One-handed fused glass- Tzedakah Box

 I'm working one-handed since I dislocated my elbow and gave myself a call fracture. With some commissions due, I had no choice.

My wonderful husband was kind enough to move large sheets of glass for me and hold things in place when I needed help...but I found I could get the work done...I just had to slow down and think through every step.

One of the commissions I had was to craft a tzedkah box (like a piggy bank for charity.) I ended up fusing the Hebrew letters to the face and then copper foiled and soldered the rest. I somehow failed to capture the beautiful marble I glued to the top as a handle.

Min Ha-Metzar: Out of the Narrow Places

 Darn it! I dislocated my elbow and gave myself a little fracture. I won't bore you with the details.

Anyway, when last I posted, I was fusing hundreds of blobs. I finished that before I became a one-handed glass artist.

This was a commissioned gift. It's called Min Hametzar . From the Narrow Places. It comes from Psalms... the rest of the phrase says:... I called to You, and You answered me.

the rest of the phrase i

tiny glass blobs/beads: A New Commission

Lots and lots of tiny squares went into the kiln... high temperatures cause the squares to round up into tiny blobs or beads. Blobs just sound inelegant when you're looking at something so small.

There are multi colored beads and some clear dichroic beads...  some are a little larger and some a little smaller. This photo should give you a sense of the size.

THE PROCESS: It's not rocket science....just repetitive snipping. I cut up glass into narrow strips and then use tile snippers to cut little squares (see the picture below ). The next step is laying out all these little squares on a kiln shelf, making sure that the squares don't touch each other....Program the kiln and walk away! I fire over night to get a lower price for electricity. Scooping up the finished beads is really time consuming as well. I use a pancake flipper to scoop them up but they are tricky little devils and they tend to roll off.

What will I do with these little beads? They will be used in a fused mosaic along with frit ...It's a commission that is intended as a gift...so I won't be posting the finished product until it has been gifted. I'll try to document some of the next steps. Stay tuned!

RELAYS...Not a Race!

The kiln saga continued a bit longer than I had anticipated...We got the receptacles replace thanks to a friend who also is an electrician.... I set up a quick program...and poof.....NOTHING! No heat! AAAARGH! And as is typical of human behavior, I tried it again. Nope...nothing happening. THe other kiln was fine but the Evenheat was clearly non functional.

I called the kiln guy who came out and told me it was likely the computer board....replacement and labor would run upwards of $600!
I don't want to tell you how much I have already put into the repair of these kilns already. He said he would reach out to the kiln techs at Evenheat and get back to me. The next day he came back and replaced all three relays.....and thankfully that solved the issue. The bill was more manageable...so now I've got to get busy. I have commissions waiting to be created and I have to figure out how to sell more glass so I can at least break even this year. Thats basically my goal...have a hobby that pays for itself. 

Wish me luck!

Who Knew?

My blog doesn't get written all that often, nor do that many people read it....that said, imagine my surprise to learn my blog made the top 35 glass blogs accordig to someone....#14 in fact. Who knew? There are numerous great glass blogs out there...so if you are interested in the actual list, check out : DISCLAIMER: I don't know anything about these folks and why they publish an annual list....but the list itself seems legit. I've looked at many of these sites...some I have frequented over the past number of years...and some are new to me. It's always great to learn from others.

Electricity and Elements

Just when I thought we were good to go....more electical work was needed... I am fortuante that one of my son's childhood besties is an electrician,so I made the call. He has a full time job so repairs were put on hiold until he had the bandwidth. He came by this weekend and resolved what we hope is the final repair of our outlets to solve my kiln problems. It's really in the nick of time. I do have some commissions coming up and I need to dedicate some serious studio time to those projects. I probably won't have time to post for another few weeks....but I will be back!

One kiln up and running

My Skutt was successfully repaired but kiln #2 is still down. I'm waiting for new elements to arrive. Hopefully that's all that is needed for the repair. In the meantime I had enough bandwidth to get some new items made in time for the Decemebr show. ...and I had a commission that will be gifted tonight... A gnome stake... I hope they like it!