Messy Testing ... Tuxedo

A confession .. I've never used CIM Tuxedo before yesterday.

But now I have, I will again, cos I like it!  I definitely found it less stiff to work with than the other CIM black, Hades, and it kept its colour really well on white and clear.  Also I find Hades tends to break, rather than shock, when I'm heating it - Tuxedo didn't do this.

First of all I made three little black beads using Tuxedo, Hades and regular Effetre black 591064.  You can see from the photo that neither of the CIM blacks performed too well in this test - they both show some slight reduction and shadowing around the edge of the white dot, whereas the white dot sits clean and crisp on top of Effetre black.  


When used as dots on white, the Tuxedo fares better than Hades with only a slight metallic edge, while the Hades shows considerable bleeding into the white.  Again though, the Effetre black is crisp and sweet.


I have read that both the CIM blacks do exciting things when used with silver foil so I made three big hole beads and rolled them in a strip of foil.  I melted in the silver, allowed the beads to cool off then wafted them through a reducing flame - I think they all look the same!


Hmm, not having much luck so far ... how about trying out some webbing.  This time I added Effetre Intense Black to the party.  The photos speak for themselves - top marks goes to the Intense Black, closely followed by Hades.  The Tuxedo has certainly softened and spread, and the Effetre black hasn't webbed at all!  


But the biggest surprise result in this test is the colour of the different blacks - I expected the Effetre black to appear quite purple when etched, but look at that Tuxedo - its indigo!



Finally, I think Tuxedo has worked really well on these "crab" beads, simple black dots on the edge of Effetre Clear 006 lentils, etched.  

I know from past experience that Effetre black doesn't work in this design so have previously used Hades.  
Tuxedo is around a quarter of the price of Hades so I know what I'll be using in future ;0)