I had an interesting class earlier this month with three students there, luckily there were only 3 students and they’ve taken classes previously. A few months ago I made a fused glass fish wind chime for my sister and one of my friends and fellow artist wanted to make one. I mentioned it to two other friends/students and they wanted to take the class too. I had made my sister 1 windchime with 10 and then sent her 7 more fish.
Here is my fused glass gallery and main sales area. I like having this set up for my classes because it gives them some inspiration if they aren’t sure what to make and of course all of it is for sale if they need to get some extra gifts.
As always, I had the liability forms (you may not know this but glass can cut) and as their free fused glass gift, this time I made Christmas themed pendants for everyone to chose from.
I cleaned up my glass studio and had all kinds of cold working equipment ready for them.
I also had glass supplies for them, including hand pulled vitrigraph, dichroic, murrine etc. I also had some windchime samples for them including some fish.
This is my inspiration room. I do love this room it’s also where I finish my pieces.
My good friend Jax, quite a talented artist. Made several things including a large fish and 2 large jelly fish, The first row is Jax creating her pieces and the middle row are Jax pieces. Jax also chose a few large cabochons and made them into snaps (last row first 2 pictures) and the last 2 pictures I invited all 3 students to make a couple of Christmas Ornaments, magnets, or snaps. She is actually making them into necklaces (see bottom row). Sadly the blue one broke (see bottom row) when she was gluing it. I’m going to make her another one. The blue, white, and clear – she wasn’t a fan the shape so she changed it into a soap dish. The yellow fish she framed and it looks fabulous doesn’t it (see bottom row). Needless to say I want Jax to be happy and even though it wasn’t my fault the blue broke I will be making her a new one.
Merle I’ve spoken about numerous times. She wanted to make 2 fish windchimes but realized it’s actually a lot of work so she decided on one with 5 fish. The first row of pictures is hilarious to me, she was so nervous about the saw and kept thinking she was cutting the glass and I’m like a bit more, a bit more, finally I’m like would you prefer I do it and she’s like yes please. Afterwards I showed her the pictures to prove she wasn’t cutting. Anyway she did a great job. She also made a couple of Christmas pendants/ornaments. And she also bought three large cabochons for a friend to add to her artwork.
Merle came back by and finished it. What a beautiful piece. Because I drilled holes in all the fish I made 2 extra just incase I broke one when I drilled (it does happen about a 3rd of the time. First she marked her wood, then she drilled it. Merle works with a drill all the time and recommended a different type of bit. Hopefully I’ll get them prior to Caren coming over. Then we picked out the beads. We used fishing lure to hang them with, very cool. I think they looked wonderful. I kept the 2 extra’s I made just in case and put them with my other fish, you can see Merle’s is much bigger and have fins.
Last but certainly not least, Caren is an amazing painter and her fish are so fancy. We talked about how we wanted to hang them and we both agreed drilling was not an option I also didn’t like the idea of hanging them like mine and Merles because that would mean they were dead and they were just too cute to die so I used an anchor bails and we hung them like pendants. Because of the holidays we haven’t finished them yet. But aren’t they just gorgeous! I’ll do a follow-up when we finish them. Caren didn’t have time to make the free Christmas pieces – Maybe next time.
Here were some of the optional Christmas pieces they could make for free. To show them how to add the decals to the cabochons, I made the bottom pieces.
What a fun class, more advanced than some of the others, we used both grinders, the saw, the Dremel, paint, frit balls, etc. It was also a lot more cutting than normal. If you would like to take a class with me please email me at elegantfusedglass@gmail.com
If you would like to see more of my fused glass work, please refer to my website Elegant Fused Glass by Karen. If you get a chance, check out all my site and my Elegant Fused Glass by Karen YouTube. If you would like to stay abreast of what I’m up-to check out our newsletter. If you’d like to take a class, please check out the information on my site about my classes. It is published the last day of each month.
Karen
