Mirror Mirror on the Wall

I know I haven't posted in quite a while. I have been busily making glass, shipping glass, and doing a couple of shows.

Recently, I made this mirror using some small cut up pieces of glass scraps.

15" diameter

It's like pulling taffy... REALLY HOT taffy

My very first kiln was a little Evenheat Studio 8.

The inside of it is about 8" square and it has a manual control.

I have since gotten a larger kiln (and then another kiln, because I'm like an addict) and found I much prefer programmable controls.

The little guy has been sitting around for about a year now seeing no action, so I decided to make into a vitrigraph kiln.

What this means is I cut a hole into the bottom of it so glass could flow out.

'Isn't it hot?' you might wonder. Yes, it is. That's why you see the big glove there.

You also might be wondering 'what do you do with it after you pull it out?' Basically, you can use it as design elements.

Here I've used some different colored pieces as stripes:

Yet another cat in the kiln...

No, it's not Lucy. Here's a little cat that I put in the kiln:
It's about 4" tall, and maybe 6.5" long.

Another Cat in the Kiln

So back in March, I told you I found Peanut in the kiln. Well, at least then it was winter... so the cold kind of explained it.

This weekend, it was Benji's turn in the kiln...

Not the first weird place that cat has turned up:

So touchy.

I had this plate out at a show last weekend and close to 90% of the people that stopped, touched it.

Sometimes, I'll have a piece out that has a texture and I haven't thought much about people touching those.

But this is just smooth glass - so, I was kind of surprised.

Then one woman told me she was checking to see if the clear spaces were holes.

Another lady (who hadn't touched it) mentioned that stuff might fall through the holes...

So I think they were all checking on the same thing.

Floral Frames

July has been a busy month! I did two shows this month. And even though they were one day shows, there was a lot of prep work to be done.

I made quite a few frames for the shows. Above are four frames featuring florals. :)

Smoky Amethyst

Here are some pieces from my 'smoky amethyst' color scheme phase. The square bowls on the ends are 5" square x .5" deep. The candle bridge (center) is 5" x 8" x 2" approx.

Color Schemes

Sometimes, when I start working with a new sheet of glass or a new color, I get really drawn into a color scheme. This combination of dark blue, turquoise blue and green was a recent infatuation.

Unfunctional

So, a friend of a friend requested a piece of glass. He wanted something for his desk - but he didn't want a clock, and he didn't want a bowl. He didn't want it to be anything functional (and you know, I'm all about practicallity.) He wanted it to be blue.

And so, this is the piece that I made for him.

Stripes

This is a fun piece I made recently. It's 10" square and about 1.5" deep.

I had an assortment of glass strips out on my work table from other pieces and decided to put them together.

I like the way it came out.

Small Pink Bowls

These pieces are all 6" square. What can you do with a six in bowl? You can use it as:

• a candle holder
• a candy dish
• a jewelry/trinket holder
• a little piece of art
• a cat dish

Color

These pieces were all made with many squares of different colored glass.

The candle bridge measures 5" x 8".

The little plate on the left is about 4" square.

The bowl on the right is 6.5" square (approximately).

Black & White

For these pieces I stuck with black and white with some various shades of grey.

Clock for Jenna's Parents

Recently my hair stylist (Jenna) asked me to make a clock for her parents' new office (in Portland).

She gave me the colors that they used, and while I was in Seattle I got some samples - because it wasn't like Behr or Glidden; it was Devine Color.

So for a while, I was looking at the colors and trying to come up with a design. Looking at the colors, thinking how much I liked the color combination. Looking... Thinking...

It wasn't until I finished the clock and went to take the picture that I realized part of the reason I liked the color combination so much is that it's basically the same combination in my living & dining rooms!

What clever people Jenna's parents must be. I hope they like their clock.

The Other Three...

While I was making the pieces for the Alaska Run for Women, I made a few extra. (I'm a bit of a freak.) I wanted to make sure that I had the pieces I needed and wasn't scrambling to make something at the last minute if something went wrong.

So these are the three I thinned from the herd. There's nothing wrong with them... I just liked the others more.

Alaska Run for Women

These are the pieces I made for the 2009 Alaska Run for Women:
Since it is an event for Breast Cancer Awareness, each piece has pink in it. Although, I didn't want everything to be bubblegum pink, so there's light pink, dark pink, cranberry pink, and fuschia.

Actually, the pinks are the only colors in the pieces. Except for the two round bowls, which are all pink, each piece has black & white, and most have some grey.

A Tale of Two Clocks

These two clocks each have a black base and are topped with squares of red & orange and red & green that seem to tumble down. Trying to get this random sort of look is always a challenge. I'm very nitpicky about having it look natural, while at the same time fighting the urge to make it symmetrical. The leaning clock is 4" wide x 7" tall. The curved clock is 4" tall x 4" wide.

Color Block Frames

Above are two recent frames. When I ordered the frame backs, I had them shipped to a friend in Seattle because trying to get them shipped here was just a nightmare.

Making Some Molds

Last month, I spent a lot of time making tiles from wine bottles. However, while the tiles were being fired, I had the time to make a couple of new molds. I made a few different curves, for small self standing clocks, like the curved pot melt clock seen here.

I also made some different candle holder molds. This one, hold three tea light candles:

I also wanted to make a candle bridge that was a bit smaller than the typical candle bridge using a production mold.

This is just about the same height as the standard candle bridge, but the opening is just big enough for a tea light candle.

And you can see, it's quite a bit shorter in length.

Small Blue Clock

This is one of the smaller clocks I've made. It's 4" wide by 6" tall.

There was an unexpected reaction when I went to slump the glass. It got this very faint grey sheen to it. I refired it to see if it would increase and it did.

I like the way the grey sets off the white floral pattern, but didn't want the whole piece to be grey. So I masked it off and sandblasted the right section.

I then refired to polish up the blue part and then resandblasted to put the hour marks on it.

For a little clock... it's gone through the works!

Snowflakes in the Spring

Here's a clock I made with 'paper' snowflakes embedded in the glass. There are also raised snowflakes on the sandblasted surface. In the picture, you'll have to look pretty close to see them. The most visible is probably the one in the upper left corner.

Pot Melt Pieces

Last month, I talked about what I do with scraps including making pot melts.

While I was cleaning up the scraps at that time, I did four pot melts.

Here are some pieces that I made with those.

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Two of the pot melts used more opaque glasses, so I decided to use those for clocks.

The red/yellow clock is about 4" tall and is a semi-circle shape. The green/yellow one is about 5" wide and 6" tall.

With the two that were transparent, I decided to make candle bridges.

Where ya been?

Well, it has been quite a while since my last post and you might be wondering 'Where ya been Laurette?'

I've been quite busy with work and I've been working a project that has taken a while and not been very photo worthy...

I've been making these tiles from wine bottles for some friends' kitchen. Each tile is 1" wide and the lengths on them vary.

Scraps

I spent this past weekend cleaning up my scraps of glass, and good grief did I have a lot of them. They were starting to take over my work area, so it seemed like time.

You might wonder: why is there so much scrap? Well, a lot of mine comes from the corners of the glass after you cut out a circle. It's an odd shape that doesn't serve any practical purpose.

One thing I do a lot to get rid of scrap is make pot melts. This is where you put the pieces of glass into a flower pot in the kiln and heat it up until the glass flows through the opening. The potmelt can then be used by itself, as in my ruffle plate and pot melt clock, or it can be sliced and used as an element in another piece, like this one ->

Depending on the size of the scraps, I may cut out some small circles to use in later projects. More often, I'll end up cutting some small squares to keep on hand - it's just easier than the circles!

<-This piece was made using a lot (A LOT) of the squares that I cut up this weekend.

And some scraps of glass are just too small to cut into a square. That glass gets cut up with nippers into little salsa or confetti sized pieces to use for pieces like these:

Fuschia Squares

This 12" Square bowl was made with 200 squares, alternating fuschia on white and white on black.

The squares are slightly raised up, so it has a cool feel to it.

From the bottom, all you see is a black & white checkerboard pattern.

More about Spring Green...

Happy St. Patrick's Day! It's still cold and snowing here, and yet, I feel the need for a Shamrock shake.

I'm still waiting for spring, and still using that Spring Green glass.

The frame on the right is a base of spring green, topped with squares of cobalt blue, topped with squares of spring green. The outside dimensions are 9 x 11, and the inside is 5 x 7.

Below is another green & red candle bridge, and a small 4.5" square bowl that I made by creating a border of spring green and filling in the middle with tiny cut up pieces of various greens and clear.

A Cat in the Kiln!

When a recent batch of glass had finished a cycle in the kiln, and the kiln was still at about 170 degrees, so I opened the lid to cool it down. I left the room for about 5 minutes and when I came back I found this:

That's my Peanut. She cracks me up.

Green & Red

This weekend was the time change. Daylight Savings Time... totally ridiculous really. It’s just Daylight Moving Time. Just when it is starting to get a little brighter in the mornings – a little easier to wake up and get going - let’s set the clock ahead so the evening can be lighter.

I was thinking of protesting, and just operating on Laurette Standard Time all year but I’d hate to have people thinking I was late for things just because they didn’t understand the time difference.

Anyway, back to glass. One of my favorite color combinations these days is red on spring green.

On the candle bridge above, I used a slightly darker shade of red powder than I used on the plate to the right.

The spring green really makes the red pop. Any other shade of green with red would probably end up looking too much like a Christmas decoration.

Feeling Springy

I'm done with winter early this year. I'm ready for spring. Outside it's still cold and snowing. But, even though I'm not a big fan of it, Daylight Savings Time starts this weekend - so there is hope that Spring is on the way.

In the studio, I've been working on making my own spring. Above you can see a recently completed bowl using such delightful colors as Spring Green and Tangerine Orange.

The Bowl is 12" square and about 1.5" deep.

Black & Red Bowl

Here is a shallow square bowl I made using a base of black & clear glass topped with squares of black, red, and grey.

It's kind of a different look for me.

I was using it as a water bowl for the cats, but somebody bought it.

Frames

I find it interesting that the red design on the green background is so alive and vivid while the green design (yes, that's green) on the red background is so subtle.

 

When you are working with glass powder, the different colors obviously behave differently. The red powder retains its intensity and the green gets muted.