Concentrating on My Other Two Blogs

To cut back on some of the things that I am doing right now, I have decided to temporarily stop posting to this blog.

I have had my other glass blog since Jan. 2007 and have lots of posts about my Glass Art. My other Glass Blog has basically the same theme as this one. It is about my day to day life as a Fused Glass Artist. I post pictures of my Glass Art and discuss how I made it.

Be sure to visit my other glass blog at http://glassart.wordpress.com.

I recently added a blog inside of my website. The link to that blog is http://www.mastersglassart.com/blog328262.html. On this blog I will post my Newsletters, upcoming Art Festivals and other things related to my website.

While you are at this blog, be sure to check out the rest of my website www.mastersglassart.com.

See you at my other blogs!!!

Christine


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http://glassart.wordpress.com
http://www.mastersglassart.com/blog328262.html

Does Anyone Read This Blog?

Some of you may know that I have three blogs. I just added an internal blog in my website. All my blogs have the same subject: my glass projects from day to day.

I am a bit overwhelmed with three blogs.

Let me know what you think about eliminating one of my blogs.

Does anybody read this blog? Do you read my other blogs?

Christine

Check out my Fused Glass Creations!
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http://glassart.wordpress.com

Elegant Yellow Transluscent Candle Bridge

I have been so busy with the Art Festival last weekend. Before the Festival I was making glass and getting ready to do the show by myself by setting up everything by myself. Now, after the Festival, I am resting up and unpacking. The Festival was a lot of work, but I really enjoyed it.

I did fairly well at the Festival. I grossed the most I have ever done on any other Craft Fair. However, I'm not rich by any means :)

I loved talking to the people who came up to my booth to look at my Glass Art.

The yellow candle bridge at the top of this post is one item I sold for $22. I just made it a week ago. Luckily, I got a photo of it. The last four glass pieces I did before the show, I didn't get a chance to take a photo and one of the large plates sold at the Festival!! I'm not complaining, but I like to have photos of all my glass.

Anyway, about this yellow candle bridge, it is a pretty new mold for me and I have made four or five different colors and decorations. It's hard to see what I did with the black stringers, but I had a total of five stringers. I bent three of them in a candle flame in different configurations. I just tried this technique for this piece. I learned about the technique on www.warmglass.com. All I did was hold the stringer in the flame for 10 seconds and then quickly bend it as far as I wanted to. It was very easy and I didn't break any of them. One stringer has one bend and the other two have two or three bends. I know that I will be trying this again on other glass pieces.

Christine

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Art and Music Festival in Ashland, Oregon

I have a booth for the MidSummer's Dream -- Ashland's Premier Art & Music Festival. It's located in Ashland, Oregon on June 16 and 17. If you live in the area, be sure to stop by my booth!!

I have been very busy making glass for this Festival. We bought some new molds and a bunch of glass a couple of months ago, so I have been playing around with all my new toys!

Here is a photo of a small fluted bowl that I recently made. I fused two layers of black iridized glass and then I slumped it into the fluted bowl mold. I have been making a wide variety of glass art and have been having so much fun!

Keep checking out my website, www.mastersglassart.com, for new glass art I will be adding after the Festival (that is, if I don't sell everything :) ).

Check out my NEW BLOG, which is located in my website. The link is:
http://www.mastersglassart.com/blog328262.html

Christine -- Glass Artist

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Wine Bottle Spoon Rest

I bought a new mold a few weeks ago, so I could slump/fuse wine bottles for spoon rests. I love how this mold slumps a wine bottle. The neck is lifted up from the surface, so it is easy to grab and move. The middle part of the bottle makes a nice bowl shape -- the sides are raised up.

This wine bottle doesn't have to be a spoon rest. There are so many other uses, such as serving appetizers or any type of food, or it can hold any small trinkets or keys or jewelry. It also looks good on a stove or counter top.

Christine

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Glass Vase with Red Lace Design

I finished this Glass Vase a couple of days ago. I really love this piece. It is 6 1/2" high and 7" wide at the top. I just love the way the red glass lace moved with the glass and spread it out. I used a drop ring mold, the same one that I used in the Tutorial that I posted a few days ago. The only difference is that I propped it up 6" instead of 4."

Christine

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Cute Glass Butterfly Pin

Isn't this glass butterfly so cute? I bought a butterfly mold that is "V" shaped, a very wide V. I slumped this glass butterfly using the butterfly mold to give it some dimension. It is hard to see the dimension in this photo, but there really is just a little bit there!

Christine

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Glass Tutorial: Drop Ring Vase: Part 3

You were probably wondering if I was going to show you a picture of the Drop Ring Glass Vase by itself!! I thought I would give you a little suspense. Anyway, here is a photo of the glass vase.

For those of you who read both of my blogs, please forgive me for putting this tutorial on my other blog. I think I will add more details to this tutorial and put it on my website: www.mastersglassart.com

Christine

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Glass Tutorial: Drop Ring Mold: Part 2

It is the next day and I pulled the glass vase drop mold out of the kiln. It turned out really great!! The small colors of glass are tack fused to the clear. The drop turned out well -- the bottom of the glass sits flat on a table.


This picture shows the set-up that was in the kiln after firing.





This picture shows the glass vase from the side.

I am very pleased with how the glass vase turned out!!

Christine -- Glass Artist

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Tutorial: Drop Ring Mold: Part 1

Since I am making a glass vase today, I thought I would share with you the process I went through to make it (I hope it turns out ok, so you will see something nice :) ).

I am using a drop ring mold that is 9" in diameter on the outside and the hole is 5" in diameter. I cut two circles of clear glass (96 Spectrum) about 7" in diameter. I fused these two layers together in my kiln a couple of weeks ago. I want to have two layers of glass for this vase, because I am making it 4" tall and I don't want the vase to be too fragile.

I chose three colors of glass to add to the top of the clear layers. I gathered up my frit, stingers and scrap glass in these three colors and arranged them with no particular pattern in mind (see the photo below).

This photo shows the clear glass with three colors of frit, stringers and scrap glass on top. I put the glass on the drop ring mold and made sure it was centered.



I put the drop ring mold on posts that are 4" high.

I tack fused the colored glass to the clear glass in one firing. To do this, I soaked the glass at 1200 degrees for 60 minutes. After that, I raised the temperature to 1330 degrees and watched the glass very closely, so it would melt down to the shelf and make a nice solid base. I got the idea to tack fuse and slump the drop ring in one fusing from the website: www.warmglass.com in the Warm Tips section.

I am using a manual ceramic kiln, so I need to spend a lot of time watching the temperature and turning the dials on the kiln up or down when needed. During parts of the firing, the glass piece needs to soak at a certain temperature, so I need to be watching the temperature, so it stays constant.

Right now, the firing of the drop ring vase is done. Now I am annealing the glass, which means that I am slowly dropping the temperature. At certain temperatures, the glass needs to soak. Annealing the glass piece makes the glass much stronger and not likely to crack from stress.

I will end Part 1 at this point. Part 2 will show you the finished vase. We need to wait till tomorrow morning to open the kiln and take the vase out and look at it.

Christine -- Glass Artist

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Glass Lace Sun Catcher

Check this piece of glass lace out closely!! I used two colors of frit (small pieces of glass), pale amber and deep aqua. Can you see a third color? It comes from the combination of the two colors.

This is one of my more "unique" pieces of glass lace. I say this because the glass was fired a bit longer than I wanted and the result is larger holes and thicker lines of glass. However, don't you think this will make a great suncatcher? I need to file down some sharp edges and then I will hang it in one of our windows and enjoy the colors!

Christine




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Added Some Glass Spoon Rests to My Website

This is one of the new glass spoon rests that I have added to my website: www.mastersglassart.com

I made a template of the glass spoon rest on heavy cardstock. I glued the templates onto a piece of Spectrum System 96 Clear Glass and a piece of Spectrum System 96 White Glass (www.spectrum.com). I cut the glass around the template, then I ground the edges to get the right shape of glass.

I had my husband put a design on the top of the white glass. He chose an abstract design with red glass. I full fused these two layers of glass plus the red pieces of glass on top. When the glass had fused into one piece of glass, I slumped it into a glass spoon rest mold.

Christine

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Glass Candle Bridge

This is one of my newest creations! I bought a candle bridge mold and slumped and draped a piece of black iridized glass over the mold. I had only made one before the last Craft Fair in March and it sold!! Since then, I have made another one, except I fused two pieces of the black iridized glass together. Using two layers of glass really makes the candle bridge very strong. I really love the new one. I just made it last week, so I will take a picture of it as soon as I can.

Christine

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Shopping Weekend for Glass and Other Miscellaneous Items

We just got back from Portland, Oregon where we went to Bullseye Glass (www.bullseyeglass.com) to buy a bunch of glass, some glass frit and glass stringers. We bought all these things wholesale, so we got a great price! If you buy $1,000 worth of items, you get 50% off. We were aiming for the $1,000, but went overboard and spent $1,200 (half off: $600)
We also bought two new kilns from Georgies (www.georgies.com)!! We bought a small Skutt Firebox (www.skutt.com) for fusing jewelry and just testing glass before making a large piece. We were able to bring this one home with us. The other kiln we bought is a big one. It is a Skutt 1414 with a lid lifter and a small viewing window. We had to get that one delivered and we should get it in a couple of weeks.

I will be able to fuse several pieces of glass at one time and then slump those fused pieces into glass bowls, glass plates, glass spoon rests, glass candle holders all at the same time.
Now I will be able to make a whole bunch more glass at one time. My first kiln is an old Skutt 181 and it had manual controls, so I spent a lot of time sitting by the kiln and watching the temperature and turn the kiln up or down or hold for a certain amount of time. My new Skutt 1414 has a controller, so I can program it, and won’t have to spend any time watching it. I am sooo excited about the controller!!

Keep checking back as I begin to make lots more glass at one time!! Check out my website (www.mastersglassart.com) where I will put a lot of the glass items.

Christine — Glass Artist


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Funky Basketweave Pendant

You are probably getting tired of me talking about basketweaves and how I just love doing them. However, this one is different. It is a pendant! I haven't made any pendants until this one. I did a similar one in a light blue.

I think I will cut some strips of dichroic glass with a clear background and do a couple more pendants. I also think I will place the strips closer to each other, so there won't be any holes.

I just had a thought! I keep telling you that I love the basketweave look. I can't remember if I told you that I used to weave a lot of baskets. My thought was to take a picture of one or two of my baskets and show you what they look like. What do you think? Would you like to see some of my baskets?

Christine


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Purple Glass Basketweave Bowl

I love this glass basketweave piece!! I cut strips, 1/2" wide, from a piece of Fusible Purple Opal Art Glass made by Spectrum System96 (www.spectrum.com). I also cut the same size strips from Spectrum System96 Clear Glass. I made sure I kept the purple glass strips in the exact order that I cut them from the glass, so I would keep the pattern of the glass.

The purple glass is all laid down horizontally and the clear glass is laid down vertically. To get a basketweave effect, I laid half of the purple strips on the bottom, then I laid half of the clear on top of the purple and then I repeated those steps. I had four layers of glass which I put in my kiln and fused it so there was some dimension in the strips. I then put the fused strips in a bowl mold to get the rounded shape.

Christine


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Lacy Yellow on Black Glass

Isn't this a neat plate? I made some yellow glass lace and then fused it to two layers of black glass. Then I slumped the entire glass piece in a square slumper mold.

The glass lace is really fun to make. I have been experimenting with it for a couple of months now. Most of the first ones I made were disasters. They weren't lace at all. Sometimes I would get a solid piece of glass and other times I would get only a couple of large holes.

I have gotten better at it. Right now, I have a drop mold vase that has glass lace fused to it in my kiln right now. I think it will turn out really nice.

Sometime, I will describe how I make glass lace.

Christine

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Really Cool Glass Vase

Don't you just love this cute little vase? I finished this vase a couple of days ago and I love how it turned out.

First, I fused two layers of clear glass (System 96) together that was 5" in diameter. Then I placed bits of glass, stringers and frit on top of the clear glass. I set up my 5" drop ring mold at a height of 3". I fired up the kiln to 1100 degrees and let it soak for 45 minutes. This allowed the colored glass to fuse slightly to the clear which saved a firing. After the soak, I slowly increased the temperature to 1300 degrees and held it until the clear glass fell through the ring and down to the kiln shelf.

I love this one so much, I have already started making a larger vase. The clear glass will be 7 1/2" in diameter and I will use my 9" drop ring mold. I am considering making this vase 6" tall, so I will need three layers of clear glass with the colored glass, frit and stringers on top.

Let me know what colors you think I should use for this vase. I'd love to hear what you have in mind!!

Christine



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Blue Daisy Sun Catcher

This is a recently fused glass sun catcher I made a couple of weeks ago. I really had fun making this one! Take a close look at the blue petals. Some of them show some different colors, like purple. The blue glass is iridized, meaning it has a metallic coating on it that reflects many colors. When you see it in person and move it around with a light source behind it, it shows so many other colors. It is such a cool glass!!

The petals took awhile to make, so this glass sun catcher is really a labor of love! I hate to sell it on my website, because I love it so much. However, I can always make another one, so no worries.

I first did a full fuse of two layers of Spectrum 96 clear glass. After shaping and grinding all the glass pieces of the flower, I placed the flower pieces on the clear glass and did a medium tack fuse. I wanted the glass flower pieces to have some dimension.

A full fuse means that I completely fused the two layers of glass to each other to make one solid piece of glass. I heated the kiln up to 1475 degrees until the two layers became one piece. Then I cooled the kiln down very slowly -- this is called annealing. The glass is very durable when it is properly annealed.

A medium tack fuse means that I didn't completely fuse the glass flower pieces to the clear glass. I didn't heat the kiln up as hot; I only went up to 1400 degrees. The glass flower pieces have melted slightly into the clear glass, but not completely. The flower has some dimension.

Christine


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I'm Making More Fused Glass

I haven't been putting many photos of my glass on my blog, so here you go. This is a really cool glass pendant. I used a piece of dichroic glass that has a ripple texture.

After a couple of days rest after the Craft Fair last weekend, I started doing more glass projects. A few weeks ago, I slumped a glass bowl and the edges came out uneven. So, yesterday, I put the glass back in my kiln and fused it flat. I am going to try slumping the glass bowl again, but firing up the kiln much slower.

I'll let you know how it turns out and I'll try to post a picture of it, too.

I'm sorry if I use terms that you don't understand. Let me know if you would like me to explain something. I think I will go "back to the basics" and explain things anyway.

Christine

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I've Been Busy Making Glass for Craft Show this Weekend

Today is the last day I will fire anything in the kiln before the Craft Fair this Fri - Sun.

I am fire polishing some earrings and three pendants. I also made four glass spoon rests and each one is so different. One of them is an amber color, another one is dark blue, another one is white with red shapes, and the last one is a blue iridized glass and I scattered short pieces of yellow stringer (very thin glass) on the top. All the glass I used is Spectrum System 96, www.spectrum.com.

I have been labelling each glass piece with a number and a price and entering the info into an Excel spreadsheet. Today I am taking pictures of everything I have made. For the glass pieces that I sell, I will put photos on the Gallery page of my website: www.mastersglassart.com. For the new glass pieces that I don't sell at the Craft Fair, I will put them on the Products page of our website for you to look at and buy :D

Well, wish me luck at the Craft Fair!! I hope to sell a lot at this Fair :)

Christine


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Kiln is Up and Running and I am Making Lots of Different Glass

Ever since we got the new element installed, I have been firing glass everyday. I made a really cool glass plate! I fused a layer of black glass over a layer of clear glass, then I put my yellow glass lace on top. After fusing all these layers together, I slumped it into an 8" square slumper. I am really happy about that one.

I also slumped some green Kokomo glass into a soap dish mold.

I love basketweave projects. I cut some purple and white opal art glass from Spectrum (www.spectrum.com) into 1/2" strips. I also cut strips with clear glass. Then I laid half of each glass down, so I ended up with four layers of glass. I fused this piece of glass and then slumped it into a Ball mold. It turned out great!! I will take pictures of all these things in a few days, so I can show you what I am talking about :)

Today, my husband and I glued bails onto a slew of pendants I made. I am glad that job is finished.

Christine


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Haven't been able to use my kiln

Last Saturday, I was doing some minor maintenance to my kiln. I was vacuuming out a few things that had fallen to the bottom of my kiln. I was also securing the elements when something happened and one of the elements broke right in half. What a bummer!! :(

I ordered more elements from a great website, www.kilnelements.com. The owner, Stan Horton, was willing to make the elements for my kiln on Sunday and have them in the mail early Monday morning. I received them on Wednesday!! Wow, what service.

My husband and I installed the new element on Thursday, but we needed a heavy duty crimper to finish the job. We went to the "Big City" on Friday, today, and bought what we needed, plus a few other things :)

When we got home, we finished installing the element and fired the kiln up with nothing else in the kiln. It must be to burn off any residue from the new element.

I am all ready to fire some glass tomorrow!!

Christine


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I'm Keeping Busy with Glass

This is one of the pendants I have made recently!! I call it "End of Lava Flow." The red glass was made this way by fusing glass frit. I took some pieces from the final piece and fused it onto a piece of white glass. I think it came out great!

It is a challenge to fire something in my kiln every day!

I have a manual ceramic kiln, which requires a lot of babysitting -- I have to watch the temperature as it heats up and then when I need to hold the temp. for 10-30 minutes, I need to be right by my kiln watching the temp. I also need to carefully watch the temps as I anneal -- making sure the kiln cools off slowly and holding at certain temps.

So, since I have to spend a lot of time by my kiln, which is in our garage, I can't work on my glass, which is in our basement. I can do a little here and there. It's not practical to move the kiln or move my workspace to be next to each other. There just isn't space left in our garage and in the winter, it is pretty cold. I don't want to have the kiln in the basement, because of the fumes when I use kiln shelf paper. Also, my husband spent a lot of time hooking up the 220 volt plug for the garage.

What I really need, of course, is a controller for my kiln. This allows for programming firing schedules, so I wouldn't need to be at the kiln watching the temperature and turning it up or down when I need to. We are going to get something better when our tax return comes, so I can't wait for that!


Christine



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Pendants and More Pendants!

When I have an arts and crafts fair coming up, I like to make a whole bunch of glass pendants at one time, so I can fire them all at the same time. The shelf size in my ceramic kiln is about 18". I like to try and use most of the shelf and this requires a lot of pendants!

I have been making some unique glass pendants and I can't wait to fire them. I am ready to put one batch of them in today.

Yesterday, I fused a Belvedere Vodka Bottle. I put a loop in the top, which fuses right into the glass and allows for hanging on the wall. The fused bottle can also be used as a small serving plate, a trivet, or a spoon rest. Since it is snowing right now, I haven't bundled up to go out to our garage to see how it turned out. I will be doing that right now and then I will put the batch of pendants in for firing today.

Christine


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Craft Fair 2007

I just got accepted to the CRAFT FAIR 2007 in Roseburg, Oregon at the Douglas County Fairgrounds. I am so excited! Now, the pressure is on to make a lot of new glass items. I plan on firing something every day, so that will keep me busy! I have a long list of glass that I want to make, so there is no shortage of ideas. I just need to spend time getting all the glass ready, so they can be fired.

By the way, the Craft Fair is March 23-25, 2007. Friday: 1-9, Saturday: 10-9, Sunday: 11-5.

Christine

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Another Glass Bowl Using a Drop Ring Mold

I just made this bowl using a drop ring mold. I just love this mold, because you can do so many different projects with it. In my previous entries, I made a Yellow Glass Lace Vase. I used the same mold and the only difference was how high I propped up the mold in the kiln. For this glass bowl, I used 1" posts. For the Vase, I propped it up about 4 1/2".



Christine


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Another Drop Mold Vase

I just made thisGlass Bowl using the same drop mold as the vase in the previous entries. I really love this mold, because you can make a wide variety of glass projects.

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I made a beautiful vase, but part of the lip curled up.

I learned about using a drop ring mold the hard way. I had spent a lot of time making this piece of glass. I first made some yellow glass lace that ended up as an oval. After awhile, I finally decided to fuse it to a piece of black glass that was about 1" larger. BTW, I use System 96 glass.

I didn't have an oval mold, so the glass sat for awhile until I decided to make a drop ring vase. I fused the oval glass to a round piece of black glass and a round clear piece. The entire glass piece was about 6 1/2" in diameter.

My drop ring mold measures 9" in diameter on the outside and the whole in the center is about 5." After asking a question on the www.warmglass.com forum about my problem, it came down to the fact that the piece of glass was too small. I should have had a 7" diameter piece of glass.

Since the rim was too small, the glass that is dropping started to pull the rim down with it.

I also asked another question about how to cut the rim off so I could salvage the piece. I got several different replies, but I think I will use a ring saw at my local glass shop and cut the rim off.

I'll keep you posted.

Christine

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I bought a new kind of dichroic glass.

I have a custom order to make a pendant using "Marquis" dichroic glass (picture on the right), so I went online to www.artisandichroic.com to order some... and, of course, I ended up browsing through all their dichroic glass, they have a wonderful selection. So, if any of you don't know what dichroic glass looks like, here is a picture of a 4" by 4" piece. I will cut it up and make several pendants out of this piece and I might use it in a fused glass spoon rest or a fused glass bowl.

I will show you a photo of this new piece of dichroic glass called "Jet Stream" in another blog, so keep checking back.

Christine

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Got out of my rut for the time being.

It had been three weeks since I put any glass in my kiln, until a couple of days ago. I went to my basement to grind some edges off some glass so I could drape them over a mold and get some small candle holders. The next day I put them in my kiln for firing and the next day I had three cute candle holders.

When I was in my work area, I also designed, cut and ground the glass for two pendants. I received two custom orders, each one for a pendant. When I get the dichroic glass for the other custom order, then I can make that pendant. Since I have a large ceramic kiln, I like to make a whole slew of pendants, enough to fit the kiln shelf, before I fuse them. I like to conserve whenever I can.

So, I will be busy for awhile, making more pendants!! I don't mind, this is what I love to do!! This will give me a little boost every day to make a few pendants.

Christine

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I Sold A Bowl Yesterday!! Well, actually, two!!

I went over to a friend's house yesterday to have tea and show her some of my glass art, mostly glass candle holders. We had a nice chat, I tried a new flavor of tea--chocolate hazelnut (I didn't know there was a chocolate tea? I am a chocolaholic and it was really good!).

After she looked at all my glass items, she quickly fell in love with a medium-sized bowl that I named Peppermint Candy. Originally, she was looking for something for a gift for a friend of hers, but she loved the bowl so much, she asked me to make another one for her!!

I love it when people find the perfect gift for someone or a gift for themselves. I don't know how to explain it, but it makes me happy that I am able to make a piece of glass that someone else wants to have for themselves. I am always a little sad to see my glass pieces leave my possession.

Christine

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A New Technique I Learned About

I was browsing the Warm Glass Forum, www.warmglass.com, the other day and saw a picture of a really cool vase made out of stringers, yes just stringers, no sheets of glass. The more I learned how these stringer vases are made, the more impressed I became.

First, they are tedious and take a long time to set up. You have to line up a whole bunch of stringers on the kiln shelf into the shape that you want. Then you tack fuse it. Then you do it again. Depending on the type of project, you do it a total of four times.

Then you stack the layers, alternating the directions, thus giving a basketweave pattern. Then you need to tack fuse the layers together. Then you slump or drape it in your desired mold.

I plan on giving this one a try, especially because I love baskets and weave my own baskets, so I love the pattern.

Check out www.warmglass.com for more in-depth directions on this technique.

Happy Fusing!

Christine

Check out my Fused Glass Creations!
www.mastersglassart.com

Back from a short vacation

Here I am in our garage taking a candle holder out of our kiln.

My husband and I just got back from celebrating our 15 anniversary!! We just went away for two nights and just relaxed and enjoyed each others company.

There was a cold spell and our water line had froze, so we don't have any water and we don't know how we can speed along the unthawing, since it isn't getting above freezing.

The earrings that I fire polished turned out great! Now I need to put them together and put pictures on our website. I need to make some candle holders by draping some scrap glass over a ceramic cone mold. I hope to do that tomorrow or the next day.

All for now!

Christine

Check out our Fused Glass Creations!

www.mastersglassart.com

Hello everyone!

This is my first experience with my own blog website! I am looking forward to sharing my daily or weekly glass work with you. I will also tell you more about myself and how I got started with working with glass!

Today, I put some earrings into my kiln to fire polish the places that were buffed. There were some sharp points due to putting kiln paper inside the wire loops in the first firing, so the glass wouldn't fill them in.

I also put two pendants in there, too. They are both experiments. One of them has two layers of clear glass with clear dichroic stringers fused into them in a previous firing. The other pendant has a clear bottom, a white top and 3 black iridized stripes across the white glass. I only want to tack fuse the layers.

Now, I just need to wait until tomorrow to see how everything turned out.

Have a great day!
Christine

Check out all my Fused Glass Creations!
www.mastersglassart.com