Fused Glass Christmas/Holiday Ornaments

[PinkyK]

They all look great...especially the penguins and I really like the candy canes, too.  Can't wait to try fusing!!  Looks fun!

It's great fun! He's making a gingerbread man right now!

Teapot is here and she is making the most fabulous name tags any winter party has ever seen!  Yes, I'm making people wear name tags so they don't become "white pants guy" or some such name.

I'm back to sewing pillows for my dog eaten couch..... sigh.... not quite as fun.

[Kappy]

So, most of this week has been staging glass for a few hours, and popping things into the kiln for about 10 - 12 hours (including cooldown).

Last night, we fired the Penguins, which look like they came out very well. They were fired with a bunch of Santa Hats, which looked pretty cool, too. Unfortunately, the kiln was still 450 degrees, this morning.

Today will probably involve full fusing the Gingerbread Men and the Tiffany Gift Boxes, that were staged last night.

Hopefully, we will be able to post some pictures of the new stuff. And, so everyone knows, we are going to make even more Martini Glasses. Pinky thinks that will be the popular choice for the takeaway.

More later,

Kappy

[RedMenace]

I really dislike doing curves in glass, because I hate grinding. So, cutting curved candy canes was a pain.

Would it be possible to make the candy cane ornaments the same way they make real candy canes? That is, by fusing a strip of white and a strip of red together, and doing the twisting/curving while it's still hot? I don't really know anything about working with glass, so maybe it's not possible without special tools. Just a thought

[Kappy]

I have seen some glass bracelets at craft shows, that were formed while the glass was hot from the kiln. The people use tongs (graphite?) while the glass is approximately 1300 degrees to do the shaping. It seems to me that it should be possible to use the tongs to twist glass at 1300 degrees, instead of shaping it.

Unfortunately, we don't have those kinds of tools yet.

Kappy

[kittykill]

I'm gonna go with Martini glass and penguins too!

[dogwoodbonsai]

I can't wait to see the gift boxes!!!

[Onyxnox]

Absolutely fantastic - I wish I was coming to your party, I would love any one of those ornaments (and probably would try to sneak off with them all).

I can't wait to see what the penguins will look like with their eyes on, they look pretty adorable as it is.

[Kappy]

The gift boxes were a bust. Sigh. Should have used a tack fuse.

The Gingerbread Men came out pretty cool.

The finished Penguins came out better than expected.

I'll try to get pictures up, later. :-)

Kappy

[Kappy]

The Kaperak Kollection 2008 turned out to have a total of 8 different Ornaments. From right to left, top to bottom, there is 5 Point Star, Christmas Tree, Angel, Martini Glass, Penguin, Candy Cane, Santa Hat, Gingerbread Man.

It was a blast and a challenge to conceptualize, design, and ultimately create. A lot of times I have a problem with abstracting a concept and keeping it simple. So, I was pleased that I was able to keep the designs simple.

Finally, we used twisted silver filament and epoxied it to the back of the ornaments. We figured that this was the easiest way to mount the ornaments so that they could be hung.

Thanks for everyone taking a look.

Kappy

[teapotdnky]

I totally flipped out when I saw him making those penguins y'all! Kappy's got da skillz!

I need a christmas tree, an angel, a star and a candy cane.