So, here is my last big glass project! I am a member of a glass message board where we talk about glass casting, fusing, and other “warm” techniques. Every year, the members do an exchange where they make magnet sized pieces to send to one another. Magnet sized… but without magnets because at some point someone figured out that attaching magnets really increased the shipping costs! All the participants get one example of everyone elses’ “magless.”

I wasn’t really sure how I wanted to approach the project so I tried a few prototypes. My friend Rachel had recently showed me this amazing music video by David Crowder band done in stop motion using a lite brite, and I was totally inspired. (I totally loved those things as a kid!) I tried a few things out with chopped up pieces of glass rod – some on white backgrounds, some on clear. I also added black powdered glass frit to some of the samples to see if I could get that “lite brite” effect.

I fell in love with the look of the pieces on white backgrounds with black frit, so I started by chopping up a bunch of glass rods. Normally they are used for lampworking, but they are perfect for this project. I used a mix of 96 coe “veiled” rods, sold by Gaffer USA which have color surrounding clear centers, and regular 96 coe cathedral (transparent) glass rods in bright colors.

I cut 50 one-inch square pieces of white glass, and then glued seven centimeter-long pieces onto each square. I use regular white glue for this as it burns off cleanly in the kiln.

So then I had to gear up for the powder frit section. Safety first! When dealing with powdered glass, you have to protect your lungs by wearing an appropriate dust mask. This one filters both vapors and particulates, so its perfect for both powdered glass and for soldering jewelry or stained glass.

Holding the sifter over the glass piece, I put some powdered glass into the sifter, and then rubbed the spoon over the handle of the sifter, which shakes the glass down onto the piece. Then, once the powdered frit is sifted onto the piece, I used a soft paintbrush to gently knock the powder off of the top of the bits of glass rod.

Repeat 49 times, load them into the kiln as many as you can fit at once, tack fuse the glass so the powder glass melts completely but you still have tall rounded bubbles of color, and you’re ready to go! It took me about three kiln loads to get them all done, but oh well.

Here they all are all together! (They’re numbered so I can remember who made what). Some of them are really amazing, using multiple techniques and equipment I’ll have one day in my dream studio ;o)

I had a fabulous time working on this project and I’m looking forward to participating again next year. It is a great incentive to learn how to do some new cool stuff!

Finally finished the panel, yay! If you click the photo, you’ll see photos of other people from my class!

So, I finally have something to show from my new stained glass class! The design has been in the works for a few weeks, with a lot of missteps along the way (oops!). My initial plan started with a sketch that was off by a half inch from the 12″ circle I wanted, and also, wasn’t quite symmetrical, so I started over with a new design. But the central part remained the same – the Texas medallion I wanted for the center.

I knew I wanted the center medallion to be thicker and textural so you could feel it. I know that people don’t initially think “tactile” when they see stained glass, but making glass objects you can feel has become sort of important to me. Perhaps it’s a subliminal rejection of all those “don’t touch” signs on glass objects! But I digress. I started with a 4″ circle of clear glass and put chunky frit (which is crushed glass) on top, then melted it entirely smooth.

Making the medallion itself was old hat, and I love the mottled look that really stands out when you hold it up to the light. But, to get the silhouette of Texas on the medallion, I had to try something new. I freehand sketched the outline of Texas on cardboard and then used an Xacto knife to cut it out and make a stencil. It worked out pretty well.

I put down the cardboard stencil, and used a sifter to spread out a fairly thick layer of white powdered glass. Then, I cleaned up the edges, using a paintbrush to wipe away the extra powder. After a quick tack fuse in the kiln, the glass was permanently bonded together, with a pebbled feel over the Texas bit.

Then, in class today, I went crazy cutting everything out. I’m a pretty fast glass cutter, and actually stayed an extra hour to finish because I knew I would be missing a class in February, and wanted to get ahead. I think it paid off, although I will need to do a lot of cleaning up on edges so the pieces fit together perfectly. And then, I’ll have to copper foil and solder… two things that take me FOREVER.

So, as usual… more to come soon!

(oh wait, yes I did…)

So, because I cannot (a) measure or (b) do math, I haven’t gotten as far with my “rose window” as I might have hoped. But you can see the sketch I’ve done of it above – yes, it is a “yellow rose of Texas” window, and no, you may not make fun of me for that. It actually has a special meaning to me, hence the choice of subject.

The problem thus far has been that I somehow mismeasured while drafting the initial pattern, which resulted in a window that would have been a half inch too short in diameter for the frame I intended to use. And, since I decided I would just “easily” go on and fix that problem, I also decided to make the window perfectly symmetrical so each of the five sections could be based on one pattern.

(Anyone who knows me well is likely shaking their head as they read this and thinking “here she goes, biting off more than she can chew…” and they’d be right.)

Dividing things into fifths is just plain not as easy as dividing things into quarters! It requires math – the sort of math that I should have been paying better attention to as a high school sophomore in geometry class. The sort of math that is evil and will take up the entirety of your stained glass class while your classmates and instructor look on with expressions of mixed pity and horror and suggest that maybe it might be a better idea to use a computer program to design this thing… or something. But, I am stubborn, and was determined to do it all by hand.

Hopefully by Saturday, I’ll have a pattern ready to go so that I can actually get something out of my next session!

“I do make a living as a surgeon… but when I retire… I’ll be doing glass.” — Steve Immerman

Steve Immerman is one of the more generous glass artists out there – i frequently turn to his website for information on tile saws and pattern bars, two areas I hope to dabble in more this year. So, to find out that he is actually Dr. Immerman, both glass artist and surgeon, was too exciting for me to not share right away. Hope y’all enjoy this video, and I’ll be back in the next few days with a post about the “rose window” I’ve been designing and will work on this winter.

Take care!

I did another show, and forgot to tell you guys about it!

Bust Holiday Craftacular wasn’t as profitable this year as in the past, but I got to see some old friends (like Kim Fraczek) and meet some new ones (like Penelope Rakov, an amazing glassblower out of Philly).

I shared my booth with my buddy Michele who had a killer day. She is an amazing illustrator and you can also snag her stuff on her Etsy shop.

Beyond that, I have not been up to a lot crafty stuff – work was very busy in December and then I went to visit my family for Christmas. But, on the weekends this winter, I’ll be taking another stained glass class with Joseph Cavalieri, one of my favorite artists, who y’all will remember as the instructor from the 4 day intensive workshop that I did at Urban Glass in Brooklyn last July. I will be updating the blog with photos from class fairly regularly.

Hope y’all have all been well!

So I took these photos for my glass message board, to show how I make these light boxes, but I thought you guys might enjoy them as well!

First thing you will need is a frame that fits your glass panel and is a little bit deep. You can use something like a Gallery Frame from Dick Blick, they are about an inch deep inside. You need the inside of your frame to be deeper than your glass panel.

Then you’ll want some LED sticky tape. I buy mine from a company called Elemental LED, if you follow the link, it will take you right to the product I use. You can put the sticky tape all the way around the frame, but that isn’t necessary. For one, it would be REALLY bright, and second, its not cheap ($10 a foot!) so you would be talking $20 worth of lights to frame a 6×6 inch piece of glass. I have found that using about 6 inches of tape is enough for a panel of this size.

Elemental LED has great tutorials and videos showing you how to use the product – you don’t even need to know how to solder. Incredibly easy to use. Here you can see, from a top view, the sticky LED tape in the bottom of my picture frame. Notice that it is about 1 cm back from the glass itself – this is so you don’t get bright spots showing through the glass.

So, plug that puppy in, and this is what it looks like from the back!

Flip it over, and it is ready to be hung on your wall. You can power these by plugging them into a 12v DC adapter, or you can use a battery pack.

Right now, I just have the two, but I have a few more in the works… I just thought you guys would like to see those light boxes I’ve been teasing you about for a while!

Its not just a movie about how Joaquin Phoenix went (supposedly) fake nuts… I’ve just been distracted by the rest of the universe this past month or so ;o)

Maker Faire was a blast, although not a high selling show. I think everybody was there to see the science, and not really for the crafty. But between the human-sized mousetrap game, and the tentfull of 3D printers, and the amazing people I met, I don’t regret doing the show in the slightest.

Also, I have done some new work that most of y’all haven’t seen… the headphones panel, for one… it isn’t quite finished, because I want to put a black finish on the lead… will show more pictures when I’m done.

And there are new things in my etsy, including picture frames from stained glass ;o)

And… coming to my Etsy shop soon… stained glass sconces! A little different than you’d expect, perhaps, because how many sconces have you seen with ray guns on them? Yeah, didn’t think so ;o

One of the things I find the hardest about craft fairs is how many great ideas I get in the final moments leading up to the show. I never have enough time to execute them all and quite often, I get behind on the things I must do because I’m wasting time daydreaming about the things I’d “love” to do.

No good.

So now I’m a little bit behind in making picture frames (I might have to fire one on saturday night for sunday) and I still haven’t finished slumping those bowls I made, but I am glad that one of my little detours turned out well:

Badges.

I decided to put my new glass painting skills to work (thanks, Joseph!) and make some colorful little pieces with random designs on them. Midway through the process, I decided that they would be great with tiny pinbacks on them (they are less than an inch square) which would allow anyone to enjoy them, and not just women (the usual purchasers of my glass pendants). I am incredibly happy with this batch of badges, and do intend to do a line of pendants in a similar manner in the future, but for now, these will do nicely ;o)

I have some other stained glass works coming together that I will perhaps preview tomorrow, and the fancy LED light innards for the light boxes (!) I’ve been making… so keep checking back!

TODAY ONLY – Groupon is running a promotion where you can get Maker Faire tickets for 50% off! Its a great deal, and makes it far more affordable to go! Get your tickets now!!!