a wolf angel is not a good angel

Holiday, and of course I forgot to pick things up yesterday, so I can’t today, and I’m away for the weekend as of tomorrow Very Early. Oh well.

The first day we fused flat, which means that the things got melted until all the layers became one. But they fused too long and melted out significantly.

I made a few small pieces. Two of them looked boring, and the photos improved them not a whit. So no photos of them (but I learned something about it). One looked neat, and I’ve taken to wearing it as a pendant.

The last small piece I made was going to be a crescent-shaped pendant, which pretty much it is, but I have no idea what I will use it for. Possibly a pendant, possibly I will use it as part of a stained glass piece. I think it turned out nicely, but it’s a little boomerang-shaped for a moon, so I’m still deliberating.

I also made a “hey, I wonder what it will look like if” piece. As it turns out, it looks like a mask — the bubbles added to this piece, and it’s certainly my favourite thing from the weekend.

The sparkly green stuff is glass with mica in it, which I heart. (I’ve taken to that phrase.) It melts significantly less than other pieces. Unlike all the other stuff I made, the base on this glass is not clear. The main part is light blue, the “chin” is light green, and there’s a square in the middle that’s got both, so it turned out turquoise. The light streak in the forehead happened when I put a piece of light glass (maybe clear? I forget) on dark blue. You can add depth that way; it’s something I’d like to work on.

One piece I had ended up with holes and looked sort of . . . unfinished. So I put more glass in it, and refused (re-fused) it. I think it might need another fusing, though it worries me a bit, because that will be number 4 (first one is when it’s made), and this glass might devitrify. But if I let it cool slowly, I should be okay, I think.

I actually turned the thing upsidedown for the second fusing, which really adds depth (though it’s hard to see, in photos). The flower one is filled with frit, which is bits of ground up glass. The big empty hole will be filled with a piece of teal mirror glass, as a sort of lake. I will probably use this for a box top, though it’s a little misshapen for that.

On my second day, other than replacing the landscape (I call it a Marsscape because to my mind it looked like it was there; I don’t know why), I made a few other test pieces. One of them was intended to be like the mask, but it looks terrible — I didn’t take a photo of that; I will only when I’ve managed to get it to look better.

I did three small pieces, too. As you can see, it’s very obvious what the layers of glass were. My mother is going to hang it in the window. I rather like it.

Being a cat person, I always wanted to do something with cats. I have a piece I made of a cat — maybe I’ll dig it up and take a photo — but I find that copperfoil is too hard-edged for cats to look right. Fusion, however, isn’t. You can really see the layers here; as I mentioned, I don’t much like the look. I think fusing it a bit more (but not totally) would work best. (I intend to do as much. I’m also tempted to move up my kiln-buying to July, if I like the slumping class with the guy with 20 years experience.)

Up to the light, you can really see the red glass. Warm colours aren’t easy in glass (red is made with gold, so it’s superexpensive), and I find there are rarely any I like. But this, as an accent, works well. (Compare it to the mask, where it’s over light blue & green — the red there is very ineffective.)

You can really see how the mica sparkles in this photo.

I intend to use this one as a box — for myself, for once (though the box I am working on now is also for myself). At this point the plans are for it to have a mirror bottom (classic, but I’ve actually never made a box with mirror bottom; I like them better with glass bottoms) and red sides.

I haven’t posted my glass stuff because — well, because the way the stuff turned out the second day was seriously disappointing. I had asked to fuse our glass so it was sort of melty, but she said no, it had to be fused flat. In the end, the fusing didn’t come close to flat — it wasn’t even melty, the edges are still quite defined. So the stuff that I put together for one plan ended up looking, mostly, terrible. I have a few small pieces that will work in a mobile, one that may work as a box top (but may need to be fused more), another than may work (but may need to be fused more — neither all the way flat, necessarily, just meltyish), and one that is terrible and absolutely needs to be fused flat (which is how I designed it for in the first place).

Personally I am not sympathetic to the “hey, they need to learn too” school of thought when I paid over 150$ for the class and something like 75$ for the glass and another fusing would cost me 30$ from that place. It’s one thing that she needs more skills teaching — I was upset, but it was fine, because I learned best by doing — it’s another that she doesn’t have enough practice on this kiln (or any kiln) to know what happens. Also she doesn’t know half of the science behind it, which annoys me. The first day’s work all got bubbles. Another person’s work the second day broke, and mine looks all wrong. (Another reason I want a kiln: so I can fix these mistakes by myself. I’ve pretty much decided to get one in August when I get back from vacation, anyhow.)

I will post it eventually, but I remain disappointed by how it looks, so I can’t quite face it yet. Especially since some of the stuff from the first day looked really good.

Glass fusion was lots of fun. I would love to get into it a bit (lot) more. Today’s projects are just in the kiln now, so I’ll post photos tomorrow. I have plans for them, and plans for more projects, too, if I could figure out how to fuse them myself (at the store, which rents out the kiln). Kaleidoscope wheels fused? Yes, I think so.

Glass fusion is surprisingly technical (well, surprising if you don’t think about it at all before you start). Since glass — like all materials — expands as it heats up, you need to be careful what glass you put together. For instance, I used Bullseye glass, which has a COE (coefficient of expansion) of 90. Julie who was also taking the class used Spectrum, COE 96, and Dolores brought her own handblown beautiful beautiful glass, COE 98. Within 2 points, you can usually mix glass, so she used a Spectrum 96 base.

The coefficient of expansion is how much the glass expands per degree celsius the temperature is raised. So my glass expands 90×10^-7 — which means that if I had glass that was 10cm long, if I raised the temperature 10 degrees, it would be 10.000009cm long. You need to use glass that heats at the same rate. First of all, you’re raising it to 1000 degrees (celsius) — this will end up making a difference. Glass attached to other glass of a different COE will end up breaking.

You need to warm it up slowly at first, so that you don’t end up with molten edges and a solid centre (or, in other words, a broken piece). You need to cool it down slowly, too, otherwise you’ll end up with crystals forming, and the glass will be opaque and ugly. Fusing takes a long, long time.

And prechecked glass — glass that’s been checked to see that it’s self-compatible, that the colours don’t turn when you cook them — is expensive. Red is the worst, of course (made with gold oxides), so I used it for accents. Still, because we only 3, we had lots of kiln space, so we all could make lots of projects. And one of us worked very small, one only did one thing, and I was the third, so I will have 11 projects (7 small, 4 medium). At least 3 of them (small) are boring, but I learned.

One of the things I like about fusing is that you don’t need to grind down your pieces. depending on what you’re doing, you don’t need to cut them too precisely, either — the edges will melt, anyways. And also you can’t wear stained glass as jewelry, you can wear fused glass as jewelry. I would like to buy some dichroic and make some fused dichroic jewelry . . . I want my own kiln, really. I want to see what hotter or cooler or longer or shorter times & temperatures do . . . I want to make stuff for jewelry and bracelets (bracelets!). I want to make beads. (Lukcily, Julie in the class also does, as does a friend of mine, so we might manage to get a class running.)

There is a class on fusion & slumping. Slumping means making your flat glass unflat, by melting it into molds for bowls or vases or sushi dishes. I want to take this class, too — possibly in July when it’s first offered. How much fun! I’ve always loved those glass bowls. This is another thing I could use a home kiln for. See how useful it would be?

I finished my design for my next glass piece. I’ve ordered a strip cutter, so I can only make the top now, which is irritating. Still within a week or two I’ll have everything I need to actually make the bottom too. And jewels for the kaleidoscope I’m going to make next. I adore kaleidoscopes. They were my initial motivation for going into glass, though I find boxes are somewhat more satisfying.

I like the design. I have all the glass for it, and I think it’s going to look good. I’ve got good glass and it works well in the design. (No scanner, but I might later photograph the drawing I have.)

I’m debating whether or not I should go for a light box. In theory I could make one, but in practice it might just be easier to get one. Or find a glass table and just put a light under it. That one might not be a brilliant plan. I really wish I had a photocopier.

I need to photocopy the design, get something to start saving designs in (one day I might regret not having any of the stuff I designed in the past), and buy some electrical tape. Then I can figure out what glass goes with which piece in the design (it’s a turtle shell, so each bit of the shell will be a different piece of glass. I have 11 pieces. I’m not sure how many different kinds of glass I have for the top.) I also need to buy a mini saw.

After I align glass with design, I’ll draw the shapes of each piece onto the piece of glass. I then cut out the pieces of glass (20 for the top total — a simple design). I’ll then try to slot them together so I can see where I need to grind them down. I’ll give more details about the process as I go through it. There don’t seem to be other glass blogs, anyways.

I just signed up for the glass fusion class. Why not? It should be fun. It’s glass! I like glass. And I can afford the money the course will cost me. I hate thinking about spending all that money . . . but I’m earning a fair amount and I have no real expenses for the moment. I want to save, and I am saving, but I also want to do wonderful things I love. If I don’t like it, it’s something to know. And if I *do* like it, I can do more (I can rent kiln space. I can buy a mini-one, but I think perhaps not).

A friend and I have agreed to take a carpentry course together come September, too. It’s something I’ve been thinking about for years. I have no idea *where*, but the local weeklies always have all this information in August or so. We’re going to learn to knit this summer. I’m going to make jewelry.

I’ve decided not to use bevels in my box, so I’m all ready to finalise the design and start cutting the glass. Well, not all ready — I always feel incredible fear before I cut really expensive (read: so wavy it makes using the scorer an extreme sport) glass. But still. I’m feeling excited. After I make this one, I’m going to make one for friends back in the US — I have a sketch of that design, too. I have an idea for a panel, which I’d like to get to, too. And kaleidoscopes . . .

But glass fusion. I don’t really know much about it, except that it involves melting glass and it looks really cool.

Back to work, back to work. It’s almost harder to work when I’m so excited about these other things. But then I remmber that this work pays for my love of incredibly expensive crafts, and it’s aiming towards a job I will like. Life is full right now.

I drew up a dozen designs yesterday. I have a few I really like of those and so am heading off to the glass store, where I will buy some things using my bank account that is, suddenly, full of money. I will meet a friend for coffee. I will buy fresh bagels. I will come home and build things. I will try not to figure out why I had a dream about sheets and googling for information about my car using the search terms George repair.

Today I am just plain happy. And though sometimes (more often than I would like) I feel I am more interesting or worthwhile or more something while depressed, it’s feeling really good.

I can’t find the book of designs I had, once, that has in it (somewhere) the lampshade patterns I wanted. Oh well. I have some half-ready ideas for boxes. I need to sketch them out. I cut some pieces of glass — like riding a bike, sort of. I suspect the soldering will not be (mostly cause I suck at soldering).

I’ve fallen in love with some of her designs, so I’m going to see if I can get inspired. I have some vague ideas — and tomorrow I’ll walk to the nearby store to get stuff for them, or drive to the faraway store which is better-supplied. (Unfortunately my favourite store is in Old Montreal and just impossible to park near, and I am tired of carting glass around on public transportation. There is nothing as irritating as that.)

I have a few ideas. I’d like to make a box with another water theme. I’d like to do something with a tree idea as well. I’d like to make another kaleidoscope where the spinning wheels are actual pictures of things (flowers, probably). I’d like to make one where both wheels are essentially clear and look like snowflakes. I want to make a box where the cover has a city-theme — I can’t describe it, but I know what I’m thinking of. I wouldn’t mind doing something with cats. I’d like a box like a flower. As soon as I have the patterns sketched out, I can buy glass. Which is fun.

(I like doing 3d work, not so much the panels. I don’t know why.)

I’m also thinking of taking a fusion class. Or possibly the lead came II class (I have enough skill at cutting that I wouldn’t need the first one), but since I don’t do window panels, it’s just this weird urge I have. I would do the lamp course, but I missed this one . . .

All these things I want to do with glass. I want to do other things, in other materials, too, but glass first. There’s a glassblowing place somewhere in Old Montreal, too . . .

It’s fun being excited.