VitriGel Butterfly

This is about an 8” butterfly I hand cut out of opaque yellow glass by hand...not by saw. When trying to cut such a complicated shape it broke into 4 distinct pieces that fit cleanly back together. I cut a dam out of 1/8 inch fiber board with an exacto knife to hold the pieces together so they would not seperate in the fusing process. It was a gamble but worth the try. First I tacked the pieces together with the vitrigel. Then I preceeded to paint the butterfly with the vitrigel and glass powders. I thoroughly dried the piece in the oven at 225 degrees for about 25 minutes. Then covered the whole thing with clear frit and fired at a full fuse schedule. All the pieces fused back together nicely. Now I would like to attach some wire antennas.

The next butterfly piece I did was on a rectangular piece of opaque yellow glass. I used my same butterfly pattern that I had drawn for the cutout one above but added the subtle leaf backgound. Again I used the Vitrigel and powders to do the artwork. Below are some photos of the piece in progress.

Finished piece 6x9”