Pendants

Calling this one Hot Lava












Like Firey Opal




Very "Far Side of the Moon"







Love this one. Looks like opal

Change in template

So much easier to read. Now if I can only figure out how to make the font bigger.

Holidays are HERE! Candle holders galore!

This method was probably the most frustrating. I wasted so much glass and time trying to get it to work. One continual problem was with the glass bubbling from the bottom. I didn't hold at 1150 degrees so that might have been the problem. I fired this one a bit differently.

I used hair spray on the glass for a fixative then brushed pixie dust onto a ginko leaf that I pick up at the park. I pressed the leaf onto the glass - BE Adventurine Green (4 1/2" square) so the ginko leaf with it's veins showed. It's not capped. I tried different methods (hairspray on both glass and leaf, only on leaf, no hairspray at all) and using it on the glass only was the best method.


The mold used was just 1/4" fiber with a 3" circle cut out. (NOTE: Next time measure the candle first and make it Candle Dia + 1/2")

First Firing: Every 30 minutes I turned up the kiln one level until the temp hit 1150 degrees. I held for 30 minutes to release any gas under the glass and hopefully not have it bubble. After 30 minutes, I continued turning up the kiln 1 level until temp hit 1450. Held for 20 minutes then turned off kiln. Approx firing time 4 hours. It did bubble slightly but I figured it would fix itself during the slump phase.
NOTE: Because of the pixie dust, I wanted to fire to 1450 deg (full fuse) to have full adhesion of pixie dust to glass. Some pixie dust does come off but most of the image stays. Pixie dust is a separator so I think high temp is required. I haven't tried to see what it would be like with only a 1350 deg firing. Will have to try that later.

Slump Firing: Every 30 minutes I turned up the kiln one level straight through to 1400 degrees. Then I turned off the kiln. Approx firing time 2.5 hours. This slumped all the way down the sided (which I like).



This was 2 firings for the image and the picture I took doesn't really show the design. The method and firing times are pretty much the same as the above. Here are the differences:

4 1/2" square BE Thin Black with 3mm BE clear on top.

The first firing I brushed pixie dust onto a ginko leaf. Then I topped it with enamel (mixed with water) and pressed onto the black. I played around with the image, painting on more enamel, getting lines to represent the veins, etc. After the enamel dried, I capped with clear and fired. After I took it out of the kiln, I noticed a big "blobbed" area of pixie dust on the right...very out of proportion with the amount of pixie dust on the rest of the leaf design. So I painted on pixie dust on the clear to hide it and refired. You can still see the "blob" but it does get camoflaged with the topped pixie dust fired on top. There's an interesting 3-D effect with the image fired on the black and on the clear.

Again-the mold was 1/4" fiber paper.

This dish/candle holder is OLD. The plate was done last year. My original intent was to drop this into a vase. Then I would melt beeswax and make it into a candle. I bought the SS slumping holds (cute-only 2 1/2" high) but I have such a hard time getting the kiln wash to stick that I've given up. (I will still try with thin fiber paper and no kiln wash, but after the holidays).

BE black, Glassline bronze lines, BE Adventurine green sqares on 2 corners.

And here are some jewelry pieces. I need a better camera and a better set up to really get decent pictures of small pieces. The blue used silver foil and up close has a nice, subtle apprearance.

The black piece has 2 dichroic stringers going across. Very Pink Floyd Far Side of the Moon-ish.


More to follow, including the "wasted" pieces that bubbled and broke, just didn't come out the right way, etc.