CiM: Messy Color™ Cranberry Pink, A golden transparent pink.

Messy Color™ Cranberry Pink

511926 -

A golden transparent pink.

Click here to view Cranberry Pink Uniques

"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

Click here for other interesting Cranberry Pink discoveries.

CiM Cranberry Pink encased with Effetre Super (Crystal) Clear 006 with CiM Alley Cat decoration and spacers

Laura Sparling

Messy Cranberry Pink -2, Gelly's Sty, & Dirty Martini

Kevan Aponte

Kathy Perras

Top bead is Cranberry Pink over clear; bottom beads are Cranberry Pink over a base of white and decorated with white stringer

Chris Sanderson

Heather Sellers

Messy Cranberry Pink, Butter Pecan, & Thai Orchid

Samantha Halliwell

Messy Tester's Feedback

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. Cranberry Pink is a striking color but one of the easier striking colors for me to work with. You just need to work slow. 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 orangish 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

"Cranberry Pink is a beautiful pink that resists the grey reduction haze that rubino gets, this makes it much easier to work with." – Caroline Davis

"Cranberry Pink holds it colour very well." – Suzy Hannabuss

“Cranberry Pink is a must in my stock - it is perfect for floral beads. Many times if you are using Rubino Oro and your propane is even slightly too high the Rubino will turn black. This doesn't happen with Cranberry Pink. Also Rubino sometimes won't strike so you'll end up with clear instead of pink. Cranberry Pink is consistent. I always have some on hand.” – Darryle Jadaa

Special thanks to Lori Peterson & Maija-Leena Autio for providing the photos in this section.

Carol Tannahill made a bracelet with Desert Pink & Cranberry Pink tabular beads.

Patricia Frantz used Cranberry Pink rose cane on top of Zachary.

Genea Crivello made vortex flower pendants with Cranberry Pink, Simply Berry & Blush.

Check out Emma Baird's beads made with Cranberry Pink.

Claudia Eidenbenz’s "Vetrothek" (glass library) is a great resource for color comparisons.
See Kay Powell’s frit testing samples.
Browse Serena Thomas’ color gallery.
Check out Miriam Steger’s CiM color charts.
Consult Jolene Wolfe's glass testing resource page.

“Today I pulled this figa out of the kiln that was made with Cranberry Pink- it’s a fantastic gold based garnet magenta color. Very true purpley red color typical of gold based reds. I spent some time considering what I wanted this hand to be holding, but in the end I decided it had to be a heart, garnet colored hearts are so classic. Cranberry Pink is not prone to making black spots in a reduced flame and is very resistant to scumming up in general. A very easy to work with rod, not shocky and a great true Rubino Oro color. I did not find any yellowing problems using a hothead torch."

– Alexis Berger

"Base of Effetre Periwinkle, dichro stringer, CiM Cranberry Pink and gold foil."

– Caroline Davis

"The floral cane is made with a base of bubble gum pink rolled in Pretty in Pink frit with stripes of CiM Cranberry Pink and Emperor."

– Caroline Davis

"Cranberry Pink was an absolute joy to work with, and melted with no issues at all .. and no sign of the livery spots that Rubino Oro gives you. It struck without me having to try to at all. I have worked it over opal yellow, and you can see that it is slightly lighter than Rubino Oro, but if you look closely at the middle bead you will see that it still has spreading effect on the Opal Yellow and the Periwinkle dots on top have the sinking effect associated with this type of glass. While it is an expensive glass, it is one to treat yourself to when you can, the results are worth it!"

– Trudi Doherty

"Oh my, I feel as though I have fallen in love with this pink again, it has been a while since I have used it [or it's Effetre counterpart]. I did recall that there was talk about it having cracking issues so I wanted to put this to the test ... I used this to encase over Crocus and Heffalump. Both provide rich and luscious juicy pinks. Over Crocus you get a vibrant ruby shade, and over Heffalump screaming hot raspberry ... what's not to love! I cleaned these with a powerful electric dermal and there is no sign of cracking over a week on [similar ones with Effetre cracked straight after cleaning]."

– Trudi Doherty

"I was sent some Cranberry Pink in with my testing bundle and reading up on it, it seems CiM is 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." Read more at Laura's tumblr.

– Laura Sparling

Melanie uses Cranberry Pink frit in her blend "Pablo." See more of her 104 compatible FrittyBits blends.

– Melanie Graham

“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.

– Melanie Graham

“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.

– Genea Crivello

"Cranberry Pink over white makes a great [and cost effective] hot pink."

– Sara Sally LaGrand

"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.

– Jolene Wolfe

"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

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.

– Astrid Riedel

"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.

– Heather Kelly

"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."

– Bonnie Polinski

"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

"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."

– Gail Witt

"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

"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."

– Bonnie Polinski

– Genea Crivello

"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.

– Patricia Frantz

The Princess Mojo box includes Cranberry Pink. See more of Jolene's work.

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.

– Kandice Seeber

"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.

– Patricia Frantz