'Nesting Loon'

Step 1- Lay out the background of the piece.  I added some frit to the nest and some stringers to suggest reeds.
Full fuse firing.

Step 2: Add some details to the fused piece.  More reeds, more detail to the nest, a dichroic dragonfly.
Contour fuse.

Step 3:  The contour fused piece is placed on a sconce mold and returned to the kiln for a drape fusing.

Step 4: Fusible paint is used to add feather details and fused once more.

Sunflowers and a Tree

Sunflowers are ready for the plater... as is this tree.

Starting to assemble the sunflowers

Ready for the kiln

Fused

How many petals do I need?

petals- many shapes; many sizes

Slumped

slum the petals

Wrapped in lead; begin to solder

Well the petals are cut... the centres have been fused.... some of the petals have been slumped to give them some CURVE!  Spent most of the day wrapping the pieces with lead came.  It was more challenging than I anticipated to wrap the curved pieces -- Have started the assembly....

Sunflowers... add a dimension

I have done many sunflower pieces in the past -- I love sunflowers (almost as much as pelicans!).  I generally make these in a 3-D format using stained glass wrapped in lead came.... and plated with nickel on completion.   My intention now is to add a dimension to these by curving the petals and leaves in my kiln - to make them more realistic.
Step 1 will be to come up with a rough sketch of the design.  It need only be a rough approximation -- to indicate size and location of elements of the piece.  Each piece of glass will be cut freehand - so no pattern will be used.
Here is the rough sketch...

The circle represents the brass ring that I will use as the base for the piece.

Check out new pics in the gallery!

Tempered Bowl/dish drape experiment

Well, it was worth a try.  I think the piece was a bit too thick to actually drape nicely all around.  However, it turned out to be an interesting shape, which I think I will use somehow...

Dragon and Wizard win an award!!

The Dragon and Wizard won "Best Stained Glass" category
at the Prairie Art Show last night.  Whooopeee!!!!

The tempered glass bowls are ready

I am pleased with this deeper bowl.

This is a bit shallow -- may reslump in deeper mold.
Have a thought to experiment with a drape on this one.
It might fall apart -- I'll display the result!