Aspen Branch - Painted Bowl

This is the largest of my Aspen Branch Series. It's a bowl, approximately 13" in diameter and about 2" deep.

I used Peter McGrain's Vitri-Fusaille technique to paint the branch and leaf stems. I just loved Karen's earlier comment on the beginning of this piece when I mentioned how I felt less timid painting this one! I really did feel more free to let myself paint what I pictured. Now I know this is just simple line drawing stuff...I just think it adds so much to a piece. It's great fun and I plan on doing more painting on glass.

For my next go round on this design, I think I'm going to use green leaves. It's so hard to tell how pretty the glass is for the leaves here. I used a very colorful Bullseye streaky that had reds, rusts, greens, and even some blues. That glass reminded me of autumn colors. I still find it very pretty, just too dark in the photo to show how everything turned out.

The Good News....The Bad News

The Good News is my Aspen Branch plate turned out so well. The definition I was able to create with outlines is exactly what I've wanted in my fused pieces. Peter McGrain's techniques are fun and I think have brought my work up a notch or two.




The bad news is the fuego bowl turned out 'ok', but somehow, I mistook some of the main glass as fusible and it was not. I'm just thankful that nothing happened to cause more kiln problems. I discovered that some of the glass wasn't fusible as I was looking at the tag to re-order some. Much to my dismay, it was normal stained glass...not fusible.

At least I can incorporate the non-fusible glass into a stained glass piece in the future.

For now, I'm glad I can pursue the Aspen Branch series and do more glass painting!

First Glass Paintings

Tonight two painting projects are in the kiln. I'm embarking on the Peter McGrain Vitri-Fusaille technique.



This first one, my Fuego plate/bowl, is one that I've always meant to display like stained glass....only in a bowl. I just defined the lines with paint that should fire black. I think that will make this piece really stand out. Once that's complete, I can slump it in the bowl mold....hopefully tomorrow.


This next one is my aspen branch. I worked on the outlines and I may do more to this after the paint firing. I'll have to see how the black outlines turn out and I may do a bit of a wash to it to incorporate more shading.

Right now less is more for me when it comes to painting on glass. I'm going to have to experiment and see what works.

Oh and I started to work on my commission for the Milo Stephens "Peace Offering" today. I'll post pictures of the work in progress on this piece too. I've been anxious to start working on this one!

Progress Reports

When I opened the kiln this morning, I was greeted by this beauty! I'm happy with the result and it confirmed why this glass is expensive too. Nice rich colors. The picture doesn't show how well the accents compliment the streaky parts of the glass, but they do. Several of them are iridized, which really adds a nice effect. Given this result, I will proceed with making the next two larger sizes. This piece is so 'fiery' that I think I may call this series Fuego.

As a mentioned a few days ago, I want to try Peter McGrain's glass painting techniques. I now have my design....an aspen branch, of course.


This is my design template I used for cutting out the glass.

And I'm also posting a picture of the actual piece that just went in the kiln this morning. What I've done here is place the template underneath the glass circle and it becomes my guide for leaf placement. Once fused, I'll go back and paint in lines and other washes to create some of the effect I'm going for with this piece.



In my opinion, the cool thing about fusing is you can do things with glass (shapes, lines or lack of lines) that you just can't do in the traditional stained glass method. If all goes well, the fused blank will be ready for painting in the branches and creating some shading for the leaves. You probably noticed some other items with this piece. I'm working on some new pendant designs so I added them to this batch for the fuse.

If I'm happy with the outcome of this small plate (about 9" in diameter), I have two others in larger sizes that I will use for this series. I imagine I'll name this series The Aspen Branch.

Happy Creating All!

Reaching for my inner painting 'abilities'

Last night, after I finished working on more of the copper foiling for my Peace Angel, I thought it would be good to relax and watch one of my new DVDs. I ordered several of Peter McGrain's DVDs, and the first to arrive was his Vitri-Fusaille Technique. What I have viewed so far, I've really enjoyed and this got me thinking that I'm going to have to reach deep inside my creative self and try to resurrect my inner painting 'abilities'.

Yes I have dabbled in the world of painting some. A few weeks ago, I found an ink and watercolor piece that I think I did as far back as grade school. Sometimes I'm a bit of a pack rat. I showed it to Dan and, while he may be biased, he felt it showed my artistic abilities even back then. I'll have to post a picture of that old drawing/painting here so all of you can smile at my early artistic attempts. :)

I am looking forward to exploring this new VitriFusaille technique as I can adapt it to my style. And yes, I do have some ideas about what I would like to try first....course my leaning is towards nature and Aspen leaves, so we'll see what my first efforts at painting on glass will be after a fairly long absence from trying any painting at all. That's why I admire the skills of all you painters out there...I think it takes great talent to paint.

My thanks to a fellow ArtScuttlebutt member, Arlene Wright-Correll, for sharing that McGrain has published this series of DVDs on his techniques. I love learning new things.