CiM: Messy Color™ Tahitian Pearl Ltd Run, A gray based metallic black.

Messy Color™ Tahitian Pearl Ltd Run

511827 -

A gray based metallic black.

"I want to compare the new color of Tahitian Pearl with Dark Silver Plum from Effetre. Of course the effect is similar. Tahitian Pearl is lighter and gives the effect of brushed metal, with notches, with beautiful crystals. If we want to get a metallic luster, then we need to heat the bead as carefully as possible, at the very tip of the flame, don't allow the glass to be red and flowed. The color of this glass is cold matted silver, with beautiful crystals, titanium, gray, cold with beautiful pearl." – Irina Sergeeva

Click here for other interesting Tahitian Pearl Ltd Run discoveries.

Heather Sellers

Irina Sergeeva

CiM Tahitian Pearl with Raku Mottleshards

Melanie Graham

CiM Baked Alaska, Tahitian Pearl, silver wire, and silver leaf

Heike Loos

CiM Your Majesty with a odd lot Double Helix glass and Tahitian Pearl stringer

Caroline Davis

Jolene Wolfe

CiM Tester Feedback

We've been experimenting with making new blacks- thus, Tahitian Pearl.

Tahitian Pearl is a fabulous, new color to the 104 palette. – Paula Schertz

Many testers noted a similarity between Tahitian Pearl and Effetre Dark Silver Plum.

In comparison to Tahitian Pearl, my DSP seems to pit and bubble more than Tahitian Pearl and the metallic finish isn't as even. – Caroline Davis

I want to compare the new color of Tahitian Pearl with Dark Silver Plum from Effetre. Of course the effect is similar. Tahitian Pearl is lighter and gives the effect of brushed metal, with notches, with beautiful crystals. – Irina Sergeeva

Tahitian Pearl is a new reactive colour from CiM, reminiscent of Gunmetal, and close to Effetre Dark Silver Plum. While I love Tahitian Pearl, for me it is too similar to Dark Silver Plum, but not as cost effective. – Trudi Doherty

Tahitian Pearl is WAY easier to use than Effetre Dark Silver Plum. – Lori Peterson

Tahitian Pearl is pretty much the same as Effetre pastel Dark Silver Plum 275. In rod form it’s a very dark purple with a sort of brown tinge to it. I found that it behaved almost identically to Dark Silver Plum and I treated it the same way. For the spacers [shown above] I made the bead and let it cool outside the flame for about fifteen seconds. Then I passed the bead back through the mid-part of the flame - not too hot, not too cold - then brought it out to cool for a few seconds and then repeated this until I had the sheen I was happy with. I’ve found that how you reheat both Tahitian Pearl and Dark Silver Plum affects the final finish. A slow pass through the lower part of an oxygen rich, very low propane flame can bring out the more satin silvery effect, and reheating in a *very* slightly reducing one [propane rich] can give you a haematite-like mirror sheen. Too much reduction, however, and you can end up with a muddy purple-brown with a shimmery haze. Read more at Laura's tumblr. – Laura Sparling

Tahitian Pearl is a dark greyish purple that gets shiny in the flame while you're working it. As you'll see, I went into my relationship with Tahitian Pearl expecting it to be similar to Adamantium, but ultimately found it quite a bit more like Effetre Dark Silver Plum, only with more interesting variation in surface texture. Read more at Melanie's blog. – Melanie Graham

Special thanks to Suzanne Cancilla-Fox, Caroline Davis, & Melanie Graham for providing the photos in this section.

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.

"Although Tahitian Pearl is most alluring for its iridescent surface, I found it to be by far the perfect [and only] color to simulate whale skin after being encased in clear. I've tried all the other grays and blacks and they were either too light, too black, too brown, or turned purple, or disintegrated and bled. When TP is incased, the sheen disappears and is replaced with a natural, mottled intensely dark gray. Using a black core for the whale, I've managed to make that one rod encase 7 whales with enough for about 5 more! It may be glass but it's like gold to me. I used Denim and Midnight in the top half to encase the base color."

– Laurie Nessel

"These beads are created on bases of CiM Rainforest, a greenish teal opal and CiM Atlantis, a bluish teal opal. These are rich base glasses with jewel tone hues. Handmade shards of Tahitian Pearl were gently added to create a tactile feel and medieval look." Read more at Darlene's blog.

– Darlene Collette

"Black, white and silver. So pleased with this as most silver glass fumes the white and turns it yellow. I ended up using CiM Tahitian Pearl which kept a clean white."

– Suzy Hannabuss

"I made this Mano Figa using exclusively Tahitian Pearl. This glass is fantastic, it develops a lovely matte metallic sheen, I would say it’s slightly more iridescent than the last batch which to me is a plus. Not shocky at all, very easy to work with. I would describe the surface as having a velvety feel.”

– Alexis Berger

“This bead was created with a combination of Bayou with Garnet. I decorated it with silvered ivory stringer swirls melted into the surface. The ends were decorated with handmade shards of Tahitian Pearl.” See more at Darlene’s blog.

– Darlene Collette

"With repeated heating and cooling, the surface of Tahitian Pearl gets all shiny, wrinkly, and uneven. I was alarmed by this when I was making these two beads together on the same mandrel. Then, I reduced the bead on the right and thought that all of the neat surface finish had gone away and was alarmed by that. And then I took the beads out of the kiln the next morning. It turns out, the wrinkly, textured shiny finish of the unreduced Tahitian Pearl is awesome, and reducing does not take away the surface finish, it just smooths it out. Also awesome." Read more at Melanie's blog.

– Melanie Graham

"Tahitian Pearl is a colour that develops a glossy metallic dark silver or gunmetal colour. It does this easily, without any particular effort on the part of the user. In fact, when I put these in the kiln, they actually looked a streaky chocolate brown, which worried me a little, but they came out gorgeous! The top mandrel is a single bead, from the left, Tahitian Pearl, Metallic Black, and Dark Silver Plum. You can see the Metallic Black has a slightly gold hue, and indeed, I have always found it to have richer colours than the Dark Silver Plum." Read more at Dwyn's blog.

– Dwyn Tomlinson

– Irina Sergeeva

"This is a base of CiM Garnet with Tahitian Pearl stringer. Tahitian Pearl is a beautiful color. I got a pretty thick rod of it however it was very shocky, which made it challenging to work with but worth the effort. I pulled stringer with the pieces. It makes a great stringer that is easy to control. It likes to be worked on the cooler side- if it gets too hot it bubbles a little which just gives it an antique look. Depending on how long you work it, the color ranges from gunmetal to satin bronze. I think the glass is worth the effort to work with it."

– Caroline Davis

"Tahitian Pearl is a new reactive colour from CiM, reminiscent of Gunmetal, and close to Effetre Dark Silver Plum. This is a soft glass and you can see the metals in this as you melt it. If you allow it to cool slightly and pass quickly through an oxygen rich flame repeatedly you will achieve a pretty matt effect. In a neutral flame you get a very pretty silvery grey sheen. As this is a reactive glass I wanted to see how it would work with a reduction frit, so I made some beads with Double Helix Triton frit. After shaping it was passed quickly through a medium reduction flame twice. This yielded the most beautiful rainbow effects and I'm really keen to explore this further. While not shocky, it does benefit from keeping warm in between making beads. Sadly it doesn't like to be encased [I tried a couple of colours] but it redeemed itself with the fabulous reactions with the frit."

– Trudi Doherty

"Hold on to your knickers, girls! Those wings are the new CiM Tahitian Pearl. WAY easier to use than Effetre Dark Silver Plum."

– Lori Peterson

"Tahitian Pearl melted smoothly with no shockiness or bubbles. This is a fabulous glass. I loved it so much, it gets an absolutely beautiful reduction on it, without devitrification. It is great just alone as a bead and wonderful as a base or dots on another base. The stipple stitch bead photo doesn’t do it justice, the colors are gorgeous. I know I want some more of this color."

– Paula Schertz

"To get an even more pronounced silver metallic finish you can waft your bead through a slightly propane or oxygen rich flame to add a deeper and richer patina. The petals on these flower beads were swiped on to the blue base bead in an oxygen rich flame, the resulting silver patina looks like brushed pewter." Read more at Kitzbitz Art Glass' blog.

– Jolene Wolfe

"Tahitian Pearl is just dreamy to work with, it is super soft and buttery when melted and it has the most subtle metallic silver shimmer even when worked in a neutral flame. These leaves and spacers have been created in a neutral flame - I flashed the leaves in and out of the flame a couple of times once they were formed to create a little more silver surface shimmer." Read more at Kitzbitz Art Glass' blog.

– Jolene Wolfe

"Whichever effect you want, I’d suggest not allowing the bead to get too hot whilst reheating it because as the metal in the glass rises to the surface to do its metallic magic, it can fizz and bubble and once this has occurred those fizzy bubble scars are in your bead for good. But maybe you want that. You can work on this glass nice and gently in the flame for sculptural stuff and it will pretty much do the shiny work for you. I worked on the heart-shaped bead for about fifteen minutes, shaping, cooling and reheating. You can see a hint of a purplish oil-slick thing on the top left and on the right hand side you can see a few fizzy bubble scars where I let it get a tad too hot. There’s a nice kind of crackle thing happening in places too. Over-all the bead has a pleasing satin haematite sheen to it." Read more at Laura's tumblr.

– Laura Sparling

Left: CiM Tahitian Pearl, Right: Effetre Nero Metallico. See more of Claudia's work.

– Claudia Eidenbenz

Left: CiM Tahitian Pearl, Right: Effetre Nero Metallico. See more of Claudia's work.

– Claudia Eidenbenz

"Loving this new color from CiM, aptly named Tahitian Pearl. The 3 beads show a distinct variation between the levels of finish. One was worked quickly with a room temperature mold and is very sleek/smooth [pictured in the back]. The second was worked repeatedly in a warm mold and has a more lustrous matte finish [pictured in the front-middle]. The last bead has a heavy metallic sheen from turning down the oxygen during the flame polish [pictured on the right]. The finishes are easy to repeat and were achieved in a torch running on natural gas and an oxygen concentrator. No shocking or bubbling occurred during testing."

– Heather Sellers

"The color that stands out for me is Tahitian Pearl. It’s creamy and very nice to work with and the color is amazing."

– Pati Walton