I've had this fish cut out for some time, but just got around to finally fusing it last night.  I wasn't sure how or what I wanted to fuse it too, so I kept putting it off. I finally just grabbed a piece of transparent dark green glass, put it on top and put some of my bits and pieces on with it and fired it.




Mike

Thanks.  I'd forgotten I'd posted that here.  I've not come up with any ideas that compels that much yet, but I figure I just need more of the same stuff to bring out the ideas... so I've fused more bits and pieces. Actually, I'm up to 7 pounds of the stuff now but still can't quit pull out what I'm sensing is in there... so I'll keep making it. Hopefully I'll come up with something before I run out of scrap glass.

Here is a picture of the pile from the other day when I pulled another shelf full from the kiln...




7 pounds and an area about 24" square piled with the stuff. 

A little closer view...



I've used up most of my colorful scrap and am working on the rest of my black, gray, French Vanilla and a few other one off colors.

Mike

Although this may look like a mosaic table top before the grout is put on, it really isn't.   What it is is a kiln shelf full of un-fired bits and pieces from my large supply of scrap glass that I've been wondering what to do with.  I've been wanting to do a mosaic for some time, I just can't figure out what pattern I want to attempt doing. I'd been playing with some snipped pieces left over from one of my other projects, pushing them around into different shapes and patterns, but nothing was jumping out at me. So I decided to fire them to polish and round off the edges.  I did a few, then a few more and then a couple of shelf fulls and now I've got several pounds of fired pieces of different colors that I haven't figured what to do with... but they look neat on my desk top.



This self I put in tonight, here is a bunch that I've already done and what they look like (ignore the Gecko in the middle, he was sunning himself and wouldn't move for the picture)... This is only a small part of what I've done so far.



I'm not very creative when it comes with coming up with patterns or something else that these could be used for, so I don't know if I'll ever actually use them, but it's better than turning the scrap into a pot melt or something.

Mike

Here are a couple of things I finished last night and pulled out of the kiln this afternoon...


I used some scrap glass to create this fish skeleton...




And I also created some Ladybugs...



The fish is about 4"x4.5" and the Ladybugs are 3"x2.75".


Mike

  Along with the Dragonfly, I also pulled this out of the kiln this morning.  With the same idea as the broken tile I posted a couple of weeks ago, this one takes a design and cuts it up rather than breaks it with a hammer or 2x4.  7" wide by 7.5" tall, fused face down (and I forgot to flip the heart so it's actually reversed from what I wanted).



Mike

 I just pulled this out of the kiln this morning. My attempt at a Dragonfly. Wingspan is 9" and body is 6" long.



Mike

Thanks everyone.  Helen, it was suppose to look like that, but not so 3D. The black should have been more fused into the red. I'll show the other two I did as well. The 2nd one I did is the one that was closest to the look I was going for.  Grobarka, yes, I considered putting clear frit in, although I thought the clear cap I put over the whole thing would work. I've had several people suggest the clear frit, which would probably have come out better.  I don't think any one way is the best, they just all give a different look.

Joby, haha!  I'm about as far from a rock star at this as one can get and still be doing glass.  I do have a message forum where I've posted some of this stuff, although the forum is really the site my wife and I have for the breed of dogs we have. It uses the VBulletin forum software and I put a section on it for dog art but have branched out to other kinds since I don't get a lot of traffic to it from the dog people we talk to. So it's sort of a blog with a few more features like this forum has.  I try different things, but I'm not always that successful with them. If I could do half (or even a quarter) of things I dream up, then I probably would be a rock star at glass fusing.

This was the first one of this type that I did.  I fused it face up but didn't go to a full fuse...



This is the second one and I went face down with it and went to a full fuse. This was more of the look I was going for, but I didn't seperate the pieces enough to keep them from closing in during the fuse. The black is down flat on the red...



The one I'm working on now, I'm cutting the glass rather than breaking it. I've been working on drawing out the shapes I want and will use that as a template.  My ring saw threw a belt and I just got it adjusted again, so I haven't been able to do any cutting, although some of the cuts I should be able to with my glass cutter.

Mike

Over the Thanksgiving holidays I had some time to try out something I've been wanting to do. What I did was take a piece of black glass and deliberately broke it. Then I put it on top of another piece of glass, leaving the cracks from where it broke.  The first two I did, I used a hammer to break it. I fused the first one face up with a piece of yellow underneath.  It came out ok, but not what I was looking for.  The 2nd one, I used a piece of red glass and fused it face down.  This was much closer to what I was looking for, but I didn't separate the pieces far enough and during the fusing they closed up a bit and the red wasn't as apparent.  The third one I did, I didn't use a hammer, I used the end of a 2x4 board to get a different pattern and spread the pieces out more. I could have spread out a bit more, but it came pretty close to what I was looking for.  I had reduced the top temperature by 25 degrees and shortened the hold time by 10 minutes so I didn't get a full fuse between the black and red. This is what it looked like after the first fuse:



This weekend I put a clear piece of glass on top of it and fused it again. Unfortunately, the clear and black fused into the red and closed up the cracks again, so I need to rethink it and try again.  I'm working on an idea for a forth attempt this weekend now.

Mike

I finally got around to finishing the last 2 coasters in the shape of a dog paw that I started a week or so ago.  This time I did them in red. I've always thought red and black went well together although I was afraid the red glass I used wasn't going to be red enough. I was glad to see that after it was fired it turned a bit redder than it was unfired.

I also finished the cut out profiles I did based on the Bouvier des Flandres dog breed we have.  I was waiting on some tiny diamond bits and when they came in I had to find a chuck reducer for my drill since the smallest bit I wanted to use was to small for my drill chuck to hold on to. I couldn't find one local for my drill but I did find a smaller collet for my Drimmel which was small enough to hold the tiny bits.  I don't like the Drimmel as much as my variable speed drill where I can go slow. The Drimmel, even on it's lowest speed is still way to fast for me. But I got them drilled.  The biggest profile (about 7" from tip of nose to heel on hind leg) has two holes drilled and the others only have one.  The last two I did I decided to leave a little tab on the back and that is where I drilled my hole.

The red paws:



And the Bouv profiles:



Mike

I've been working one some coasters that I did in the shape of dog paws. I originally started to make them spoon rests but I couldn't get the slump so that the toes curled up the way I wanted it to, so I decided they were coasters instead. They don't work half bad as coasters either.

The base was cut out of one piece of glass and then I cut out the black pads, set them on top of the base and did a fuse that was above tack fuse but not quit a full fuse.  This gave me the 3D effect with the paws.  They are about 5" square and very simple to make with a ring saw.

These two I did with a pinkish colored 3mm thick glass:



Here is a side view:



These 4 were made with French Vanalla thin rolled glass. The thinner base was easier to cut but I like the thickness of the 3mm glass of the first two.



I'm working on some with a red colored base glass, which I have cut out, but I've been fighting a cold the last week and haven't felt like finishing them up. I'm also wanting to do one around 10" in size with two layers of 3 mm glass and make it a center piece to set warm or cold (not super hot) dishes on.  That would make an interesting look for people that like dog stuff.

Mike