Glass for the Newly Weds

I haven't had the opportunity to make one of these bowls in a while! I was thrilled to be asked to make this bowl as a gift.

The commission stated that the couple liked natural colors so I selected this amber/hint of green glass. The surface is iridized so there is a lovely rainbow sheen that is visible from certain angles.

I cut two 15" circles of the glass and placed the smooth surfaces of the glass facing each other so the rainbow surface would be accentuated on both sides.  I sprinkled a light dusting of clear powdered glass across the face of the bowl to  give the piece a sheen and to also contain the iridescence, making the bowl food safe. I full fused it once, then added the letters cut from spring green irid glass, and dichroic dots to the surface. A second visit to the kiln allowed for a tack-fuse. Using my flat lap grinder, I smoothed out the edges and then the glass was returned to the kiln one last time to be slumped into a bowl.

There is always a written statement about the glass, with some information about the gematria behind the word Ahavah, and a blessing.

The piece is now signed and sealed in bubblewrap...ready to be delivered...tomorrow. Mazal tov to the bride and groom!

Another project in the making

A wedding gift commission in the making. I'm hoping for better results. I made a beautiful bowl that did something really weird in the slump phase. I'll have to start over on that one, darn it!

This piece will be part of a wall mounted piece...kind of a punk-graffiti feel.  It comes out of the kiln tomorrow and then the assembling and cold fusing begins... Come back tomorrow night. I'll post a new picture !

Ready For the Kiln

Stage one was full fusing the base glasses. With the addition of glass shards, this is ready to go back in the kiln for a tack fuse.

First stage involved 15 hours in the kiln.
Stage 2 will be roughly 19 hours.
Stage 3 is slumping the disc into a seder plate mold- about 12 hours

Broken Glass! It's a good thing!

You are looking at shards of glass....wrapped in silk. These shards are the remnants from a wedding this summer. Now they are being put to use in a wedding gift to the newlyweds! More coming!

Wedding Commission

One more round of firing to go!

This tray is made of clear and blue streaky glass

on top of opaque white glass. I cut a "river" through the streaky glass  and "planted a stream" of clear dichroic chips. 

The tray will go through one more firing to cure the white gold ink I used to trace the stream.

This was commissioned as a wedding gift! The ceremony is Saturday. Congrats to the newlyweds!

Wedding Bowl Commission- almost complete!

In the kiln waiting to be slumped

I took longer than I had planned with this but am quite pleased with the result. 

Why the delay?

The design was borrowed from the wedding invitation and then adapted for glass. I wanted the right glass and the right effect....which meant playing a bit with the glass. Then I stumbled across what I thought was the perfect glass...but didn't have enough of it with which to experiment!

 The glass I chose for the water and sky was a mottled blue. Apparently I had failed to label it. It was a striker glass so in the heat it flashed purple....I liked it even more! I wasn't happy with how plain the sky looked, so I used more of the same glass to create streaky clouds.  Lucky me, some of the glass failed to strike and remained blue! The mountains are cut from gold iridized glass, speckled with clear glass dots. The trees are cut from dichroic glass and offer just a little "pop" to the whole piece.

An inscription written in gold ink on the back includes a phrase from a Pablo Neruda sonnet that was recited at the wedding. 

I am grateful to my customers for bringing this project to me....it was a fun adventure! As always, I'll include a printout containing information about how the dish was made as well as care instructions.