Medicine cabinet panel is coming along nicely.

  Bear's head,  outlined and fired with Reusch dark umber, then painted with Reusch dark umber and black glass paint, using small sable brush and small stippling brush.  It took two firings--one for the outline and one for the detail work.  Not too shabby for a first attempt at something this intricate.  Below is a pic with some changes made to the mountains, lake, and added boulders which I plan to work into definition with the same painting techniques.  Goodbye butterfly!

Update on bathroom medicine cabinet

The client wants to re-design the cabinet door front.  After we got completely through the design process and he signed off on it I began buying and cutting glass.  The client's wife wants boulders in the design.  I said it would cost more money since I have to buy boulder-like glass, and the only place I would be willing to put the boulders is where the butterfly is right now.  Could be a fortuitous event.  I like where I put the tree, and I like the glass I used for it.  I like the shadows playing on the tree trunk.  Do you see the lenticular clouds on the right hand side?  Above the tree?  Glass is cool that way.  I'll put in the other tree tomorrow.   Tonight I worked on painting the bear's head with glass paint.  Argh!  Painting on glass is hard!          

Glass for a medicine cabinet door

There are some books in life that inspire me to attempt more difficult work.  One of those books is Clara and Mr. Tiffany, by Susan Vreeland.  This book has given me "new eyes" for looking at how water color paintings were translated into glass.  If you get a chance, read this book, along with The Forest Lover, and Luncheon of the Boating Party.  The descriptions of colors will make you drool and long to make yourself a better artist.

This is a scene of pine trees with Big Bear lake in the center ground, mountains and sky in the background and a brown bear (of course!) in the foreground.  This is for a bathroom medicine cabinet in a cabin in Big Bear so it will only be seen in the summer, when the cabin is open.  C'est la guerre, I guess.

The somewhat overwhelming butterfly at the bottom of the design was requested to match the butterflies in a bathroom chandelier...do you choose art to match your sofa?  God, I hope not.  Anyway, no back lighting for this piece, so all the glass has to have its own character without light behind it.  I looked at pictures of Tiffany windows to see how he chose his glass.  He actually had a number of women working for him who took his ideas and paintings (Tiffany worked in watercolors), copied the designs and chose and cut the glass.  He had his own glass blowing factory so he could have glass made the way he mixed his palette--glass mixed to match the interesting views in Tiffany's brain.

I can only begin to try to work like Clara Driscoll in the book.  It's always a work in progress.  I'll let you know how this looks when it's finished.  Until then, read and be inspired!

Photo transfers kiln-fused onto glass

Okay.  I think I've finally gotten this part of glass fusing right.  It's taken me since before May to figure out I was using the wrong decal transfer paper in order to fuse laser-printed black and white photos onto glass.  Papilio brand decal slide paper works only if you are using your home oven.  The decals blister, pop, and end up looking like smallpox scars if you put it in the kiln.  So...after ruining a lot of nice glass pieces I think I've finally gotten the knack of this.  This time I used "Fired-On" photo fusing decal paper.  Next time I'll remember to use a real camera instead of my cell phone and use a white background instead of my desk at work, which is a dull gray.  Ick.  It really looks better than this!

Galaxy bowl pics

Here is how the galaxy bowl turned out.  The center is a piece of dichroic and the shiny bits are the left-over dichroic I smashed with a hammer into frit.  The bowl looks different, depending on the color surface it is placed.  This bowl went through 3 firings--2 to fuse stuff, one more to slump it into the bowl shape.

The dichro frit was fused at full fusing temperature for 10 minutes, but it didn't melt into the glass completely.  Hence, the 3-D look, Star Warts look. 

Isn't the center of the galaxy fun?  I love dichroic glass!  

Pink and green confetti plate

Wavy plate, 10" square, made with 96 COE clear pink and green and pink confetti glass with black streamers.  The center (confetti glass) reminds me of green leaf bits and pink petals.  Definitely a spring time plate!  It's backed on 96 COE clear glass, so the total texture is smooth and it is food-safe.

Cost:  $120.00

Theory of Gravity Bowl

Phil said, "That's one huge black hole!"  I said, "Yes.  It is.  I wanted to see what one looked like."  "You can't see them," he said.  I replied, "Sure you can.  Look at this one."

This bowl was made out of 90 COE Bullseye black irradiated ripple glass.  The design was made with finely ground, multi-colored frit and Glassline Pens.  I fused the frit and Glassline colors in one 1465 df firing, then added the brightly colored glass beads as an after thought.  I tack fired the beads at 1300 df.  The third firing was to slump the glass, at 1265 df.  

Price:  $250.00 (it took a lot of man hours!)