New Work - Turquoise Delight Earrings

Over the weekend I was able to complete a number of wire wraps. Tonight I started to photograph some of them and this is a new pair of earrings I called Turquoise Delight. I am really fond of the design and plan on incorporating it in more of my earrings.

One of my 'dilemmas' wire wrapping glass, especially for earrings, is that I do not have a hole to run the wire through as a secure point as I would if I was using beads.  I have experimented with creating that channel through the glass, but so far I haven't been pleased with the results.  At this point in time, I will stick with fusing solid shapes, without any channels.

I used a combination of Wasser, Bullseye, and Coatings by Sandburg glasses for these.  The main glass creates a wonderful inclusion of the dichroic center and I find it makes a very rich looking piece.

Now, I'm the first to admit that I like a challenge and with this design and a couple of others I plan on previewing, I believe I have found a wonderful way to secure a glass cabochon in place for earrings. I hope you enjoy this latest creation.

Mystic Pools

Another pair of earrings! I'm very happy with the wire design in this pair. I think I've found a style that I'll want to incorporate in others.

I used Wasser glass to make this pair and they have a great turquoise with copper look. I added a piece of dichroic frit to the center and as the glass fused, the wasser glass tends to envelope the frit. It takes on a lot of depth when this happens and I just love the look. They reminded me of Mystic Pools, so that's how they got their name.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Christmas Ornaments

This week I delivered two different sets of special ordered Christmas ornaments.



The first was a set of 5 Christmas trees. I really enjoyed how these turned out as I was able to layer about 5 gradient sizes of glass to produce the end result. One of the techniques I learned in my Patty Gray class last month.





The second was a dozen Texas stars. They varied in outcome which made each one very unique. During my 'experiments' I ran out of the medium sized pre-cut Wasser stars and had to improvise with a medium red star with a smaller white star on top of it. Some are going to folks in Texas as gifts, others are remaining here in Colorado with some transplanted Texans.

All I can say is I couldn't have produced the stars with out the aid of my trusty Taurus III Ring Saw.

I really enjoy the looks on people's faces, when I have the opportunity to witness their expressions the first time they see something they've ordered from me.

Progress Reports

I'm happy to report that I had a successful outcome of the firing of the batch of 8 Texas Star Christmas ornaments. I'm posting a picture of them and
the next picture of the same ornaments with the pre-cut stars for the completion of the Texas flag look. It's so fortunate for me that Wasser glass pre-cuts shapes that most of us would find beyond difficult to do. These little stars come from Wasser and I love using their glass. I plan on doing a tack fuse to hold these smaller stars in place on the ornaments.

Currently I'm firing the last batch of Texas Star ornaments and Christmas Tree ornaments. This batch of tree ornaments are a little wider on the bottom, at the customer's request. Unfortunately, the picture doesn't show the layer technique I'm using all that well, but the outcome from my first effort was really cool....even if I do say so myself. It was a technique that I learned in the Patty Gray class I took at D & L last month.

For the trees, I stacked 5 different types of glass and as the glass fuses they melt into each other creating a wonderful effect (I think).

The Texas Stars have been challenging. Tomorrow I plan on devoting the greater part of the day to working on the Peace Offering stained glass window. I'm very anxious to see the light come through this one, but then I guess I always am. This window seems special and I'll continue to post my work in progress on it.

Hey Karen....it really wasn't my intent to send snow your way! Boy, it isn't officially winter yet and we're experiencing the harshness of it!