We Found a New Wine Bottle to Fuse!

My husband, Dave, got his hands on these wine bottles from the Starling Castle with Riesling wine.  The designs on the wine bottles are similar to the Grey Goose Vodka Bottles.  This wine bottle has a design of a winery on the back of the glass and there is some clear glass in the shape of a starling to see the winery on the back.  The designs are made out of glass enamel or something similar that doesn’t burn off when I fuse it in my kiln.

 The fusing came out very nice!!  The bottle turned clear, so the scene of the winery shows up wonderfully.   We are always keeping our eyes out for bottles like this, so let us know if you have any bottles like this or like the Grey Goose Vodka Bottles.  We’d love to fuse them for you, or, if you don’t want them back, we’ll fuse them for someone else who would love to have one hanging on their wall!!

Christine — Glass Artist

www.mastersglassart.com

Blue Island Glass Plate

The Blue Island Glass Plate was a lot of fun to make.  First I cut strips out for the borders and I even mitered the corners for a smooth border.  Then I placed the border over two layers of clear glass.  The final addition was the square in the middle.  I fused the whole thing face down and when it came  out of the kiln, I needed to grind the edges.  So, I did a fire polish with plate face up and then slumped it.

I have made some smaller versions of this plate.  I was working my way up in size as I learned from each glass plate and how they turned out.

How do you like it?

Christine — Glass Artist

www.mastersglassart.com

Dichroic Glass Bowl

I have been wanting to incorporate dichroic glass into my glass bowls, glass plates and glass vases.  Here is my first attempt.  First, I cut and ground two layers of Bullseye 90 clear glass.  Second, I had the pleasure of picking different colors of dichroic glass rectangles.  Third, I needed to design a pattern to place the dichroic rectangles.  Fourth, I fused all the glass to a full fuse.  Fifth, I slumped the square into a round bowl mold to give it some dimension. 

I think it came out really great!! 

The hardest part was trying to get a picture of it.  I tried several different background colors and different lighting and after several attempts at it, I finally got this picture.  It certainly doesn’t show what the dichroic glass actually looks like in person, but this picture is the best that I have taken of it so far.

I noticed that nobody has commented about my previous blog entry.  I am looking for anyone’s thoughts about what happened to my glass basketweave plate.  Doesn’t anyone have a guess?  Don’t be shy!!

Christine — Glass Artist

www.mastersglassart.com

Iridized Glass Basketweave Plate

I love doing glass basketweave pieces!!  I really fell in love with this glass plate when I pulled it out of the kiln and saw how it turned out.

The strips were cut from Spectrum 96 Hi-Fire Black Iridescent Glass — I just love this glass!  Anyway, I layered the strips to give the illusion of a basketweave and then I did a dimensional fuse — I wanted to keep some dimension to the strips.  In another firing, I fused two pieces of clear glass together.  When both parts were ready, I did another dimensional fuse.  When that was done, I slumped it into a plate mold. 

Now, I have a question for all of you reading this post.  Does anyone have any idea what happened next to this glass piece?

I really want to get some of your ideas.  How about we play a game?  If you post a reply with a guess as to what happened to my glass plate and include your email address, I will send you a photo of what happened to my plate. 

If you don’t make a guess, then you won’t know what happened to my plate!!

 Go ahead…………leave a comment…………..it’s easy

Christine — Glass Artist

www.mastersglassart.com

Yellow Glass Sun Catcher

My husband, Dave, made this glass fish sun catcher.  Isn’t it so cute??  Usually, he uses my scrap fusible glass, but this time he cut the yellow glass from a sheet.  He is really good at just coming up with a design as he goes along.  My mind just isn’t very good at that.  I need a pattern or a picture of a fish for inspiration. 

Dave was excited when someone bought it at the Art Festival in Brookings.  She planned to hang it up in her beauty salon.  People who live on the coast usually love to decorate with a coast/ocean theme.  I hope my husband makes more sun catchers — fish or any other themes.  We don’t have very many left.

Christine — Glass Artist

www.mastersglassart.com

Mauve Glass Bowl

The glass I used for this bowl was Spectrum 96 Orchid Opal Art.  I had bought a nice round, slightly deep bowl mold from a local ceramic store and wanted to try slumping with it.  I cut the circle of glass slightly smaller than the top of the rim.  For deep molds, the glass should not rest on top of the rim, because it will slump uneven.  I ramped up slowly and kept the slumping temp.  pretty low, so the glass would keep the shape of the mold.    

However, when I got this glass bowl out of the kiln, the bowl was higher on one side than the other, yet the rim was still nice and round.  So, I decided to experiment.  I put the glass back in the mold and tried to level the rim all the way around, hoping that the rim would be level this time.  To my surprise, the rim was level and the bowl still round!  However, the bowl is very shallow.  I still don’t know why it didn’t keep the higher sides, but this glass bowl looks great, anyway.

Christine — Glass Artist

www.mastersglassart.com

Colorful Dichroic Glass Pendant

Dave, my husband, designed this glass pendant.  I had fused several different dichroic strips separately with a clear on top.  From these strips, I cut smaller pieces to make earrings and pendants. 

Dave was in the basement giving me a hand with things and I asked him if he could design a couple of dichroic glass pendants.   This beautiful pendant was one of them that he cut pieces and ground the edges.  I put a piece of thin clear glass on top and then fused it again. 

Unfortunately, or fortunately, however you want to look at it, but it sold at my last Art Festival.  Luckily, I took a photo of it before the Festival, so I have a record of what he made.  Didn’t he do a great job with this glass pendant??

Christine — Glass Artist

www.mastersglassart.com

Fused Blue Dichroic Earrings

 I haven’t posted very many earrings on this blog, mostly, because I don’t make very many.  However, I have been making more and I even have some pictures!!

Making Fused Glass Earrings are very similar to Fused Glass Pendants — just at a smaller scale.  These earrings have 90 blue accordian texture on the back and a piece of clear 90 on top.   Aanraku.com now makes earring bails that you adhere to the back of the earring in a similar manner.  After that, it is easy to attach an earwire to the earring bail (you don’t even need to use a jump ring!).

Christine — Glass Artist

www.mastersglassart.com

Glass Bowl with Black Borders and Dichroic Sizzle Stix

This glass bowl is very elegant.  The strips of dichroic “Sizzle Stix” really sparkle in the sunlight. 

I stacked two layers of clear Bullseye 90 on the bottom.  I cut the black strips for the borders and then mitered each corner by grinding them at a 45 degree angle.  I put these strips on top of the clear.

I previously fused the dichroic strips onto a square of French Vanilla Bullseye 90.  I put this smaller square on top of the clear.  After that, I flipped it face down to full fuse it and slumped it face up into a 9″ Ball mold to get this bowl shape.

I had a lot of fun making this glass bowl.  I sold it at the Brookings Festival of the Arts, so I do need to make more.  I think I will experiment with different colors of the dichroic Sizzle Stix and the color of the border.

Christine — Glass Artist

www.mastersglassart.com

Light Blue Glass Spoon Rest with Two Fishies

I made this Glass Spoon Rest before my last Art Festival in Brookings.  It sold within a few hours!!

 I think it sold so quickly, because the Festival was on the coast and people are always looking for things that relate to the coast.  I had someone ask me what coastal themed glass items we had.

I am trying to make as much coastal themed pieces that I can for the Bandon Cranberry Festival next weekend.

Christine — Glass Artist

www.mastersglassart.com