New Toy... and Melting Bottles With it...

Like many artists, I am forever on the quest to try new tools, toys and techniques.

This fall I made a long-time dream come true and bought myself a kiln.

I got a Delphi EZ Pro from a friend.

He is a gifted glass artist and wanted to upgrade to a larger kiln.

It will fire glass, ceramic clay and metal clays.

And it does not need 220.

Perfect for me.

So the fall has been a series of adventures in glass melting.

Most of what we have done have been experiments with scrap glass.

Today I wanted to share some of our bottle experiments.

I have 2 bottle molds and have tried slumping, tacking and full fusing a variety of bottles.

This is an example of a slump in a mold.

I added some fun little hardware bits.

There are a few air bubbles around them.

This does not bother me. 

 The metal holds the heat and cools at a different rate than the glass.

This was done in a bottle mold on the slump setting.

These can be used as trays for crackers, fruit, cheese, etc.

Many people on our gift list this Christmas got one of these.

This little brown bottle was a vintage bottle.

I melted it on full fuse just on the shelf.

I love the look the vintage glass has.

 What a sweet little resting spot this will be for a spoon or teabag.

This bottle was a little too big for the mold.

You can see how it melted over the edge a bit.

I also filled this one with marbles and glass gems. 

 I loved the look inside the bottle.

My mother in law grabbed this one and uses it as a spoon rest and loves it.

The glass within the bottle cracks and has bubbles and such.

I like the unique look of it.

This was a little pink mason jar cup from the thrift store.

It was slumped right on the shelf, no mold.

The pink color was just painted on so it completely burned off during firing.

This is a Frappachino bottle done on the shelf, no mold, full fuse.

The last one to show you today was a little bottle with a bee and honey design.

I slumped it and you can still see the designs in the glass.

This will be a great gift for a tea drinker.

I will be sharing many more of my experiments.

Some have been successes and some have been failures.

What is new in your studio?

Thanks for stopping by....

Rusty Crusty Goodness

The weather in my neck of the woods is finally getting warmer.

That means soon my garage door will be open and I will be creating both inside and outside.

Last summer I had a blast rusting all sorts of goodies.

I love the rusty, crusty look of age on a metal piece.

I covet little bits that have aquired that look over time.

But I am impatient.

So sometimes I help nature along.

These pictures show the pieces at their raw state.  

Many will receive an additional treatment of patina.

They will all be sealed in some manner before they are used to keep the rusty goodness on the piece, not on you.

Last summer I even started to write a tutorial for this process.

Sadly in the fall, I got a nasty virus  on the computer and lost all the work I originally put into the tutorial.

I was going to list my tutorial in my Etsy shop.

What do you think?

Should I start over and make it again?

Looking at these photos from last year makes me say, I think I just might.

Time to get out there and make some things!

Thanks for stopping by....

Steampunk Polymer Beads

One of my great loves this past year has been playing with Sculpey polymer clay.

I love rolling it in my hands, pressing things in to texture it and then coloring and creating finishes that give it a new look.

I have always loved beautiful beads but when I actually get some, I save them.

I am not sure what I am saving them for...

So in April, when I started ,making my own beads, it opened a whole new world to me.

It was a world where I could create anything I could imagine.

This has led to many fun experiments.

Today I am sharing my steampunk beads.

I used these to make some fun stretchy bracelets.

They are easy to get on and off.

You can see I did a variety of finishes as well.

I love these.

I hope they appeal to you perhaps, too.

Thanks for stopping by....

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