New Christmas Tree Ornaments

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

   
For several years, I have been creating a Holiday Ornament. This year it is a collaborative effort, an Appalachian Warm Glass, LLC design. The ornaments are the same size as pendants. 

We use Bullseye 90 COE glass. The base is clear glass. The red is for the top border and covers the wire hanger. The brown glass is for the base of the tree.

Dichroic glass is broken in a frit maker. The glass is then shifted until it is almost the size of a large piece of glitter. It becomes frit. There are two pieces of dichroic glass before they are made into frit.

I use Bullseye Glastac Gel to glue the glass to the glass. I also cover the tree with glue. I use a toothpick to find shiny pieces and also sprinkle the frit onto the tree.

Two trees decorated with frit. The trees are currently for sale at Heartwood and Arts Depot in Abingdon, Virginia. They are also at the Southwest Virginia Museum in Big Stone Gap, Va. Soon to be in the Charles Harris Library Gallery in Wise, Va. Next weekend, Nov. 18, 19, and 20, they will be available at our Open Studio.

Rainbows on the Wall

It all started with the movie Pollyanna when she hung the crystal prisms to make rainbows. My parents had a furniture store and they didn't take too kindly to me taking off the crystals from the lamps. I did find my own prisms in various places. As an elementary teacher, they were always in the windows of the classroom.
This morning, while in the studio I looked up at a necklace and earrings and wondered why has that one not found a home? I put down a white paper background and there was a rainbow!

 It is cold in the mountains today: 23 degrees and temperature slowly rising. The sun is shinning so brightly. Here is a photo of a magnificent rainbow maker. It is an Egyptian crystal I found at a bead store in Asheville, North Carolina. I used silver plated 22 gauge artistic wire to string the crystal and the beads.  The end is simply large seed beads I turned into a hanger.

 Two rainbows on the tile kitchen floor from the rainbow maker. There are two of them in the kitchen window.

 Little bitty rainbows on the wooden cabinets made from the rainbow maker which also creates rainbows on the floor, walls, and all across the house.

 From red to violet, the rainbow across the velvet couch cushion. They are dancing all over the house. During the cold days of winter, hope you can create a few rainbow makers of your own!

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

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.

Stretching a Bit in the studio

 It all started with reading Contemporary Warm Glass by Brad Walker. I had taken a class with him at Arrowmont and knew the extent of his talent. In the book were photographs of slumped glass plates embedded with copper wire. I had copper wire in the studio for jewelry making. I placed copper strips in a pattern. Then, I just played like pick up sticks and let the stopper strips fall where they may. The pattern was much more interesting. From there, I fused the copper wire between two 90 COE bullseye glass. I had cut the glass so it would fit into a mold. I slumped the glass learning a lot of lessons. The glass spread nicely over the mold. The glass cracked. The glass had an interesting bubble which I embedded with a piece of amber glass. I let it sit for a day under a blanket wondering how to take it off the mold or if I would be able to remove the glass plate. I tried cutting the glass, which did not work. I then used glass nippers and cut off an edge. With a bit of pressure, the glass came away from the mold. It is in my glass case where I can think on this and decide how to use copper wire.

I had a full kiln shelf ready to go after I took out the slumped plate. I keep a large glass bowl in the studio of fused glass pieces. Some are okay and some are well, interesting. The cat looking up at the moon are two fused pieces I again put into the kiln on full fuse. Some of these pieces are so big they would make a nice size
fused coaster. The tree is the beginning of experimentation for a limited edition of Holiday/Christmas ornaments for Artisans of the Gap.  The copper foil tree turned out nicely and the red stringer makes a nice border, but maybe green would be more festive?
Oh, the joy of looking out at the mountains and creating in the studio.

Butterflies in Glass and Fluttering

These are some new pieces I have taken out of the kiln and the blanket. After they come out of the kiln, I put them into a cotton blanket made of heavy cotton fibers to bring them to room temperature. They have been washed as well with a rinse of water to clean off the shelf paper.

 I took them outside to take the photographs. Can you see the shadow of the butterfly bush and the flowers on top of the copper butterfly. The sun shadows just seem to take to the edges of this piece.

 Both of these butterflies are made from copper. Both of the butterflies are laying on top of the same piece of dichroic glass only the glass is turned different ways. The top piece has a glass top of clear with a black stringer embedded into the glass. The bottom piece has a blue glass top fused to the dichroic glass.

The black swallowtail butterfly was fluttering its wings so fast as it was feeding on the butterfly bush. The gardens are filled with butterflies. I filled a bird bath with glass pebbles and then put water into it for the butterflies and insects to be able to sip water in this hot and humid summer weather.