work – it doesn’t turn livery and ugly as easily. Have read reports that it doesn’t do that at all, but I have accidently made it turn livery and nasty by hitting it with too much propane. No problems with getting it to be a lovely color – doesn’t over/under strike like rubino can. Major feature of it: It can be deeply encased without having to use clear or something as a core to stabilize it as must be done with most batches of rubino." – Kathy Coon
"I like the Cranberry better than Rubino Oro for making base beads and for dots because it doesn’t trap carbon as easily and looks cleaner. Many of my Rubino rods have been striking slightly opaque, and I have not had this problem with the Cranberry yet." – Bonnie Polinski
"For me, Cranberry Pink works a bit easier and isn’t as touchy as rubino where it comes to reducing. I have issues that rubino will spot reduce when I touch it with a metal tool to shape the glass. Cranberry doesn’t seem to be as sensitive to this issue for me." – Chris Haussler
"I prefer Cranberry Pink, it is more intense. I have had no cracking issues except for when it has been encased." – Claire Morris
"I think Cranberry Pink has a prettier pink hue to it, especially on opal yellow. I found it to be less fussy than rubino and it took the heat a bit better. However, Cranberry is much more expensive. I don’t think the difference is that great? So, I would purchase the rubino." – Donna Dorman
"I love Cranberry Pink. I barely have to reheat this color to get it to strike." – Elizabeth Long
"I think Cranberry Pink is a little harder to strike than rubino oro." – Jan Whitesel-Keeton
"I love Cranberry Pink! I don’t like Rubino Oro because it’s striking and I struggle with striking glass. I generally get inconsistent results with RO. I always get something I like with Cranberry." – Jennifer Borek
"I really like this color. I would probably choose this one over the Rubino as it doesn't seem to go grey in a redux flame." – Renee Wiggins
"Rubino Oro has a smooth clean melt. Cranberry Pink takes much longer to produce a nice clean gather as it is a stiffer glass. I am not crazy about Cranberry Pink when used on top of other glass. Application of dots: eh, just okay, not a pretty pink this way. In short Cranberry Pink is a prissy glass, it likes to be alone in the spotlight." – Vonna Maslanka
"I can’t help myself, I just love this glass, and I’m not even a pink lover. It melts easily and smoothly and works great for encasing. I work some of my beads in the flame a lot and this is what I found: Cranberry Pink can take any flame without any bubbling, burning or darkening. It doesn't even get that bad orangeish haze that some other pinks get. Cranberry Pink gives the same beautiful transparent dark pink without all the temper tantrums you have to deal with when using rubino." – Gail Witt
"One thing I like with Cranberry Pink is that it is more similar from batch to batch!" – Maija-Leena Autio
"I much, much, much prefer Cranberry Pink and use it for lots of my work. The rubino oro tends to be different depending on the batch – sometimes deep color and sometimes lighter. This is more of a medium to lightish, but doesn’t turn silver each time you get it too close to the cones." – Marcy Lamberson
"Cranberry is unique. Even using super thin cased swipes of a half mm, certain batchings have a golden inner glow. All the variations in batchings are a great thing. Collect some of all and learn how to make each batch work and they become fantastic tools at the torch. There is nothing like Effetre rubino's magenta pinks. The Italians' rubino will rule as my most used due to customer demand for pink/magenta hues. A note over encasement of rubino. Total encasement of a bead in any gold rich rubino is risky business. I have old Effetre rubino that can take encasement and two batches later, no good. This has always varied from batch to batch." – Starleen Colon
"As far as using it for coated stringers in my flowers, they are comparable. The difference in price would make Messy Cranberry Pink prohibitive at the moment. I also find if you encase it, it reacts the same as Rubino [cracking] which I was hoping wouldn’t be the case." – Sue Stewart
"My HH isn’t a fan of Cranberry Pink, it goes brown quick. Rubino doesn’t go brown for me." – Elasia
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Our first batch of Cranberry Pink had a tendency to "butterscotch" or turn yellow, but this has been resolved in subsequent batches.
"I got quite a bit of that 'butterscotch' effect with the very first batch, but since then I have loved Cranberry Pink! I definitely haven't seen any of that butterscotching effect and the color is so rich and clear. I think even the rods looked better, as I could see a very slight orange tint in the first batch rods, while the new ones are a deep, rich fuschia and stayed the same color when melted." – Lori Bergmann
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Special thanks to Maija-Leena Autio for providing the photo in this section.
| “In these beads, you can see what an interesting base colour Cranberry Pink is for silver glass. Both my reducing and striking silver glass frit got all interesting on top of this colour. I got beautiful, vivid colour from the TerraNova2 frit in the bead on the right, and in the bead on the left, the reducing silver glass frit developed interesting separation lines and halos and also left some blue fume on the surface of the Cranberry.” Read more on Melanie's blog. |
“For more of a golden orange result like the next to spiral coin beads, I used Peace, Cranberry Pink, Kalypso, and Messy Clear.” Read more at Genea’s blog. |
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| "Cranberry Pink over white makes a great [and cost effective] hot pink."
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Sara Sally LaGrand
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Base of Clear, covered in Peace, applied silver foil; then Cranberry Pink dots create the honeycomb.
– Claire Taylor
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| "Kiss Me Quick is a cheeky little collection just right for Valentines beads. I used Effetre Dark Red 460, Baby Pink 260, White 204 and CiM Cranberry Pink and CiM Hades." Read more at Kitzbitz Art Glass' blog. |
"She has this beautiful rainbow iridescence that didn't come through in the photos but was such a great surprise when I got her out of the kiln. I'm thrilled with how easy this glass is to work with. I haven't scorched it and pulling it out to make the long neck and tail is a breeze!"
– Lauren Bramble
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| Astrid used Cranberry Pink in her tutorial demonstrating her unique techniques to bring out the beauty and the mystery of the rose murrini. She says "I love the fact that you don't have the metallic black spots on Cranberry Pink." Read more about her tutorial. |
"Conclusion: Cranberry Pink is a deeper, redder colour than the batch of rubino I have, but is also rather more expensive. I prefer the colour of rubino for a deep pink." Read more at Heather's blog. |
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| "I used EP-204 White as the base and encased it with Cranberry Pink. I rolled this in silver foil and heavily reduced the bead while melting the silver into the bead. Then I added the vine and roses. The Cranberry takes on a blue and purple cast where the silver fumed it at the ends of the bead."
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Bonnie Polinski
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"Cranberry Pink reduced looks very much like silver glass! When I reduced it, it's almost a gray blue with bubble-like rainbow iridescence."
– Genea Crivello-Knable
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| "I ran across a surprising result when I was copying some of my Cranberry beads in Rubino. I made my usual white dots for the flowers and was surprised to see that each dot had a little dark spot right in the middle. I thought maybe I had picked up a stringer of Peace by mistake and was all ready to complain about that, but first I made the same bead again and made sure I was using the Moretti white. Guess what? Same problem. I don’t like the appearance of dark dots in the middle of my flower beads, so there’s another reason to use Cranberry. I didn’t have any problems similar to this when I used Cranberry Pink."
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Gail Witt
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"Cranberry Pink strikes beautifully. I put dots of Cranberry Pink on Stone Ground looking for the reaction that you can get with Opal Yellow. Nice strike but nothing special."
– Leslie Anne Bitgood
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| "Note the Cranberry Pink encasing the Effetre Copper Green is more transparent in the bead on the left than the Rubino is on the bead to the right. The Rubino is cloudier and pinker."
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Bonnie Polinski
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"This incredible pendant featured Messy Cranberry Pink in two places. Further back, Cranberry Pink is shown in its full intensity, while the outer flower rim shows Cranberry layered over odd lot Tequila Sunrise coral to demonstrate the different look of layering glass to change the hue."
– Genea Crivello-Knable
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| "Though a rose cane is a very effective way to depict a rose on a glass bead, it is also a great detail cane for other decorative applications like feathered lines or bright pink squiggles." Read more about Pat Frantz's rose cane made with Peace & Cranberry Pink at the Frantz Art Glass blog. |
The Princess Mojo box includes Cranberry Pink. See more of Jolene's work. |
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| Starleen used Messy Clear and Cranberry Pink. A dusk thin encasement covers a base of Unique Rose Quartz and Magenta CBS dichroic. See more of Starleen's work. |
"Sooo - my preliminary opinion is that even though a lot of people are looking at this color as a clone of Rubino, just made by a different company, I don't think it is at all. It's in the same general class, I think - transparent pink with lots of interesting effects - but it's really its own color." Read more at Kandice's blog here and here. |
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| "I finally found a Gold Pink glass that will work inside one of these dichroic beads without cracking it and that is the Cranberry Pink produced by CiM." Read more about Cranberry Pink at the Frantz Art Glass blog. |