Gearing Up for the Holidays with Fused Glass Ornaments

Every year, it seems that Christmas comes earlier and earlier. Well, if you're making items for the holidays, then it comes even sooner as you need time to make everything. For me, it's also a nice change to what I've been making this year. I've gotten to experiment with a few new designs and learned some things in the process.

New for 2011 will be a different snowflake design and poinsettia ornaments. I've been making snowflakes since 2008 and they've been fairly popular. Although each snowflake is fairly labor intensive with 17-18 individual pieces, I enjoy making them as I accumulate a lot of clear glass over the year and this is a great way to use up some of the excess (although I really haven't made too much of a dent). I start with drawing out several design options on paper and then pick the one I like best to make. As the snowflakes are rather detailed, drawing out designs tend to work better than coming up with something in my head. However, what I learned is that what may work on paper may not work in reality. Here's my first stab at a snowflake based on my design.

Not bad, but not quite at the same level as my original snowflake design and not quite the same look fired as pre-fired. Viewing the finished snowflake, I see that the design was not as tight as I would have liked and left room for error. So, I continued to play around with the design and came up with a new one that I like much better. What do you think?

My poinsettia ornaments were really an inspiration from one of my customers who commented that she could wear one of my red flower pins like a poinsettia. I was able to use some of the frit I had made too for the center.

These two new ornaments will be added to my existing ones: the original snowflake design and angels. I have a love-hate relationship with my angels. I love how cute they are when they're finished but the process of making them is laborious (lots of circle cutting, grozing or trimming the circles and then grinding or smoothing the circles) and precise (cutting and placing the stringer and glass chards for the face). While I made enough for this year, we'll see how I feel next year...

These ornaments are fresh out of the kiln, with the last load going in today. I have yet to drill the holes and attach the hanging ribbon but wanted to share with you what I've been doing the past two weeks. Hopefully they will be up on Etsy in the next week or so.

Frit Cast Experiment

During the year, there are times when you have more time to experiment on new work. For me, this typically happens at the beginning and end of the year when there are no shows. You may recall my post at the beginning of this year about making frit.

Well, one of the projects that I hoped to make was frit cast bowl. I had taken a class and made a 4.5" frit cast tile using only two colors of glass.

So, I hoped to use the technique to make a 12" bowl. I weighed the frit and fired the kiln. Unfortunately, this did not turn out as expected. This is because I measured the frit based on having 2 layers of glass, whereas my tile was based on a more than 2 layers. The technique was based on mounding the frit and having it spread out. Thus, I didn't have enough frit to nicely melt to the edges and the glass was at least 1" shorter than the intended 12" circle and of course, not uniform in thickness (thinner at the edges, thicker in the middle).

But not to waste anything, I've cut up the glass and incorporated it into the center of a plate.

I like the detail that you get from from the frit and could see doing more of these but adding more colors and making the frit more random (e.g. think of various colors of frit shaken up).

And, I'll still try to make that frit cast bowl. But, next time, I'll be more intentional at laying out the frit so it completely covers the base rather than mounding it and adding more frit overall. Once I get that done, I'll post it but most likely not until the end of this year or beginning of next, when I'm back to experimenting :)

How To Make Fused Glass Platters Using Pot Melts

I've made a number of platters using the glass I create from "aperture pours" or "pot melts." I like these because they are one-of-a-kind pieces as the glass used is individually created.

At shows, I am often asked I make these. First, I start by making the pot melts. These are created from putting various colors of sheet glass into a pot with one or more holes at the bottom. The glass is heated to about 1625-1700 degrees until it is molten and starts to flow out of the pot onto the kiln shelf. Because the glass is liquid, I use a stainless steel ring lined with fiber paper to act as a dam to contain the glass, so it doesn't flow off the shelf onto my kiln floor.

Depending upon the height that you place the pot above the shelf, you can create different patterns in how the glass drops. The way you lay out the colors in the pot also effects the design.

As I wanted to have 3 different centers, I created a third pot melt similar to the one above, then refired all three to thin them out as the dam resulted in glass that was a little too thick. Next, I sandblast the back to get rid of any kilnwash (what keeps the glass from sticking to the shelf) that may be on the back before I cut them up into 3" squares for the center.

Then I cut up sheet glass to add a border.

I fuse this face or design side down so that the lines are tighter around the border. After it comes out of the kiln, I coldwork or grind the edges so they are smooth and refire with the design side facing up. The result is the platter shown at the beginning of the post. And, the remaining glass from the pot melts is also cut up and used for other platters.

While it's difficult to tell from the photos, the pot melt glass contains raised ripples that were created as the glass dripped - I love this! What do you think? And, if you'd like to see some additional platters I've made, click here.

New Work: More Fused Glass Plates with Cut-Ups

Earlier I posted about various ways I make different types of glass that I cut up to create my fused glass plates. Here's a couple of the newer creations.

The first set are plates using a high temperature shelf melt:

Next, are some small and medium plates using a shelf melt that's sliced and laid on its side.

These styles are fairly new for me and I'm learning a lot about what I like and what others do as well. My favorite is the purple plate which looks really nice up close as you can all the different purple variations of the glass in the center. If you have a favorite or a style you like, let me know as I'd be interested in your thoughts.

New for Spring II: Fused Glass Window Pendants

I typically try to make new glass designs about twice a year, once before I begin my show schedule in Spring and the second before the holidays. Here's what I am calling "window" pendants because the solid glass creates a frame of the window that allows you to see the glass design. I have two styles, one where you see a glimpse and the other that reminds me of an open window with a roman shade.

To make these, I first make the patterned glass. This can be made from glass threads, chards, frit and bits.

After it's fused together, I cut it up with my tile saw and grind the edges to smooth them out so that they will fuse nicely in the next step.

And, I add the solid colored glass as the frame. This goes back into the kiln to be fused together.

Once again, I use my tile saw to cut the glass, this time into pendants. Next I grind the edges to make each pendant even. And then, these pendants go back into the kiln to be "fire polished."

Fire polishing gives the pendants a nice sheen as seen in the first photo above. This is my second batch of pendants. Here's a photo of the first batch just before going into the kiln to be fire polished.

I'm happy with how they turned out. In fact, the second batch is to restock some colors after my first show as well as expand into a few new designs. Let me know what you think.