CiM: Messy Color™ Experimental Ltd Run, An experiment in making a better clear.

Messy Color™ Experimental Ltd Run

511819 - Sold Out

An experiment in making a better clear.

"I was very pleased to see that Experimental reacts quite strongly with silver color. The droplet on the left is the new Experimental clear, the droplet on the right is the regular clear Moretti color. As you can see, the droplet on the left developed much more variation in blues and greens with hints of Amber." Read more at Alexis's tumblr. – Alexis Berger

Click here for other interesting Experimental Ltd Run discoveries.

Heather Sellers

CiM Tester Feedback

Testers reported that Experimental is a good clear in terms of clarity and being bubble and scum free. However, some testers reported a tendency to devit.

My initial experience with Experimental was that it was a nice clear. I was able to make some spacers that were just gorgeous and had no bubbles or scum, and was feeling pretty excited about it. But, then I went on to try an encased floral and my rod of Experimental left a thick, whitish trail of scum all over the bead. – Melanie Graham

Experimental handled easily in a regular flame, requiring no special treatment, and came out brilliantly clear. It hasn't devitted on me yet, and I'm usually the devit queen. When etched, it produced a true white, wonderfully bright. I've never seen any other clear that worked so easily and etched so nicely. My usual habit with clear is to buy cheap, since perfect clarity isn't required for etching, but the color difference here, and ease of use in a regular flame, is definitely worth paying for. – Celia Friedman

I made several beads using Experimental. I am sorry to say that I did get the scumming. It seems to happen after the rod has been cooled and then reheated. Although some was around the mandrel on the bead, I could see it forming on the rod which I could remove before placing it on the bead. – Donna Elliott

I didn’t like Experimental. I had a lot of issues with it scumming and generally being a little cloudy. It also took a lot longer to etch than for the Effetre 006 and Reichenbach clears that I usually use. It also didn't seem as "white" after as them. – Claire Morris

Join Trudi Doherty's FB group Lampwork Colour Resource Sharing Information for a catalogue of color study.
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.

"Experimental is awesome. Very clear, forgiving of torch atmosphere, not prone to boiling or scumming. It is also much stiffer than regular Messy clear, or any other clear I have used. I start with large diameter [10-12 mm] Effetre clear and use Uroboros 104 clear in the 5-6 mm rods to encase with. So I straight up substituted for the Uroboros and I am very happy. Experimental worked as well as the Uroboros, if not better, and in the case of puntying, exceeded it. The stiffness was an asset doing punty work. It does a weird, devitrification like thing on occasion when it is on the surface. A hazing creeps along the surface. Encasing or covering it stops it or makes it invisible. But if you don't, it just keeps going."

– Chris Haussler

"It's hard to tell from the photo, but Experimental had uneven etching. It was etched in Dip N Etch solution for 3 1/2 minutes."

– Kim Fields

"I wish that I could give a positive review on Experimental, but I kept having problems with devitrification. As you can see. I was very happy with the transparency and clarity of it at first. But it seems that the longer it is worked, the more it devitrifies. I tried every sort of flame composition to try to make it go away, but was not able to."

– Liza Lina Schuck

"I really like how Experimental preserves the silver glass reaction with no unexpected surprise . . . .The encasing of Experimental was heavenly." Read more about Darlene's experience of working with Experimental on her blog.

– Darlene Collette

"Here is a drop of Experimental mixed with a few chunks of Chalcedony and Peacock Green. As you can see they mix beautifully and there was no devitrification!! Just beautiful layers of translucency. YAY!" Read more at Alexis's tumblr.

– Alexis Berger

"Experimental is a little cloudy. I do like Effetre clear a bit better, I've not had any cloudy streaks with it. I do like the consistency of Experimental- it's a bit stiffer, gives you more control."

– Cherie St. Ours

"I had trouble with Experimental. Did not seem to like reheating. There was so much devitrification, I honestly don't know how this could be used for encasement when clarity is key."

– Kim Fields

"Here are two close up images showing 006 on the left and Experimental on the right. Both clear glasses look quite good in terms of minimal micro bubbles and scum. Experimental just has a slight edge over 006 Clear in terms of clarity when you hold the beads up to the light. I found that Experimental was softer than 006 Clear which means that it can be used to make a thinner encasement layer than the stiffer 006 Clear can." Read more at Kitzbitz Art Glass' blog.

– Jolene Wolfe

"Experimental seemed pretty nice. No obvious scumming or hugely awful defects. It played well with the dichro." Read more at DragonJools blog.

– Dwyn Tomlinson

"Experimental is a gorgeously clear clear. It’s lovely to use and it moves so very smoothly. It’s not too stiff but not too liquid, but I personally found that it doesn’t like a lot of heat fluctuation as this can lead to devitrification." Read more about Laura's experience with devitrification.

– Laura Sparling

"Experimental and Byzantium. A very nice clear with no bubbles or scum."

– Gloria Sevey

Experimental encasing an assortment of Double Helix colors.

– Heather Sellers

"Experimental is very clean. No bubbling or hazing during testing. I even pushed the limits in a reduction flame and the glass had no scumming. Back into a neutral flame, the glass quickly returned to a crisp, clean clear with no trace of soot. When used for encasing a silver rich glass in an implosion with gold mica, the glass flowed nicely. In comparison to Effetre 004 [on the right], Experimental [on the left] is buttery soft and encases easily, where the Effetre is stiff and a bit unforgiving."

– Heather Sellers