Coasters, tiles and dishes, oh MY!

Moss green clear 1/2 inch strip border
around a 4" x 4" dichro on black square.
Four small clear rubber dots placed on
bottom of tile to keep it from skidding or
scratching the surface of tables.

black 1/2 inch strip border
around a 4" x 4" plaid center tile.
Plaid is labor intensive.
It is created by fusing 1/2 inch clear
colored strips of glass together in
repeating and alternate
directions.  This dish is slightly
curved.  

Moon and stars

I finally fired this piece I created back in 2010, only to find out then that it was too large for my little kiln.  The finished size is 7.57" x 11.50".

 Glassline paint on clear float fired at 1500 df 

 detail 

Size Matters!

 The big kiln works!!!  Test fire to follow.

 Look at the size of this thing.  I'm in love.

New kiln has arrived

I bought a huge Skutt kiln so I can make bigger projects.  It is about 3 times the size of my original kiln.  The electricians will be here on Thursday to put in a dedicated 220 circuit for it.  I haven't even taken it out of the box yet, so I'm really excited to see what my new toy looks like.  Anyone have a yearning for a large fused glass item?  Let me know.  I can't wait to see how many strange and unusual things hop out of my new kiln.

Just Kiln Time

My hugh Skutt kiln arrived today.  Now I can create really big stuff--plates, platters, bowls, sinks, glass people, weird things.  I've got a little creation in the pint-sized kiln right now.  I'm feeling good enough today to be out in the sunshine and resting and reading.

Saint Andrews bowl (with fault)

Well, the best laid plaid sometimes goes awry.  The plaid bowl I made cracked down the middle and fell into two pieces during the cooling cycle.  Argh!  Not to be daunted, I put it back in the kiln, inside the mold instead of over the upside down mold, and re-fired it to see what would happen.  I hoped to have it slump to the center of the mold and that gravity would force the cracked sides to meet and melt together.  I got my wish, partially.  It looks like an earthquake fault runs through it.  The heat fused the two ends of the crack, and left the middle open.  Not very useful as a bowl, but still, intriguing looking.  The sides of the bowl, which were actually quite symmetric, decided to flop over the edges of the mold, giving the piece a very "hanky" look.  Plaid glass hanky?  Wow.  I can't really name this "San Andreas Fault" because it's plaid--rather Scottish looking, so I'll just call it The Saint Andrews Bowl.  After all, Edinburgh, Scotland is situated on an extinct volcano, and San Andreas is Spanish for St. Andrew (I think...).  And there you have it.  Ta-DAH!!!

Time out for chemotherapy

I had my first 1/2 round of chemo yesterday so I'm not going to work on the glass much this week.  Probably won't work much next week either, since I have the other 1/2 on Monday.  The plaid fused plate is ready to slump into a bowl, after I grind down the edges so it won't sag under the edges of the mold.  I need to keep a good eye on this project.  A lot of time was spent putting it together and I don't want it to break when it's time to release it from the mold.