Before Birdsong 5 got to rockin, and then I flew away to Florida for a family trip, I pre-wrote a few blog posts to pop up while I was otherwise occupied. This is a story from earlier in the year, and I've also got some pics of pre-Birdsong coming up too.
My friend, Shanna, is an accomplished stained glass artist. She also does mosaic, and fused glass. And best of all, she is a kind hearted, generous soul who likes to open up her studio to her friends. We have an ongoing group studio day for mosaics, and even though I gave up working with glass years ago, I still join in and bring something else to work on so I can hang out and chat with friends.
But,when she hosted two birthday parties with fused glass projects, I just had to participate and try my hand at them.
Here are a couple of my results, I love the diacrylic glass, and all the sparkles it has in it. But I'm not very good at making these, it takes some practice. I discovered that it is very much like glazes in ceramic, the kiln firing changes your creation quite a bit and it's kind of a gamble when you are putting it together, unless you know how the heat will affect the end result.
Basically, you layer bits of glass, holding it in place with small drops of glue, then pop them in a kiln. Here they are pre-firing.
Shan provided a huge selection of glass for us to work with.
My other friends have higher levels of glass skills than I do, and could cut the glass as needed. I used the pieces as is. Everyone got nice jewelry from the night- after the pieces were fired, we glued bails to the backs and turned them into pendants or earrings.
Mosaic Day is on Thursdays, not every week, but quite often.
There are always a wide variety of projects going on. Diane asked me to sketch an iris for her to fill in with cut pieces of glass. I'm okay with a marker, but when it comes to glass, I decided to let the experts play with that...
See what I mean? Shan is quite the expert, I love her work!
She has a beautiful home, with lots of windows to display her stained glass.
And for her dog, Oscar to peek out of. Ozzie is one of my grand dogs from Twinkle's last litter. I'm always happy to see him when I visit, he is one of the sweetest of all the pups that came from our home. It could be Shanna's influence, she is a sweetheart too.
She is always generous, and is over the top talented.
This is the fused glass pendant she created. The necklace was her birthday gift to me. Nice, huh? Thanks, Shanna!!
How gorgeous -- I love all the creations! Glass is so luxurious.
Posted by: Laurie Jackson | June 14, 2015 at 11:37 AM