Saturday Crafting: Glass Trees and Crafty Links!

Saturday can be a busy day around here. Laundry, errands, cleaning but I always have something out on my craft table just waiting for me to dive in. I've got a holiday theme running on my work bench. I'm fusing left over glass rods into ornaments. These two trees below are waiting for me to even out their edges on the glass grinder.

After I get the laundry going, I'll start evening out the edges of these trees.  There are other crafty bloggers who have the holidays on their minds. Make sure you check them out!

Aileen's Musings
Aileen's gearing up for Christmas already with an altered wooden domino tutorial.

Cindy Gimbrone Beads
Cindy is one step ahead when she uses a wire wrapping technique to create a poinsetta ring for the holidays.

Craft Buds
Stop by Craft Buds this September, where they will host craft book giveaways, projects and more. It's a party!

Craftside- A behind-the-scenes peek at our crafty world
This week at Craftside there is a chance to win a copy of the book Sewing Vintage Aprons along with a fun recycled shirt/apron tutorial, a bunch of portfolio info and how to help a dog when it's overheating, dehydrated and sunburned and a new free Rockport App.

Crafty Princess Diaries
Tammy altered a star pattern afghan and shows you the results plus how she changed it up a little.

Eileen - The Artful Crafter
Eileen tries her hand at 3D paper tole. It’s not as difficult as it looks, but does require a bit of patience.

Lindsay Sews
The equalizer quilt design is a new project that uses guy-friendly fabrics. It's a quilt that even he will love.

Mixed Media Artist
Cyndi's new friend Kerrie, aka Antikva, shares all kinds of tips on working with shrink plastic!

Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery
How to cover an umbrella with recycled lace curtain ruffles.

Nevermore

Now that I have Twilight on the brain, I've created another necklace along the theme of dark romance, this one is in part inspired by The Raven's famous words on lost love.





The 1.5 inch square fused glass pendant is hand stamped with enamels and then a black glass heart is fused over it. I routered the edge so I could wire wrap the bail. It's suspended from a gunmetal chain I bought at the Rings n Things Bead Tour.

Nevermore is in my Art Fire shop.

Working on....

...."Gothic Lace" valentine pendant for Valentine's Day.

If you don't flux, router!

Yesterday I had fluxing success but if you're struggling with soldering, or you just don't want to create that look, you can try routering your glass cabachons. I like to use this technique when I want a "floating" look - where the frame that holds the glass cab is hidden.

The equipment you'll need is a glass grinder and a special jewelry bit. Yep, that's what it's called, a jewelry bit. I buy the Aanraku Twofers



There's a better picture on the Delphi Glass website if you're like me and want to see a close up picture - in fact, here it is from the site:


Once you have the bit, it's really easy to just run the edge of your fused cab around to create a groove in the glass like the one on my painted cab:


Delphi Glass has a quick step by step for adding a wire frame to create a pendant out of the routered glass cab.

Try it! If you don't solder, router!

Ooops - Forgot - Love Life

Love the journey that is your life

Yesterday, I put up a picture of a snowflake bowl bezel. I thought I had posted it earlier in the year but realized this morning, I hadn't. I wanted to tell you about this one. First, the back, since you didn't see it yesterday...

The bowl bezel is fabricated from brass, hand hammered into a slight bowl shape and stamped on the back: "Love Life." Sewn into the bezel is a handpainted snowflake glass cabachon. Is there no better color combination than cobalt blue and white? Love the clean, two color palette.



I stamped Love Life on the back to remind me to enjoy this journey and pay attention to it.

Curses Foiled Again!

Do you remember Dudley Do Right, the cartoon mountie a segment that originally aired on the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show in 1969? I've downloaded a picture of his arch nemesis, Snidely Whiplash whose signature line was "Curses, foiled again!" -



Well, that's how I felt this past weekend when I was tied up in the huge roll of copper foil. I continue to work on mastering the art of soldering - I'm still struggling with the tinning and soldering end of it all - hats off to those who make it look easy. In the meantime, I feel like Nell tied up on the tracks but Snidely's line fits how I feel when I find myself muttering....

"Curses! Foiled again!!"

Ornament Thursday: Putting Up the Xmas Tree

I'm sure I'm not the only one who is looking at the calendar and saying,"How did this happen?" It's December! I barely have any decorations up and when am I going to be able to put up the tree?

Do you think the Ornament Thursday Grlzz have the same problem? Check out the Ornament Thursday Blog and see what they've cooked up this week!

Having Christmas Trees on a the brain, I created one in glass. It's a take on a tutorial using glass rods or glass "shorts" for the Glass Forum on WetCanvas!

So if I don't get the real tree up soon, I've got a substitute - a lovely glass Xmas tree ornament made of glass!

Bring it on, December, I'm ready!

WireHead Gets Color

Want some color in the wire you're using? I love Artistic Wire . It comes in lovely colors and above are two examples (photos taken from the Artistic Wire website) of the silver plated copper wire. I love the peacock blue and used it in The Red Art Flower Necklace. The light blue was a nice pop of color around the painted fused glass pendant.


Artistic Wire comes in a large range of gauges for any project you can imagine and reasonably priced too. Even better, there are jewelry design ideas on the website.

You'll need to order Artistic Wire through a distributor. I order from The Soft Flex Company

Re-stocking or Addiction?

I jumped out of bed this morning and ran to the computer - Darn! Too early to put in my order for the new color available from DoubleHelix Glass. Good lordy - why in the world does a new glass color cause so much excitement?


Take a look at this glass, it's call "Triton." Cool, huh? Can't you just see the beads made of this glass?

I tell myself I'm re-stocking.

True, I'm running low on Psyche and I'm allowing myself to "re-stock" every two months in order to stay within budget.



Ooo-ahhh look at the colors in Psyche! The iridescence in the purple is so lovely in person, this picture just doesn't do it justice. How can I let myself run out of it?!?

If I'm honest, I think it's a glass addiction and not true re-stocking.

Why?

Because I was in the local stained glass shop buying more sheet glass for my fused cabs. I haven't actually MADE one of them since my handpainted Red ART flower necklace.



But bUt BuT... I AM working on new cabs and didn't have any clear to cap off the tops.

(insert graphic of me hanging head in shame here)

Yep, that's one of the stages of addiction: denial.

Is there a twelve step for glass addiction?

BIM!! Sewing Saga....

Cool news! While surfing Twitter to add new people, I found Buffalo Indie Market - I'm excited to see the Handcrafted Indie movement taking root here - Buffalo is such a great place for it! YAY! I've sent an inquiry and would love to vend - I think the Heartz n Skullz series is the perfect for an indie/edgey market, don't you? Well, while I'm waiting to hear from BIM I'm deep in sewing the cosplay.

Cosplay: short for "costume play" is a Japanese subculture centered on dressing as characters from manga, anime, tokusatsu, and video games (from Wikipedia.org).

I'm working on the costume for Anime North for the teen. I'm halfway through the yellow hooded shirt.



Admittedly, I was worried about the sewing. I haven't sewn anything in 18 years and I may have bitten off more than I can chew. Once I started the machine - it was like riding a bike - a much better bike mind you, but it all came back.

While I'm sewing this morning, I'll be heating up the kiln to do a few fused glass pieces. I'm in the middle of the altered art glass and want to get those done.

Altered Art: Prototype

I've talked about the creative process and making prototypes. I love the look of altered art. I experimented with the idea and this is what came out of my kiln: a prototype fused cabachon with an image created in enamels. I'm going to polish the edges and drill a hole for a bail. Any thoughts on this one?

Development: Small dishes

In development for several months - I feel ready to unveil a new line I've been developing - small fused glass dishes. Small 5 inch by 5 inch square dishes to use for sushi, soap, candy or as a catch-all on your desk. This one is made of transparent bronze colored glass with hand applied paisleys. It was fused onto a kiln fabric so the bottom has texture and won't slide on your furniture. It's hard to see in this picture, but the middle of the plate has an impression, a hollow so the edges are higher than the middle - it's not a flat plate but rounded. The bronze allows it to go with any decor. I've done several of these plates and have combined lampworked pieces into them. I'll be posting them over the next week. Stay tuned!

What are Fused Glass Beads?

Since yesterday's post was about fused glass beads, you might be wondering, fused? What's that? Fused glass beads and cabachons are made by melting glass in a hot kiln. Layers of sheet glass are stacked on top of each other and placed in a kiln. The kiln is heated approximately 1400 degrees F to where the layers of glass become molten and fuse into 1 piece of glass. Small pieces of fused glass without holes are cabachons. Holes are made by drilling a hole into the glass or placing a piece of kiln paper between the layers befopre heating in the kiln.

Today, I'm showing two fused glass cabachons. One was a bead whose beadhole was a little rough. It was sooooo beautiful (the periwinkle cab) that I couldn't let it go into the bead trash. So I slumped it in the kiln and then ground the edge and firepolished it. It's gorgeous! Looks like a stone!