Glass Fusing

Last weekend I attended a morning workshop which taught the skills of glass fusing.  The process of fusing glass in a kiln takes too long for us to have been able to see it happen, but our tutor talked us through the process of both fusing glass fully, and tack fusing. She took us through all the health and safety precautions we needed to know about, the properties of and the different types of glass.  She showed us some examples of jewellery pieces she had made, and then she let us loose to make our own pieces.

Yesterday I received an e-mail letting me know that my work was ready for collection, so I just HAD to go and get it straight away - I couldn't bear to wait for someone to collect it for me once I knew it was ready!

Some of my pieces turned out just as I'd imagined them, while others produced rather more unexpected results.  I'd put together seven pieces and chose to have some fully fused and some tack fused.  I some cases making a couple similar items and having one fused one way and one the other...

This was my first piece - I spent ages cutting small pieces of glass to fit!  Despite the tutor explaining how glass reacts in the kiln, I didn't really expect it to change shape so drastically!  I think it now resembles a kind of glass boomerang!  I'm thinking that I might have a go at wire wrapping this piece so I can hang it in my window as the colours are pretty even if the shape is a little strange!

My second piece was tack fused and has maintained it's original shape with less rounding of the edges. The finish is not as smooth but I love the shape and texture.

Again with these pieces, one was tacked and the other was fully fused, this time using opalescent glass instead of translucent - and again, I prefer the piece that retains some of the shape of the original glass.

However with my last piece, it had to be fully fused and I love it.  It's a combination of opalescent and fracture and streamer glass with small pieces of copper foil sandwiched between...

The photos above show the before and after fusing, the light here today has been very changeable and I don't think any of the photos do justice to what the glass looks like in reality.  The copper turned a deep red just as the tutor said it would.  I had a feeling this was going to be my favourite piece when I was making it and it really is... I'm now waiting impatiently for some suitable glue to arrive so I can attach a bail and start wearing it!

The last piece I made was similar to this but I sandwiched some knitted wire in the middle and tried cut a small piece of copper in the shape of a bird - not easy to do with a very big pair of scissors!  Sadly something went wrong in the kiln and the top piece of glass moved before it fused which is a shame...

I think I've learned just as much, if not more, from what didn't work as I have from what did.  I'm now looking around for other courses so I can learn more.  I've always loved working with glass and was upset when I had to stop working with stained glass when my hands started playing up.  But working at this scale is so much easier - I find smaller bears put less strain on my hands too.  So maybe one day I'll be working with glass again - that definitely makes my happy list!  :)

A 7th Week of Happiness...

It's obviously going to take me longer than a year to get through this as some weeks I don't feel well enough to blog, but I don't think that really matters - its about changing the way you think, its about looking for things that make you smile, even if they are small things and sometimes even in the face of adversity!  I think those are the times when it's even more important to find something positive to be thankful for.

This week, it's been pretty easy to find things to be happy about - it was my birthday a few days ago and I've been overwhelmed by the kindness of others, especially as I haven't been very good at keeping track of other peoples birthdays over the past few years, which is something I really need to work on.  The two shelves above my television are crowded with beautiful birthday cards which make me smile every time I look at them, they are a reminder that I am fortunate to have some wonderful friends and family.  :)

On my birthday I had lunch with two friends I've known since I was 8 years old, we went to a lovely little cafe in an ex-coastguard station perched on top of the cliffs in the village where we grew up.  It was pretty cold and blustery so I took a photo of our view across the English Channel through the window from the comfort of our table in the tearoom...

I've noticed that every few years, I go down to the Bay on my birthday, so here is a photo from this year's visit...

It's the first time I've been out with my "big camera" for ages and it actually felt pretty good to be taking proper photos again  :)

I've completed my bear for January thanks to a small piece of pale green sheer fabric from one of my friends which I used for one side of the wings.  The bear is going in an exhibition at my local library next week which is being put on by the craft club I attend there once a fortnight.  Being a library based group we took some of our inspiration from books and this little bear is my take on Tinkerbell from Peter Pan...

Yesterday, I went to a morning workshop on making fused glass jewellery.  It's a shame that I can't find any cool courses like this locally but this one took place in the town where my sister lives so it was a great opportunity to spend some time with family.  It was a long and tiring day but absolutely wonderful and I don't even care that I can barely move today!

Years ago, I used to enjoy making things from stained glass until my hands started playing up to much, but was pleased to discover yesterday that I remembered how to cut glass successfully and as I've found with my bear-making, cutting small pieces is a lot easier.  It'll probably be a few weeks before I get my finished pieces back as firing glass takes too long to have got our pieces back the same day so I'm waiting very impatiently and with great excitement to see what the finished result will look like.

The photo above shows one of the pieces I'm most excited about.  The tutor told us that pieces of copper turn a beautiful deep burnished red when sandwiched between two pieces of glass.  I wanted to try this and chose a piece of white glass for the background, with a piece of "fracture and streamer" glass on top.  I thought the top piece I cut reminded me of reeds or tall grasses so I cut some tiny leaf shapes from the copper.  I'll post more pictures once I get my finished pieces back.