I'm thinking Christmas

Day of the Dead--cat coaster

Crashing boar?

I thought I was going to work on etching glass this week. Somehow this boar got in the way and I ended up painting him (or her) on glass and then he/she landed on a 9" x 12" x 1" plate. Boar isn't just for Thanksgiving anymore.

I used Glassline paint this time, instead of the usual Reusche brand because I wanted to get on with etching and get the boar out of my head. I sandwiched 90 coe cobalt blue frit between two pieces of 90 coe clear, the top layer of clear was painted. Fused all of it in one firing at 1460 dF and then slumped it into a plate mold at 1260 dF.

$50.00 for the perfect Christmas gift for the hunter in your life. Can you say NRA?

Margaret's birthday present

My daughter, Margaret, is having a birthday in a couple of days. She lives in an old, Victorian-style shotgun house in the Midwest, with 10' ceilings and original wide plank hardwood floors. There are transoms above some of the doorways and a high, narrow window on one wall in the living room. This is where this window will go. The room receives very little light from this window because of the overhanging pine trees in the neighbor's yard; thus, the clear "crackle" background glass. There is a yellow agate slice hanging in the limbs of the tree.

The window is 40.5" long x 16.5" tall and is copper foiled. I ran out of solder today which is exasperating because I was only able to solder the front side of the glass. Backside, with re-bar, will be done when my solder shipment arrives.

Tree of life stained glass panel

I am making a "tree of life" stained glass panel to fit in a long, narrow window that is high up on a wall (10' ceilings) in a Victorian era shot-gun house in Kentucky.  The window has restricted back light because of thick pine tree branches that cover the view.

 This is a close up of the panel. I am using Uroborus bright, grenadine red on clear wispy glass for the fall side of the tree and a bright yellow agate slice with crystals for the sun. The background is Spectrum clear crinkled glass. The texture of the background glass diffuses the light in different directions.

On the summer side of the tree I am using Kokomo dark green and lime green on clear wispy glass for the leaves. The middle of the tree, where the leaves change from green to red, is cut from Kokomo green, cerise, ruby red on clear streaky. The trunk and branches are cut from an opalescent Uroborus glass, and the bottom of the window is cut from Youghiogheny beige, copper, cobalt blue with a dark green stipple. It looks gorgeous with a minimum of light behind it. The window will be copper foiled and encased in 1/2" wide zinc came. To aid in structural support I will add curved, narrow re-bar along the top of the ground line as well as copper re-stripping in strategic areas of the tree. None of the structural support will show.

Baptismal bowl

Baptismal bowl with hand painted doves on clear glass, fired on royal blue dichroic glass underneath. Bubbles formed between the clear painted cap and the dichroic glass, giving the bowl depth and texture. The bowl is 17" in diameter and is 1.75" deep. Given to Rev. Steve Petty.

Fused bowls

15.5" diameter emerald green dichroic glass bowl with clear dichroic frit and red and blue frit.  Depth is 1.75".  Food safe.

Emerald green dichroic bowl showing depth.

Hand painted Celtic tree of life on teal/emerald dichroic glass, capped with clear.  Food safe.  17.5", 1.75" deep.  Here you see the emerald color.

Here you see the teal color!

 9.5" fish dish for a child's room.  Fish are made from different color frit, fused in a hand cut mold, then tack fired onto a fused Bullseye streamer piece backed with clear.   Food safe.

17.5" reptillian pattern dichroic bowl fused with glass beads and capped with clear glass.  Depth is 1.75".  Food safe.

My favorite contemporary piece!  17" squiggle bowl with "voltage" dichroic glass offset in the center.  The "squiggles" are glass rods slumped over forms in the kiln, then tack fused onto the fused voltage on clear base.  Not food safe.

Odd shaped 18.5" x 14" x 1.75" bowl.  Not food safe, more like a sculpture.  You can see the brilliant turquoise reflections in the dichroic glass. This glass is on a clear background, so light reflected through the bowl shines onto the surface below.

 Celtic "Tree of Life" bowl made from 18" round dichroic glass with hand painted clear glass cap.  Fused at 1465 degrees Fahrenheit, then slumped at 1225 degrees Fahrenheit into a 17.5" mold. The dichro is teal green when viewed in one light, and a light cobalt blue when viewed in another.

The bowl is sitting on top of a pair of welding gloves. These are big leather gloves I use to take hot (but not too hot) glass from the kiln.

Not your daughter's home made pot holder

 I call this sculpture "Open Weave." It is on a 10" x 10" flat piece of black glass backed with clear. The "squiggles" were slumped about a week ago.  They stuck to the rods on which they were slumped, and broke off in different lengths. 

Boy was I mad. I broke all but one of the rods trying to get the glass to part company. That is what I get for trusting Boron Nitride mold release spray to last more than one firing. It didn't. The glass I had left from that slump I wove (literally) together and came up with this.

Another bunch of broken stuff put to good use. The 

squiggles are tack fired onto the fused black and clear glass.

A new direction--Contemporary!

This is a 3-stage firing project I started several days ago. The diameter of the 96 COE dichro center is 13" and the clear 96 COE base is 17.5". The dichro is purposely cut so that the center eye is still in the middle of the clear base, with the surrounding dichro closer to the edge of the clear in  one place than in another. I had previously slumped 96 COE colored rods over "squiggle" forms. Some are clear and some are opaque.

The first stage was to fuse the 13" dichro to the 17.5" clear at 1460 df in 5 ramps. After cooling that fuse, I tack fused the squiggles to the dichro and clear glass at 1265 df in 4 ramps. There are now three layers of glass to slump in the bowl form. This was done at 1265 df in 5 ramps. The bowl is 1.75" deep. Creating contemporary art is fun!

More Red Nebula bowl pictures

After "sleeping on it" I think I am beginning to like this piece of glass. I may still let the supplier know about the color changes which occurred during firing.

 The brilliant aqua streak in the lower left corner is one of the surprises one sees in dichroic glass. Move the glass in another direction, or show it in another light and the aqua streak appears white.

The aqua streak is gone, and there is a lemon yellow reflection I didn't see in the base glass prior to firing.

Two new bowls

Close up showing frit design

Red Nebula bowl

In the past few weeks I made two bowls and have learned what happens to the base dichroic glass when fired at full fuse temps of 1430 to 1460 df. The Red Nebula bowl is fused out of a piece of what I believed was brilliant red "Pixie Stix Godiva" COE 96 glass. It arrived cut in an oval shape with two flat long sides, not round as pictured on the seller's website. When I first viewed it online the pixie stix that tracked all over the glass were obvious, and the aqua, gold, brilliant green and red reflections were spectacular. Cutting it into a shape that still reminded me of a nebula, yet retained a balance of the brilliant colors was a challenge.  Alas, to no avail. After firing the glass on a backing of clear 96 COE, I was extremely disappointed to find that the base dichroic colors had faded to a cocoa color unless a bright light was shone on it. However, I am happy that the slump went well, and the curvature of the bowl is nice. The bumpiness of the frit and small bubbles add texture and depth when viewed in person. Dimensions are 17.25" x 14.25" x 1.75".

I call this one the wedding bowl. I made it for my daughter, Margaret and her new husband, Michael, who recently married. The base glass is nearly a full 18" round sheet of 96 COE thin "Reptilian" on black (from the same seller). I fused the dichro to a base glass of 96 COE clear at 1450 df, sprinkled with clear backed dichro frit to follow the network of design on the base glass. The bowl is 15.5" across and 1.75" deep. The picture, above and right, shows the dichroic frit glowing against the darker background.  I think I like the black background dichroic base glass better than the white background of the red bowl. The colors stand out better.

Update on "One of those days"

Did you ever have one of those days when a lot of things don't go right? Today was one of those days.

Gorgeous 10.5" diameter pink glass circle fused with dichroic bits, fused onto clear 10.5" diameter circle for strength, then slumped in a ring mold in order to tack fuse to another, opposing 6" diameter white wispy circle which was also fused with a 6" diameter circle of clear for strength.

Hah!  That makes nearly .5" of thickness at the base when it all melts together. Not only did the slump go awry (still haven't figured out why) but the ring mold is in it's full, upright position--neither sliding off up or down.

In this pic you can see the dichroic pieces trekking along a swirl of white in the pink glass. You can also see the enormous cracks caused by .5" of base glass not cooling as fast as .25" of pink glass.

At any rate, this pic reminds me of looking at a colonoscopy, or a child's potty, or a chamber pot gone seriously wrong. 2-26-12



2-27-12
Today I finally figured out what went wrong: the pink glass I used was not rated for fusing or slumping unless used alone. Dear me! Will I ever learn to keep my fusible glass separate from my regular stained glass? Will I ever manage to keep separate my 96 COE from my 90 COE? Will Ken and Barbie ever age? Tune in tomorrow for another installment of "As the Glass Melts."

Look at this glass!

I bought this huge 19" diameter round piece of dichroic glass with the idea of slumping it into a huge bowl. The mold I wanted has been discontinued.  "If I have to cut this up to fit something smaller, why not get some design ideas from my friends?" I thought.  So, I'm opening this up to a group design.  Anyone who wants to join in can be part of the process. Ultimately I want to design a line of celestial bodies in plates and bowls, vases and drop ring molds.

Here is the glass:

 

The center "eye" measures approximately 2" from the outside bluish part.  The darker center is 1 3/8". It will have to be fused onto clear to strengthen it since the dichro is thin.  We can add other colors into the mix, add clear dichroic beads in wispy strands, put iridescent black glass in between sections.

Not glass this time

Today I watched a video on wire wrapping, a skill I needed to improve when making jewelry. I got a lot out of it.

Here are some pictures of a necklace I made using a matte polished agate piece wrapped in sterling half hard round wire, strung on thin, stiff drape sterling wire, which I then attached to a sterling "wiggle wire" collar. I used small sterling paddle eye pins for extra visual interest and wrapped the loops together with thin gold wire.



My mom painted the oil painting I used for the backdrop.  She was such a good artist!


I think this looks very Victorian.