I've been doing a bit of strip construction lately - cutting strips, placing them on edge and then fusing.  I especially enjoy the look that results from using this technique with streaky glasses. I find this platter mimics a bamboo look.

This is a piece I made for my father-in-law's 75th birthday.  My husband and his sisters presented him with a 75 year old bottle of wine and this piece.  The glass is one of my new faves - it is a Bullseye French Vanilla with Light Turquoise swirled throughout.  The two glasses react to produce the browns and grays.  It was one of their special production glasses, but they have just added it to their standard line!     The rack is supposed to hold nine bottles of wine on their side, I find it to be most stable with no more than seven bottles.

I have been quite busy playing around since I got my new (bigger) kiln and have been especially enjoying experimenting with draped pieces.  This is a pic of one of my favorites so far.  It was an 18 inch round.

I've been a bit busy with not much time for new work or posts lately, but I wanted to share this piece.  This piece was put together for a school auction.  There were 14 students in this 1st/2nd grade class.  I gave each one a 3" x 15" piece of pre-cut piece of clear glass and some pre-fused leaves and each designed a flower panel of their own with frit and stringer in a palette of reds, yellows, and oranges. The pieces were then arranged on tinted blue and green glass for the background.  The finished piece is 15" x 42" - much too big for my kiln, so I had to piece and fire it at my local teaching studio.  Good thing, because I needed quite a bit of assistance on piecing the back together.  We used hardware from Hang Your Glass and the lucky winner should be able to hang it on their wall after the auction next week.  Not the greatest photo - it's a bit too wide for my camera to get a great shot.

I made this piece for a swap and it has arrived at its new home so I can post a pic up here.  The recipient had pinned a piece by CrazyEyeGlass as one of her wishes - the clear woven dish that is a February featured project!  I made this one in Bullseye Med Tint Amber, because the recipient has an amber glass collection.  The piece is 10 inches square and very slightly slumped.

I have sooooo many 'want to do' and 'what if I' projects floating around in my head that they are driving me a bit batty!  I can't seem to focus long enough to bring one to the kiln.....it's rather frustrating.  I decided that the best thing to do would be to get ANYTHING into and out of the kiln to try and refocus my energies.  I chose to throw together one of those broken bottle bowls that I've seen from time to time.....figured it would be quick and maybe I'd learn a thing or two.

I'd definitely increase the process temperature if I do this again.  I was going for a smooth contoured look that kept some texture.  At 1450 in my kiln, the glass is still a bit more hard edged than I would like.  I had been hoping to produce a 12 inch bowl shape, but one 750ml Bordeaux bottle only produced a 9" blank.  I didn't want to mix bottles and risk compatibility issues, so I went with the smaller version. 

Interestingly, with this piece I didn't get any of the devit that almost always shows up when I slump bottles into spoon rests or flats.  Anyone here do much work with bottle glass?  I'd love to know how you avoid devitrification - I've just about resorted to sandblasting bottles before they go in..........since I'm almost always sandblasting them after slumping anyways....

I've been playing around with decal paper again.  I like the sepia toned look on BE French Vanilla glass.  I'd love to dig up more information about full color decals - that would open up a lot more options...

This is a re-creation of a piece I have in my home that a client from my 'real' job requested I make for her.  I use them for votive candles.  This particular piece is an 11" square. I love the look of draped glass - but it can be difficult to achieve the look I have in mind each time I put a piece in the kiln.  Right now I'm limited by the depth of my kiln and have to go to the local teaching studio if I want to do large drapes.  I'm looking forward to my next kiln purchase so that I can experiment more with drapes - I'd love to try draping some heavier pieces, like pot melts, and maybe some more delicate pieces like weaves or stringer compositions.

First piece of the New Year!  (Well, my first piece anyways - my boys are home from college on winter break and both have been busy honing their new glass skills and hogging up kiln time.)  This one is an Ikebana vase made from frits with mild reactive properties.

Made from the Bullseye tutorial for stringer plates: