Adventures in Fused Glass

 One of the many reasons I really enjoy creating with glass is you are never quite sure of how glass will fuse. These two pieces are from the same piece of dichroic glass. They are turned in opposite ways. The blue green on the right side of e left fused glass is the same as the red on the right fused glass piece.

 The large square is dichroic glass on black bullseye glass. The earrings are the same glass with clear glass on the top.

               These will become a necklace and earrings. Imagine these in the sunshine.

 I often will fused copper cutouts in my glass. The glass on the lower left has a bubble inside the heart. The one on the right has no bubbles. The pendant has a few bubbles. Once there was a bubble right where an eye would have been on a bird.

 This is the same piece photographed at two different angles. It was a piece of dichroic with designs in black on the glass. I recently glued it to a small copper charm. What does the design look like to you?

www.carolingrammoore.com ~ www.artisansofthegap.com www.facebook.com/CarolIngramMoore

Snow and Polka Dots

www.carolingrammoore.com ~ www.artisansofthegap.com www.facebook.com/CarolIngramMoore

 It started with one small plate. I had shared the plate on my facebook page I was so surprised at all the comments I received. I added more colors to the plates and decided to make different sizes. This is a two inch plate/bowl.

                                                           This plate is 3 3/4 inches square.

                      This plate is five inches square.

 While I was cutting glass and playing with the glass dots, I decided to make some jewelry. The earrings will have sterling silver ear wires. The hair jewelry has the same polka dots just a variation from the earrings. Next, there will be some blues and greens on earrings and pendants.

 It has been snowing here. This is today's soft dusting of snow. The wine stopper has a blue dichroic glass.

 There are times when I will use pieces of glass lying on the cutting board. Some of this and some of that which is how this pendant was created. There is a tiny piece of copper on this pendant.

New dichroic glass which is very sparkly. A bit of snow lays on the bottom of the white piece of watercolor paper which turned blue. It is pretty cold out there today.

Three plates nestled together on a snowy day in January.

Art Glass on a Snowy Day

www.carolingrammoore.com ~ www.artisansofthegap.com www.facebook.com/CarolIngramMoore

 It snowed with a bit of ice yesterday. Just the kind of day to create glass in the studio and I had some new glass milliflori to try out a few ideas. The fish will be earrings with sterling silver findings. Lately, I have been making at least three earring sized pieces as they are always different in size.

 These are black butterflies with red on their wings, just enough red to really pop the black.

 A lot of agencies were closed today due to the snow. There is a layer of ice under the snow. It sparkles like glitter when the sun shines on the snow.

 The downy woodpecker didn't stop eating the suet as I stood in the kitchen taking the photo through the glass doors. Due to the squirrels enjoying the suet, Ray created a wire box which seems to keep them away.

A view of the back yard with a dusting of snow, it is so quiet and peaceful. 

Playing with Picassa

www.carolingrammoore.com ~ www.artisansofthegap.com www.facebook.com/CarolIngramMoore

 What a difference a week and a lot of rain makes in the gardens. The cleome is growing as tall as me and spreading out with loads of seed pods. Thinking there will be lots more of these in the garden next year.

 Last fall, I clipped some impatiens to bring inside. Early in the spring, I began to make cuttings from the cutting. These are the result of the cuttings from a cutting with a little bit of pencil sketch enhancement from Picassa. The flowers are a soft pink nestled next to the lemon balm. Now that is an herb that pops up in the most unexpected places.

 It was spitting rain while I was taking photos this morning. The poppers are right next to the woods. This photo is simply the colors of the day. The lushness of the greens from all the rain is amazing. The rain barrel filled up after one night of rain...wondering if we are in the rain forest of the Appalachian mountains.

 These are daisies getting ready to bloom in the front yard. Nice to have some fall flowers and thanks to the half of half price garden sale at Lowes I will be putting in three asters with very large soft lilac flowers.

The fern growing amid the anonome which is blooming. The kiln is filled with glass slowly coming down in temperature. Once it is ready, I will take a photo of all the new pieces. 

Sharing Glass Art

www.carolingrammoore.com ~ www.artisansofthegap.com www.facebook.com/CarolIngramMoore

 Seems like it has been awhile since I have shared some of my fused art glass with you. The cat looking up at the night sky is a  four inch plate. The center of the plate shines like the night sky with the help of the gemstone aventurine embedded in the Bullseye 90 COE glass.

 This is one of four new bracelets I have made. I found the base metal bracelets at a store last week. I added  fused glass to create a unique one of a kind bracelet. This blue is as blue as the sea and the greens are as lush as the mountains with all our rain.

 Around the holidays, I was using a lot of red and greens. The green is embedded with aventurine and really sparkles. The first photo of the bracelet is straight on. The one below is a side view.

 If you look closely, you can actually see the camera in this photo. The bracelet has a copper butterfly amid the deep blue violet art glass.

I will be taking these letter openers to the Norton Farmer's Market tomorrow. Doesn't everything look better with art glass?

If you are interested in any of these pieces, just let me know.

Bunny Plate

 Each time I open the kiln, it is like a surprise. I never know what to expect when the heat fuses the glass.
This is an especially pretty blue green plate, or the beginnings of a small plate. I had cut out all the little copper blades of grass to put around the bunny. The bubbles seem like little butterflies embedded in the glass. The snow has melted, well almost all of it.

A few of the new pieces from the previous blog post. They now have bails on them and are ready for black satin cords or silver necklace. The rainbow just happened to be dancing around the computer table. Seemed like just the right place to take a photo.






www.carolingrammoore.com ~ www.artisansofthegap.com www.facebook.com/CarolIngramMoore

Fusing Glass

. On this snowy day,  Sandy left behind several inches of snow in the mountains.Today became a perfect day to spend in the studio creating.  A friend had asked me to share how I fuse glass. Inspired by the snow, I decided to make a snowflake plate with clear glass. Here is how I started the plate. I never know about how things really turn out until I open the kiln.
The first photo is a picture of a box of glass. This box holds eight pieces of 12 x 12 inch clear glass.

 Once the box is opened, there is a lot of padded paper. The box itself comes within a larger packing box filled with recyclable pellets. Opening the paper, the sheets of glass are padded between more sheets of paper.

A sheet of clear glass sitting upon a padded sheet of paper. 

 My glass cutter, the glass grid, and the piece of 12 x 12 inch clear glass ready to be scored.

 I have made a pattern of the plate I am making. I put the pattern on top of the glass sheet. I also use a ruler to give me a very straight edge for making a cut all along the edge of the glass. This is called scoring. If you look closely, you can see the line right under the glass cutter.

 Once the glass is scored, I use running pliers at the base of the score line on the glass. The glass then breaks evenly upon the score line. Using the plate pattern, I cut two pieces of glass to fit the pattern. The pattern is for a plate.

 This is a sheet of copper foil for glass. I use a brayer to smooth out the copper sheet. The left side is before I used the brayer. The right side is after using the brayer several times.

                                    Copper snowflakes are created from the copper foil sheet.

 I cut a piece of Bullseye shelf paper to exactly fit the kiln shelf. The shelf sits upon four kiln posts.

 The glass plate with copper snowflakes and little snippets of copper on the kiln shelf ready to be fired.

I have programmed the kiln for a full fuse. I pressed the start button and it begins to heat up. It takes several hours for the kiln to come to a full fuse. Before I open the lid of the kiln, I let it come completely down to less than 70 degrees. To open the kiln right after full fuse would create lots of  cracks and breaks in the glass.
While the snow comes and goes, the kiln makes little sounds as it heats up kinda like a click.
As the kiln fuses the glass, I'm already thinking about another design or two.