March 2021 Newsletter

In this edition:

- Upcoming Events & Sales!

- March Posts * Elegant fused glass

- Did you know ...

I hope y'all are all doing well. It's been a crazy month.

I am thinking about having another home show in May. It would be so great to see some of my good friends. Let me know if y'all are interested. My last home show was in Nov. You can check out my newsletter (just type in home show in the search function).

Glass and Molds for Sale

I’ve mentioned my friend and mosaic teacher Cathy many times in my posts. I’ve taken 7 classes with her over the years. A few years ago a friend of mine closed his stained studio and I bought his supplies including glass and molds. Some of the glass is fusible and some of its not. But it’s all usable to stained glass …Read more.

New Fused Glass Letter Openers

In February's Newsletter's DYK I showed 2 new Fused Glass Letter Openers. I liked them so much I decided to make a few more. Below is a picture of the fused glass letter openers I made in February. Here are the new fused glass letter openers I finished this month. I wanted a mix of letter openers for both men …Read more.

Custom Fused Glass Decals

Recently I wrote a post about custom decals for my fused glass. Based on that post I had a request to make pendants with custom decals. I made two options for her. The one on the left is the design she sent me. Maybe it's my eyesight, but I couldn't read it very well so I made the one on …Read more.

Fused Glass Donations

I love creating fused glass, which is why I write my posts and newsletters. It brings me such joy when I sell a piece of my fused glass, because it means someone else loves my glass as much as I do. With the pandemic I've continued to create my fused glass and haven't had any craft shows (albeit I've had …Read more.

Visit to Westcliffe

For those who follow my newsletter and posts you know that I live in Colorado and I love to travel. Last year we went to Westcliffe to see about buying a couple of acres for our retirement home. Not only did we find the prettiest little piece of land we fell in love with Westcliffe. We try to "visit" our …Read more.

Intent Fused Glass Jewelry

My daughter bought a "my intent" bracelet at one of the craft shows I went to in 2019. She loved it and so did I. My Intent is a company that focuses on positive reinforcement bracelets. I liked the concept so much I bought a kit. Below is the kit which includes letter stamps, hammer, and metal stamping base. To …Read more.

Slate Mosaic Hummingbird

I’ve taken several mosaic classes from my good friend Cathy. With the pandemic Cathy is teaching virtual classes. She's a great teacher and so much fun! This past weekend I took a mosaic slate with with her. Mosaics is so relaxing. It turned out wonderfully. Here is a picture before it’s grouted. I’m not sure if you can see it but …Read more.

Did you know ...

This section is used to answer any questions you may have or to pass on tidbits of information that add value and enhance knowledge regarding fused glass, metals, or jewelry in general. Let me know if you have anything you'd like me to include. One of my goals this year is to finish my products, use glass that I have, use different molds, etc.

In this "did you know" I am doing part 1 of 2 discussions about recycled bottles.

This month I received an order for recycled bottle cheese platters. They are quite large 1.5 ltr Bordeaux bottles. Because of the shape there is a little hump which is perfect for resting the knife.

Here is a photo of them in the kiln the 3 on the right are the large bottles and the 1 on the far left is the normal size bottle.

Here is another shot of the same bottles after they are fired.

As you can see there is quite a size difference but both of them have the little hump.

Some bottles are screen printed with designs. As long as the design is screen printed not just plastic the design may stay after firing. The 2 on the left are designs on the bottles and stayed when I flatted them. The two on the left are my designs, the top is a decal and silver foil and the bottom one is sandblasted.

For these three I flattened them then added decals and slumped them. I really like these little holders.

One of my favorite things to do with bottles is to add texture. Clearly some textures work better than others and some colors work better than others for textures. The lighter the bottle the better for textures.

I've also used various shapes with bottles. I like all of these shapes. Again different bottles work better with different shapes.

Of course you can mix textures and decals with different shapes. First you texture then you shape.

Lastly some bottles are so great like this purple one that I don't want to fire it so I just add some lights and then it's perfect just the way it is. I've also seen them used as tiki torches, I thought I had some but can't seem to find them.

I've just touched on using recycled bottles. My next did you know will focus on cutting the bottles and what things I've done with different parts of the bottles.

If you'd like to know more please email me at elegantfusedglass@gmail.com

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In addition to my Elegant Fused Glass by Karen website, I'm also on Pinterest, YouTube, and Artfire.

You can also contact my via email: elegantfusedglass@gmail.com

All Fused Glass photos and posts as well as my flame are copyrighted 2021.