Creation is Messy

Customer Experience:

Messy Color testers had diverse responses to Rose Quartz. Rose Quartz varies widely in rod form and in worked form, sometimes appearing transparent, sometimes opalescent/translucent, and sometimes opaque. Please examine the photos on this page carefully as we have chosen them to demonstrate these variances.

The amount of opacification seems to depend on the following factors: the size of the bead, the length of the working time, how many times the bead is struck, the annealing time and temperature, the position in the flame (worked hot vs. cool), and/or whether or not the bead has been pressed.

If you are especially interested in achieving the translucent or transparent effect, we recommend trying Messy Color Blush which was engineered for this purpose. Blush is the same tonality as Rose Quartz.


A segment of our testers had success treating Rose Quartz like a striking color.

Rose Quartz, Gelly's Sty, and Rubino
Courtesy of Gelly Davis

“I love love love the new Rose Quartz! I think the name fits the color perfectly. Its consistency feels like Effetre transparents to me. It's a gorgeous translucent color, and the longer I worked it, the more opaque it became.” ~ Gelly Davis

“This is an astoundingly versatile pink glass. If you want it to stay transparent, just don't work it. If you wind a bead Rose Quartz will stay transparent, but if you put it back into the flame, it will go opaque. Rose Quartz will opacify even in small sizes if you strike it. This is one of my favorite glasses. It is comfortable to work, very predictable, and all around a marvelous glass.” ~ Tim Gottleber

Courtesy of Tim Gottleber

“Rose Quartz likes to be worked on the extremely cool part of the flame. I cooled it and put it back in the flame, and I got it to strike, but it also boiled and got scummy places on it.” ~ Gail Witt

"Rose Quartz is a fabulous glass, transparent or translucent, depending how long you work it." ~ Rachelle Goldreich

Other testers reported diverse results working with Rose Quartz.

Courtesy of Kevan Aponte

“This is another great pink color. The glass is fun to work with as the finished product might be different than what was expected. I found that the edges of the bead became transparent, but the center of the bead would be opaque. What a great combo. However, if you were using it in small amounts such as dots or stringer work, the outcome was transparent.” ~ Jan Whitesel Keeton

Courtesy of Sylvie Dreyfus

“I never figured this one out. I had one bead that had areas that were translucent and others that were completely opaque. I tried it over and over and got different results each time.” ~ Stephanie Risberg

“I didn’t have consistent results with this. I had some stringer decoration that was mostly translucent, but where it met itself, stayed transparent.” ~ Dianna Trout

“I liked the Rose Quartz much more than the Gelly’s Sty. I made a hollow bead from it and where I got it too thin, it is transparent, but the thicker parts of the bead were opalescent and the same opacity as the rod form.” ~ Janice Laster

Courtesy of Vonna Maslanka

“I worked this in a neutral flame, marvered , and it stayed opaque like in the rod.” ~ Teri Wathan

“I wish I knew how to keep it transparent. I only achieved this in smaller spacers. It devits when first working but was fine once on the bead – a cooler flame seemed to work well but I also couldn’t keep it translucent. When it goes opaque, Rose Quartz looks just like Gelly’s Sty.” ~ Chris Molter

Rose Quartz etches easily.

Top L to R: Gelly's Sty, Gelly's Sty etched
Bottom L to R: Rose Quartz, Rose Quartz etched
Courtesy of Jan Whitesel-Keeton

“It etched well, but when placed next to an etched Gelly’s Sty bead, there wasn’t much difference.” ~ Jan Whitesel Keeton

“Etches very easily with cream or liquid.” ~ Tina Lamasney