Inspired by Spring

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

The first day of spring I was inspire by the colors of blues, purples, and  greens. This is the back of a fused glass dragonfly piece. It is actually standing up so you can see the soft lavender of the glass.  

A purple jewel tone thin iridescent Bullseye glass I placed against the dragonfly mold from Delphi Glass. I learned a lesson from this. Place the clear glass on top of the iridescent to enjoy the rainbow effect of all the purples. It is always fascinating to me to see what happens when glass comes our of the kiln.

These glass beads were lying on the beading board. I kept thinking about them. It took several hours and lots of trial and error to create this piece. I used silver wire for the larger beads to give the piece some strength. Then I used a beading wire for the nine strands of glass beads. I crimped and  crimp bead covered each of the nine strands using silver plated jump rings to connect the five pieces. It is finished with a hammered sterling silver clasp. I wore it for several days, something I learned to do before I sell a piece to see how it flows and to make sure all the jump rings are tightly closed.

 These beauties are all over the yard. I planted about six dozen in early March. They will come up in late May. These are in the front of the house, the first daffodils planted. All of these are the early spring variety. The smells are just amazing.

 Wild grape hyacinths roam down the side of  our mountain yard. They began popping up on Friday. We had a little bit of rain and they are beginning to flow. I try to be careful not to step on them as they are tiny.

                                                    Wild hyacinths popping up all over.

 It was a bit starling to find this lilac and one holly were the only plantings in our yard. It is now surrounded by iris, daffodils, and soon to be planted annuals.

 The same day the forysthia budded out, the wild violets showed their faces. These are all over the yard.

Between the two buildings on the property, Ray had put the compost. I created a garden in front of this stump. The garden lies next to the woods. The critters certainly have enjoyed digging under the space. One spring, a turtle laid her eggs here. They did not hatch,

For Valentines Day, we gave each other this garden bench. I had been looking for several years and found this on Overstock. Ray assembled it and set it into place yesterday at the back of the yard. It gives a new perspective to our gardens and a place to rest while gardening.

Joy of Opening the Kiln

A few weeks ago, the kiln had a problem. The wires in the control panel caught on fire. The smell lasted for quite awhile. I contacted the company I bought the kiln from and they referred me to the manufacturer. I called them and they were closed early on Friday. This was about 4:30 on Friday and the next week was a holiday craft show. The kiln was about two weeks out of warranty. I mailed the part and waited to find out what the problem was. I called the company. It had only happened once before and was a problem with the part itself. They sent me a new one at no charge. It arrived a few days later. And the kiln has been working very well since then. A special thank you to Jen-Ken and the Delphi Glass. They have fantastic customer service folks.
I opened the kiln this morning after it had cooled down to about 70 degrees. Inside was the bird of peace flying against a blue sky background. It is the joy of working with Bullseye  90 glass, what an incredible art glass. Peace is ready for the Holiday Open Studio on Sunday.

 I really enjoy the six sided shapes of snowflakes. I used punched copper foil between two layers of glass. Two of the pieces have confetti and stringers in the glass. Three of them are on a white background. The third one has the blue sky like Peace and then I cut two white stringers at the bottom and thought what is that shinning piece of glass in the cutting tray? It was some dichroic glass. Using creativity and tweezers, I place the tiny shard between the stringers.

 I had ordered some new dichroic glass and wanted to see the results. It is really more white than blue and purple and rose. I took two photographs of the same piece is light coming from a stained glass window.

 By moving the butterfly just a bit, the shine of the natural light through the window left a different glow to the butterfly. If the sun was shinning on this piece, you might just have to wear sunglasses.

For those of you who live nearby, it would be nice to see you at the Holiday Open Studio on December 8 from 1 - 6 in the afternoon. Fiona Zahnke will also be in the Studio with her pottery, fiber arts, and hand spun yarn.

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.

Delphi EZ Pro Kiln and Fusing Glass

I am working on a new project with an incredible artist from London, England. With skype, we are able to chat about the project. I am hopeful that it will be up and running before Thanksgiving, if not sooner. Enough about surprises, I thought it was time to share with you how I fuse glass. I cut the Bullseye blue aventurine glass. Then, I add copper foil cut outs of birds and stars. I  use a toothpick to place the stars onto the glass. I check each star to make sure the points are unfurled. I cut out a piece of shelf paper for each piece I place on the kiln shelf. The shelf is the big circle inside the kiln.

 Here is the kiln with the lid closed sitting on the floor of the studio. There is nothing within 12 inches of the kiln so that air can circulate.

I took a great time of time before I ordered a kiln. I decided to order one from Delphi because of the customer service. I can call and talk to someone if there is ever a problem. I had a few in the beginning and they were very understanding. When a mold broke on the very first firing with ample kiln wash on it. They replaced it immediately. The kiln is very easy to program and comes with a CD. It is now programmed to fuse the glass. After pushing start, the kiln is on and begins fusing. I do not open the kiln until the temperature is under 100 degrees.