Fused Glass Workshop

So due to being crazy busy, I hadn’t had the time to go play with glass since February.  Every Thursday since then I’ve had plans that haven’t allowed me to go to the glass workshop.  However, a couple weeks ago I had a free Thursday afternoon, so I headed over to Eagle Rock to do some new creations:

I mostly did some more window vases.  I had given some away and so my front window was looking a (little) bit bare.  Here are the five window vases I created:

This one was my favorite.  Definitely a lot of work — lots of cleaning and positioning, but I just think it’s so neat looking — the textures and the colors.

This one is pretty simple — just green and purple pieces arranged diagonally.

I also learned how to use the glass cutting saw at this workshop…pretty easy to use, although I definitely need more practice in order to get shapes just how I want them to be.

For this one, I thought it would be fun to explore using a glass other than clear.  I also put in some of the tiles that I made last time.

For this one, I used the iridescent stringer glass and then placed various shards of glass to go along with the pattern of the stringers.  Funny thing — so yellow and orange glass, before fused, look exactly the same.  Those orange pieces I thought were going to be yellow…so it was a surprise when I saw this finished piece!  I think it still looks good.

Then I got thinking…what else can I make besides window vases?  And then I thought perhaps I could try to make some pendants.  So, I tried a couple pieces:

The first, I tried to make right with these pieces I created earlier, only to be supremely disappointed with this:

I suppose I could make it into a magnet.  Or, the beauty of glass is that I can just try to keep melting it and see what I eventually get.

The second pendant I tried making to match these potential earrings that I made:

The result (piece in foreground)?  Not great, but not bad.  Definitely could practice more with pendants and earrings…something to explore on future Thursdays I have free!