Plaid drop ring vase is a hit

The plaid glass drop ring vase is finally born.  I never know what will happen with glass when it enters and exits the kiln.  The plaid design sank into points at the red and yellow stripes, and the blue and purple plaid sank to the bottom of the vase.  How cool is that?

View from the top

View from the side

Rain rain go away!

I ordered a humongous kiln the other day--one with an inside length of 41.5" and width of nearly 24".  Where it goes when it arrives, I've no idea.  I'm excited, though!  Think of all the platters and plates and vases Oh MY!  Today I'm working on a ring drop vase using the multi-color plaid pattern I used for the candle holders.  This should be really interesting as the plaid will morph out of shape as gravity and heat pull it to the bottom to land against a flat surface.  Glass really IS an amazing thing.

Kiln withdrawal!!!

I've gone for two whole days without creating something.  Kiln withdrawal sucks!  Hopefully today I'll get back to making things.  We took the Christmas tree down and the sun is out.  Nothing left to do but create things all day long.  I'm happy!

Success with the green glass dish with white snowflakes!

After two unsuccessful attempts, I finally slumped a green glass bowl fused with white snowflakes.  That one's off my slumping agenda until next year.

Here are two 5" square candle holders (or ash trays or coasters or itty-bitty sushi plates).  The one on the left I call "The Evil Twin."  The one on the right is, you guessed it, "The Good Twin."  They are both made from 4" dichroic glass squares fused onto 5" square base glass (both sets are 96 COE tested).  The Good Twin looks like ice and actually takes on the characteristics of where you place it.  The black coaster is definitely dominant.  Because they contain dichroic glass, which is expensive, they run $50 a piece.

First of many posts, I hope!

 The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

When I started out working on fused and slumped glass, I had no idea how much fun it would be.  It took me three years to get up the nerve to turn on my kiln, and now I can't stay away from it.  So, here goes with a blog that has taken at least that many years to start.  

The Good The Bad and The Ugly are all pics of the same fused and slumped bowl I've been attempting to make for a lady who deserves the best.  First there came the somewhat perfect fusion of white snowflakes into emerald green glass (all 96 COE for those of you who need to know this stuff).  A large bubble popped during the fusing part.  I re-ran the fuse with a matching glass circle to plug the hole.  What a cool idea.  Not.  Then came the slump attempt, which I ran on a kiln-washed mold.  Uh-oh!  Should have scrubbed off the old kiln wash and reapplied new.  Shrinkage happened, and the glass was stuck to the mold.  Craaaaaaaaack!  Not to worry.  I will do it again, and get it right.