Solar Flares....or is it Flair?

Ever since last year's Glass at the Gardens exhibit, when Floral Talisman sold, I want to have at least one piece of wire wrapped glass jewelry in a show. This pendant and earrings will be my entry in the revised Glass at the Gardens at CoArt Gallery in Denver.

More of that crinklized dichroic with a pattern...I just love this stuff for glass jewelry. I tried to keep things fairly simple, while enhancing the beauty of the glass.

Ever since these came out of the kiln I thought, "Solar Flares"...so that is the title, but I think it adds a little Flair for the wearer! ;)

Some of my Favs!

I promised to post more pictures of the jewelry that I'm taking to Coyote Creek tomorrow. And to that end, here are a few of my favorites! Sometimes it's hard to let go of a piece. But I can't keep everything I like. These are more of the crinklized dichroic that I'm just enamored with. The violet pendant and earrings are called Violet Brilliance. The pictures just don't do the glass justice as they really do sparkle.





And I have to thank ALL of you who encouraged me to stretch and make earrings. I have 21 pairs to take to the gallery, along with 49 pendants. Yes, I've been busy.









This last pendant is from a crinklized pattern, called Puzzle. I think it's a "Standout", so that is its name.

Sneak preview at the gallery will be next Saturday, May 9th. I hope there is a great turnout.

Thanks again for all your kind words of support and encouragement. I truly value it.

Wraps Heading to Coyote Creek

It's amazing what you can accomplish when you are snow bound. Here are a few of the pieces that will be heading to Coyote Creek Arts in a couple of weeks. I'm working on getting as many earrings done as I can as they take the longest time to do right now. I finally have a design that works well for the small round globes. And now I have documented the process so I can refer back to it. Nice to have those repeatable patterns. The basics are there, I just add variations with crystals, bead, plain, or swirls. There are a few of the crinklized ones in this group. The set in the upper left is some of the new dichroic I purchased a few weeks ago. Lovely colors.

Dan is using the snow blower as I write this, digging us out. We have plans to go the the Colorado Springs Philharmonic "Old & New"...Mozart, this afternoon, taking Dan's mom as our birthday gift to her. The only problem is, she needs the plow guy to open her driveway...a mere 1/4 mile in length...up hill too. We don't have a way to get her out, so hopefully, all this will come together so we can pick her up.

Happy creating all!

A Sneak Preview....

On Monday, my glass supplier, D & L Art Glass, sent an email that they had just received 4" x 4" selections of patterned crinklized dichroic glass from CBS Dichroic. I thought this was the perfect opportunity for me to see how some of the patterns would look. So I jumped and this is my sample set. I also got a mixed pack that has smaller samples and more patterns.

Tonight I started to prepare pendants and earrings for a firing. I almost have a full kiln shelf and I hope that tomorrow I can finish it up and fire the kiln up. I'm really excited about these selections. The patterns are great, from puzzle to pixie stix to balloons and more.

Wanted to share this sneak preview of coming attractions. Happy creating all!

Irresistible

Another of the crinklized dichroic pendants wire wrapped. This one has a teal to magenta color shift depending on the light. It's hard for me to pick a favorite out of these as I think this glass from Coatings by Sandburg is so beautiful. I think the textured surface adds so much to the glass' ability to catch and reflect light even more than normal. When I looked at this, all I could think was 'Irresistible' so that's its title.

I experimented with my wire wrapping too and added a few different swirls. My approach probably is not terribly conventional, as I just look at a piece and it sort of 'tells' me where the wire should go....most of the time that works, other times...not so much and the wrap goes in the recycle pile. I chalk that up to developing my wire art style.

And I am working on a pair of earrings but they are not quite done, so I hope to post a picture of them this weekend.

Blue Beauty - The First Wire Wrapped Crinkelized Pendant

A little while ago you may recall I did a test run of the new Crinklized Dichroic from Coatings by Sandburg (CBS). They've been 'patiently' waiting for me to start wire wrapping them and I finally have. This is the first one, and I'm calling it Blue Beauty. Pictures really don't do it justice. This new crinklized glass is so beautiful. It's richly colored and has a lot of sparkle. This is a deep turquoise blue. Hope you like it as much as I do!

Crinklized Dichroic

Coatings by Sandburg (CBS) has come out with a new addition to their line of dichroic glass, crinklized dichroic. I ordered a little of it and my shipment arrived a week ago. Last weekend, I did a small test firing to see how this looked and I like the brilliance of it after being fired.

This first photo is after the firing and my pictures are not as good as the ones CBS has on their website. It does have a very nice crinkle texture too it. And it is not rough as one would think, so I feel it will be very nice for jewelry. I plan on wire wrapping these pieces.

The second photo shows how it looked before it was fired and it looks just like ordinary dichroic glass.

I plan on doing a little more experimenting with it. CBS recommends that you take it up to at least 1475 F and you can go even higher to have more of the crinkled effect. They say it is meant to be uncapped, that is, no need to put a clear glass cap over the top of it as I like to do with other dichroic (for depth). But I may just try a sample to see what it looks like. If it is capped, it won't crinkle and that does defeat the purpose of using the glass.

I do enjoy trying out new products. I think this is a wonderful addition to CBS's line of dichroic art glass.

** As a footnote regarding my results from the Etsy showcase yesterday, it didn't generate any sales yet. I did see an increase in traffic, in people who marked my shop a favorite, and in number of views for some of the items I featured. For now I'll continue to chalk this up to gaining exposure and perservance.