As I mentioned this month I’m going to focus my blogs on fused glass webinars by Jodi McRaney Rusho from Glass with a Past (on Curious Mondo). The first webinar I took from Jodi was her basic bottle glass fusing. I just love these webinars both the format with curious mondo and Jodi’s webinars. If you get a chance to buy 1 or 2 (or more) they are well worth it.
This blog I’ll discuss two of the other projects in her first webinar: basic bottle glass fusing. One modification I’ve made is I didn’t use bottle glass for these projects. Jodi makes it look so easy but for me bottle glass is just not that easy. To use bottle glass in projects like these you have to cut the top and bottom off the bottle then flatten the middle, the kiln. Bottle glass also has a habit of devitrification. Bottom line for me, I prefer to work with art glass for most projects. Plus, Jodi’s techniques / projects are perfect for art glass!
One technique I’ve seen before but I’ve never done is using plaster forms with glass. I love it. I can’t wait to do it again! The possibilities are endless! The piece below is a incense burner but the technique can be used for anything!
The next project is the technique that distracted me because it’s awesome. Jodi calls it fuse and fold, I love them. This was the first she taught us and I must admit, I made some mistakes with it – but I love it!! It’s a rooster and isn’t it so cool!!! I have another one (a hen) that will be going in the kiln soon. One thing I did different with my hen is put my wings on correctly and the other is put eyes on both side of the chicken! I still like him and he will set proudly in my studio as a reminder on what to do and what not to do!
One of the things I love about curious mondo’s webinars is they provide bonus classes and techniques for those who buy the class. One of the bonuses for the basic class is a keepsake candle. Here is mine and I love it, the bottle is from Germany, the base is float glass, the cup is art glass, the sand and rocks are from Hawaii, and I even included a little fused glass skull inside. I think it’s pretty cool!! I also thought you’d like to see 2 more of my mushrooms with the bottle glass as the base. I like the keepsake candle so much I made a candle too!
Jodi also discussed her triangle molds, and taught several projects using them but I’ll talk about them in other blogs.
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 sites, Fused Glass by Karen, My Etsy store, my Art fire Store, my Pinterest, and Elegant Fused Glass by Karen youtube. If you would like to stay abreast of what I’m up-to and learn a little more about jewelry, check out our newsletter. It is published the last day of each month.
