This week I took a Fused Glass class. The class was really cool. Several weeks ago I saw a ‘That’s Clever’ program on HGTV where the artist made a beautiful pendant using fused glass. It reminded me that Voyager (our RV Park here in Tucson) has a fused Glass group. When I checked they told me that they were offering a beginners class on Dec 18, so I signed up. Before I signed up I asked how long after the class would it take me to make a pendant. She said I would have finished one by the end of the class. The class was Monday morning. We started by listening to some basics of fused glass, specifically an introduction to some of the tools. Then they turned us loose at some stations with the tools, some trays of glass; both decorative and simple and some patterns. I decided to make an Oval pendant of black glass with blue decorative pieces and clear glass on top. In order to do that I had to cut and grind the black and clear glass into the oval shape. (The clear glass had to be a little larger than the black glass so during the firing it would drape). I had to also cut the decorative Glass pieces to fit into the oval shape. Because I wanted to have a hole through the piece (from side to side), I also needed a half piece of clear glass for the back. Because I had some more time I decided to make a red piece and then made earrings to match both pieces. The red pendant and both sets of earrings do not have clear glass on top of the colored glass so the decorative glass is more pronounced. After we made the pieces we fired them. The classroom in addition to 5 grinders has 5 small kilns and one large one. Unfortunately, when I fired the blue piece it slipped so I had to recut the piece and fire it a second time. The firing took a long time so by the end of the Monday the only piece I had fired was the blue pendant and because of the slip I needed to wait to fix it.
Tuesday morning I came back to cut and refire the blue pendant and to fire the other pieces. That took several hours. I still needed to get the findings and put the pieces together.
I have seen many expensive pieces of fused glass that I loved and always thought that the glass was the most important part of the piece, but as usual the devil is in the details. This process has taught me that although the fused glass is important what really makes a difference between expensive pieces and their less expensive counterparts are the artist’s eye and the findings.
This is a photo of the blue pendant and earrings. The pendant had clear glass, a wire to hold the hole, black glass, 7 dark and light decorative blue pieces, and clear glass on top. The earrings had black glass and a single piece of decorative blue glass.
This is a photo of the red/gold pendant and earrings. The pendant has clear glass, a piece of paper to hold the hole and several small pieces of clear glass to keep it level, black glass and 6 pieces of red and gold decorative glass. The earrings had black glass and a single piece of decorative red glass.
This is a photo of both the blue and the red/gold pendant and earrings so you can see the relative sizes of them.
Several days later I went back and selected the findings. Because I had refired the blue piece, the hole in it was very small so we decided to use bead wire and beads. I chose small black beads with larger blue crystals. The earrings were small enough that I could use tops with wires.
The Red/Gold Pendant has a larger hole so we were able to use a black tie. The earrings were too wide for wires so we put posts on them.
Quilting I pretty much finished the quilts I was working on so I’ve started a new one. It is a child’s quilt with alternating Nine Patch and Snowball squares. I am trying to use up some of Quilters II’s fabric scraps. The Nine Patch squares are made with red fabric and different bright fabrics. The Snowball squares are made from a bright multicolor puppy print with the same red (as in the Nine Patch squares) fabric corners. It should be a cute quilt. As soon as I finish it, I will publish a photo.
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