CiM: Messy Color™ Arctic Milky Ltd Run, A pale milky blue in rod form; once worked and annealed it turns a mossy green.

Messy Color™ Arctic Milky Ltd Run

511593 -

A pale milky blue in rod form; once worked and annealed it turns a mossy green.

"Arctic Milky was a surprise. Seems it changes color depending on the length of time it is in the flame / amount of heat it gets. This bead was worked for a bit and it ended up this olive green inside instead of blue. Interesting color, not intended for this bead, but I'm sure there is a use for it in other color combos. I will try smaller beads, shorter flame time, to see how blue I can make it stay." – Anna Miller

Click here for other interesting Arctic Milky Ltd Run discoveries.

Trudi Doherty

Darlene Collette

Olga Ivashina

CiM Tester Feedback

Testers reported that Arctic Milky color shifts. The only testers who were able to retain the blue color worked quickly & small. Longer working times or adding silver resulted in the darker olive grey color.

Special thanks to Claudia Eidenbenz & Bianca Gruber for 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.

"As many CiM testers have communicated, Arctic has not behaved as expected. In the rod it is a light blue milky opal. My testing results for Arctic Misty resulted in a dark bottle green brown when I paired it with silver glass. In anticipation of a similar result in testing the Milky version, I intentionally used Double Helix Aurae fine glass frit to create this set of beads. The spacers are solid Arctic Milky. It is a belief of mine that a kiln environment with silver glass present may be a clue to why this blue glass changes color so dramatically." See more at Darlene's blog.

– Darlene Collette

"Arctic, top misty, bottom milky. It was going along fine with the misty, and just as I was about to put it in the kiln, I noticed that the body looked scorched. I have no idea what happened. I don't know if this was me or something that this color does. The milky version was no problem."

– Dwyn Tomlinson

"Still no idea what happened with the Misty [right], but the Milky [left] is a lovely semi-transparent robin's egg with a strong green undertone whisper."

– Bling Squared Cute Glass

"Arctic Misty and Arctic Milky are a beautiful blue in rod form. I am not really sure what to describe them as worked. An odd greenish brown? While working, everything looked okay. A bit of odd color was visible going into the kiln, more so with the Misty version. The glass itself worked beautifully. No problems there. I decided to go small and quick and made birdie pairs. Top row is just before going into the kiln. Bottom row, after. Again, not what I expected. I figured the small size and quick working would take care of the color change. I was wrong. The birdies were the last thing made for the day. I garage at 925⁰ for two hours past the last bead in. I don't know if cooling in a fiber blanket then batch annealing would work."

– Chris Haussler

“The lovely pale turquoise rods are spike to my lover-of-all blues heart. Imagine my shock when I opened my kiln to find this mossy brownish green glass! I had no clue that this would happen while I was using it, it went into the kiln blue with no hints of the final colour. Now, if you are a lover-of-all greens, this glass may speak to you. My studio mate was very excited by it and is planning to buy at least 3 pounds. Me, not so much. Arctic Milky and Misty are shown here as sculpted flowers, a hollow heart and as a spacer bead.”

– Janet Evans

– Anna Miller

"My favorite thing about testing new colors are the little surprises! Both Arctic Misty & Milky reminded me of a beautiful gemstone shade of aqua blue. The more I worked with the Misty version the darker and more green it became. I worked these two colors in a cooler, oxidising flame and had no issues with boiling or shockiness."

– Michelle Veizaga

"I have experimented with Arctic . . . I have found that made early on in a session it will go green. But small beads [13 mm] made at the end keep their colour!"

– Trudi Doherty

"The small beads kept the colour well like the rod shade. It seemed longer times created the muddy green."

– Jean Daniels

"Wow, this glass was weird. In rod, it is a pale blue-green. When melted, it ranges from that pale blue-green to a much deeper moss green. You can see in the single color spacers that it doesn't take much heat to have it turn mossy. Truly a unique glass, indeed."

– Lori Peterson

"Arctic Misty [top] and Milky [bottom]. It was going along fine with the misty, and just as I was about to put it in the kiln, I noticed that the body looked scorched. I have no idea what happened. I don't know if this was me or something that this color does. The milky version was no problem."

– Dwyn Tomlinson

"Arctic Milky was intended to be the milky opal version of CiM Frost. I don’t see the family resemblance I’m afraid. Frost is such a pure ice blue colour and Arctic reminds me of stormy seas."

– Bianca Gruber

“Arctic Misty melted on the murky greeny blue side whereas Milky was a cleaner pretty opal aquamarine. A slight colour shift occurred [more so to Misty] after kiln annealing. They both melted fine in the flame and not shocky at all.”

– Bianca Gruber

“I made a sculptural bird bead with Arctic Milky. At first, the color seemed fine, but by the time the bird was completed it had turned to a dark transparent olive grey. Not sure what the issue is there. I began with a clear ‘core’ body and then encased in Arctic Milky. This gives an opportunity to see encasement with the color. The head, wings and tail were added straight from the rod. I used Reichenbach Deep Black for the base of the beak followed by Effetre Pastel Yellow. The eyes were also Reichenbach Deep Black.”

– Kim Fields

"I was doing sculptural work, that glass only on each bead. I had been in the flame for about 20 minutes, manipulating it, when it looked like parts of Arctic might have turned brownish - not deep brown, but much lighter. I tried 'unstriking' it- heating it up really hot will sometimes reset the color. It didn't work. I could still see some of the Arctic, but it also looked like it had some of the light brown color in it. So this morning, I opened the kiln and the bead was black. Big surprise. It was black all over, too, which was interesting, because it didn't look like the brown extended for all of it when testing."

– Marcy Lamberson

"Arctic Milky looks to be a pale opal blue shade in rod form. When I opened the kiln I was very surprised to find these lovely warm grey hearts. As before, the misty version of this glass has more translucence [white dots] but also I find that Arctic Milky looks more pastel than its misty counterpart." See more at Kitzbitz Art Glass' blog.

– Jolene Wolfe

"Arctic Milky is a trip!! I expected it to look like a bluer version of Peacock Green and that it would also play nicely with silvered ivory. Nope!!! The longer I worked it the more opaque and 'grey' it turned . . . my samples turned a solid grey black color . . . so I don't know if it's a heat issue or a chemistry reaction to a core of silvered ivory. There were no incompatibility cracks, so at least there's that. I've never had such a dramatic change in color other than maybe Ghee."

– Joy Munshower

Left to right: Arctic Milky, Arctic Misty.

– Claudia Eidenbenz