FUSED GLASS IRIS PANEL

This was quite a challenging piece. I started with a 6x9 clear base and a transparent dark blue top piece. On the clear base piece I used Vitrogel and glass powder mixture to create a background mottled texture. I just used a palette knife to move the mixture around until I like it. Then I began painting my flower with the Vitrogel and powders on the blue panel. I dried these pieces thoroughly. I decided to add leaves on the backside of the blue panel so they would be in the middle layer giving the piece some depth. I used my colorline white paint to do the leaves. That way it created a shadow effect by making those leaves opaque blue. I then fired these two pieces seperatly but together in the same kiln.

After the two pieces were fired I put them together and did a contour fuse. I wasnt quite happy with the piece yet so I added more leaves to backside and added green leaves to front side creating more depth. I contour fused this again but the green leaf kind of curled up on the edges and made a sharp edge. Not good. I ground the sharp part off did a little more painting with powders and full fused a last time. I am pretty happy with the piece now except one miner booboo. When I fired the first two seperate pieces the edges shrank in slightly and made a slightly thicker edge. So when I put the two pieces together there was an air pocket left between the two pieces. I was not observant enough at the time to notice that. When the two pieces were fused together bubbles were created. The only unusual thing about that was the bubbles are only in the background area around the flower not behind the flower anywhere???? Also no bubbles around the 1/2 inch border. At least it looks almost like the bubbles were intentional in the area where they occurred. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Next time I will top the back layer with clear frit to even it up level all the way across to eliminate that air gap.

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Fused Glass Powder Painting

This is a 5.5x11 piece. I first did the drawing in black glass powder on a clear piece of glass. I sifted an even coat of powder all over the glass then began removing powder in the sky and moving the remaining powder around with various tools and brushes. I continued to work forward adding and subtracting powder where needed. I placed this on top of a second sheet of glass and full fused it.

Next I turned the piece over and painted with colored powders mixed with aloe vera gel. I let it dry completely over night and full fused it again. Putting the color on the backside kept the front smooth and glossy. These can be displayed on the wall, framed or unframed, or placed in a free standing table stand of metal or wood.

The photo below is after the 3rd and 4th firing. On the 3rd I painted the backside completely with aloe French vanilla paint to make the piece more opaque. I forgot that French vanilla reacts with cyan blue and it created the gray shadowing effect in the sky and the water area. I wasn't really happy with that so I put some more Opal cyan powder on the front side hoping to get rid of some of that gray. I also put a light dusting of blue over the back hills trying to set them back in distance. I probably should have put a heavier solid layer of cyan on the sky and simplified it more. I think I'll be done with this piece and take what I've learned and move on to the next.

 

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Drawing With Frit Powder

I used a 6x6 square of white Opal glass for this experiment. I sifted black powder evenly over the sheet of glass. I used different tools like a toothpick, a small brush, and tweezers to make the sketch. Using my smaller sifter I added some areas with a rusty red powder and added some yellow with tweezers. Cleaned up area with the toothpick and removed some background powders with a brush.

Appearance after full fusing.

The piece below was done by sifting powdered glass over plastic mesh and plastic cut from a strawberry basket. I used black and yellow Opal powder on white Opal glass. Yellow stringer was used in the corners.

Appearance after full fusing.

I will probably slump this into a sushi plate or small bowl.

 

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Fused glass pendants

Fused Glass Cabochons

These are some beginner cabochons I made from scrap glass. Most of these turned out OK. Some I used white pre made dots for embellishments. The second from the top left I used clear frit in the center crevice. The lower left one I used fuseable paint between layers and it caused the bubbles to form. Not what I had in mind. In the next photo I tried the paints again and put them on the top layer with better success. I think if You want the paints in the middle you would need to pre fuse the paint on the first layer then add the second layer and then full fuse everything to eliminate bubbles. The right bottom one had clear frit chunks on the purple area but they sunk in and disappeared. Lessons were learned on these.

Fused glass cabochons

These cabachons were more experiments. The glass painted ones were painted on the top clear layer over the opaque glass. The right top one is painted directly on the opaque glass. No clear cap, just clear on bottom. The second one on top has clear cap with paint on top of clear. The far left top is clear bottom layer, middle chunks of black, red, and dichroic, top layer clear again. The bottom row could be earrings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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More Fused Glass

Fantasy Poppy Plate...9x12 fused glass

This is a one of a kind plate. I designed the plate on my iPad and printed out a pattern. I hand cut all the pieces from glass and put the design pieces on two sheets of black glass and I hand painted the veines and stamens with glass line paint. I added some frit and green glass dots to each flower center and then fused in the kiln.

12x9 fused glass dish

Geometric Fused Glass Platter

My goal for this plate was to use opaque and transparent glass and to use up some scraps. I kind of designed it as I went along cutting the glass.

This shot shows off the transparent pieces. Depending on the surface its placed on it has a different appearance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Fused Glass

Quilt Square Fused Glass Dish

Still here in El Mirage, Arizona fusing glass. This piece was made from scrap glass and patch worked together like a quilt block. I was quite happy with it. A good use of white dots I had left over and tiny white squares I cut from scrap. The dark green was a transparent scrap from the trash bin.

6x6 fused glass dish

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Fused Glass

More Fused Glass

We are still in Phoenix and enjoying the fused glass studio here in the RV golf resort. Here are a couple more pieces we have done here.

Divided dish with glass frit down the center

Art Panel backlit

 

Free Standing Fish

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Fused Glass

Side tracked from painting

I am in Phoenix area for three months at a RV golf resort. They have many working studios here and one of them is fused glass. So naturally I had to try my hand at it. The following photos are my first projects. It is a very addicting art form. I will have to see about how to follow up with this when I get back home.

 

 

 

 

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