CiM: Messy Color™ Fremen, An opaque sky blue.

Messy Color™ Fremen

511568 -

An opaque sky blue.

Click here to view Fremen Uniques

"I used Fremen as the background color of my award winning tree pendant design thinking it was the perfect shade of sky blue. I was delighted to see the cool color reaction to the Morretti dark yellow I used as the sun and dark red that I used as the flowers. They both got a beautiful dark ring border just like turquoise on ivory." – Kari Chittenden

Click here for other interesting Fremen discoveries.

Gail Witt

Heather Sellers

Helen Vanek

Laura Sparling

Kevan Aponte

Chris Haussler

CiM Tester Feedback

Testers disagreed on how Fremen compared to Italian Sky Blue.

"I really dislike Fremen, it is way too reactive. I wanted to use this in my tree beads but couldn't as it made a grey mess!" – Claire Morris

"I found sky blue boiled easier, but was stiffer and had a more pure color in the bead. The Fremen beads had striations in them that I didn’t care for as much. I prefer the true solid color of sky blue." – Donna Dorman

"Sky blue does ‘play’ more if you like that sort of thing but it really went down hill the past few batches. Italian = shocky and full of black specks inside." – Elasia

"I made beads for a bracelet with half of them made with Fremen and the others with light Sky Blue, and I can’t see any difference in the two colors. There may be a little more of the darker blue lines that appear from winding the glass with the Fremen, but I don’t mind that. Other than that I didn’t find any difference between the two colors." – Gail Witt

"Fremen and Sky Blue are pretty much identical in color and consistency when melted, although the rods look slightly different. They both turn red when reduced, but seems like Fremen was slightly less quick to change than Sky Blue. When I put Peace dots on both, the dots were more crisp and brighter looking on the Fremen as well." – Lori Bergmann

"Effetre 224 / 228 and Fremen reacted with dark ivory as turquoise. Darker the shade, darker and sharper the black/gray line between blue and ivory. When reduced strongly, all glasses reduced to brick red." – Maija-Leena Autio

"The Italian sky blue seems a little more pale and opaque. Fremen seems to have more lines in it and is not as smooth of a color. Acts more like a light turquoise, instead of the sky blue. However, it doesn’t seem to turn red quickly when too close to the cones, the way the sky blue does." – Marcy Lamberson

Special thanks to Genea Crivello-Knable, Maija-Leena Autio, Leslie Anne Bitgood, & Pat O'Brien for providing the photos in this section.

Genea Crivello-Knable used Fremen to make robin's eggs.

Darlene Collette use Fremen as a base for goldstone frit.

Check out Laura Sparling's polka dot beads made with Fremen & Glacier.

Laura Sparling made beads with Fremen, Smurfy, & Grumpy Bear.

Genea Crivello-Knable used Fremen when playing with "friends & fire" - visit her blog for photos.

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.

"It is the unpleasant dirtiness that Effetre Dark Sky Blue and Dark Turquoise acquire in the flame that makes me prefer CiM Fremen and CiM Smurfy when I'm looking for a turquoise that is in this hue range. The CiM colours don't do this icky thing."

– Melanie Graham

"Some 99% pure silver wire was wrapped around the top and you can see the slight reaction of the fuming of the silver where it is connected to the Fremen sky blue opaque glass." Read more at Darlene's blog.

– Darlene Collette

"Here you can see that Fremen turns brick red when you reduce it. This is a common characteristic of colours that contain a lot of copper." Read more of Melanie's testing.

– Melanie Graham

Janice Peacock was recently an Artist in Residence at the Museum of Glass [Tacoma, WA] where she worked with a team of glass blowers to create large scale versions of her small flameworked sculptures. Watch this YouTube video about the project.

– Janice Peacock

"Fremen is a lovely color. It does seem to work a bit easier [than Italian Sky Blue] with a decreased tendency to go metallic. The reaction with other colors like Ivory seems to be a bit more subtle which I like [shown here]. Used as a stinger for fine work, Fremen and Smurfy beat the Italian glasses hands down. They don’t melt into the surface as easily as the Italian versions. The Italian versions seem 'soft'."

– Chris Haussler

– Kari Chittenden

Fremen, Smurfy, and Triton.

– Chris Haussler

"Fremen has a nice little reactive border [on top of Cinnamon Chocolotta]." Read more at DragonJools blog.

– Dwyn Tomlinson

"The etching really made the Fremen glow!"

– Lauren Bramble

“In the course of experimenting though I did fall in love with how soft and beautiful Fremen looks when encased with Messy Clear and then acid etched.” Read more at Craft Pimp.

– Jolene Wolfe

A comparison of Fremen and other colors in a reduction atmosphere.

– Genea Crivello

"Fremen on black and reduced to bring up copper. Just had to try this as I love the copper that comes to the surface. I only wish that I could control the results."

– Leslie Anne Bitgood

See how Fremen fits into the 104 color palette. Read more and see more comparison beads including etched versions at Lush Blogs.

– Julie Fountain

"I found a slot for Fremen right in between Effetre Sky Blue 224 and Effetre Opaque Light Turquoise 234." Read more at Julie's blog.

– Julie Fountain

"There are no traces of the dull metallic silveryness that you get with the Effetre dark turquoise. And, as a matter of fact - I reduced it, it went sort of streaky and ugly, and then I turned the oxy back up, and the streakiness went away, except for 2 little marks. Making it, I think, a little more forgiving of incorrect flame atmosphere." Read more at DragonJools blog.

– Dwyn Tomlinson

"I tried doing my usual landscapes in CiM as I usually do in effetre, using Fremen, Sapphire & Peace instead of effetre white, mid blue and light sky blue. But as you can see - they reacted somewhat and made a stormy brown/grey sky!"

– Claire Morris

"If you have ever used one of the Italian turquoises, you know that they have a tendency to pit as you work with them. The Italian dark turquoise turns black /gray on the surface the more you heat it in the flame and is such a frustrating color to work with, that I stopped using it 15 years ago. The good news is that both Fremen and Smurfy are wonderful creamy pastel turquoise colors that don’t pit or turn black." Read more at the Frantz Art Glass blog.

– Patricia Frantz