Fused Glass Hummingbird

I love hummingbirds, I find them beautiful and fascinating. So many memories of hummingbirds. The first year I was in Colorado Springs I went to a hummingbird festival and learned so much about them (like their tongue splits and wraps around it’s brain). I also remember the first time I saw a hummingbird was when I was TDY to Panama. I could literally go on and on, but my point is I love hummingbirds. I even did a mosaic recently with a hummingbird. I also added fused glass pebbles to a metal hummingbird. I have jewelry pieces with hummingbirds and have a screen-printed hummingbird as well.

Anyway back on track, I’ve mentioned my friend Tracy many times. She has a laser-jet cutter and cut out a couple of hummingbirds from glass for me. This one is kind of special, I love pressed glass and I asked Tracy to cut a hummingbird out of the center. It turned out beautiful. I put it in a stand and I just love it.

What I love most about it is it’s a twofer, the fused glass hummingbird sculpture and then the hummingbird itself. I’m not sure if you can tell but the wing broke off when she cut it. I fused it together but you can still see the break. So I decided I’d keep it and put in a very unique display. I was stationed in Japan for 3 years and loved washi paper (handmade paper). I still have some and decided it would make a perfect background for my hummingbird. A hummingbird has to have a flower so I added a fused glass flower. I don’t care that the wing is broke I think she is beautiful with all her dicrohic glass. I did a zoom in of the beak (that didn’t break) and the flower, if you look closely you can see the texture of the washi paper. I just love this little piece, she reminds me of Westcliffe, but then again everything beautiful reminds me of Westcliffe.

The glass we used for the hummingbird was pressed glass. Tracy and I think that why they both broke. Pressed glass had different thicknesses and as the laser-jet pressed it broke. Because each piece broke – the wing and the upper section by the wing broke. So I get 2 beautiful pieces because again, I don’t care about the breaks. Below are some pictures showing the breaks the top is the wing (left side) and the sculpture (top wing).

As I mentioned I love pressed glass, but Tracy and I think that’s the reason for the breaks. In fact she cut a bear out for me from another press glass piece and even though the bear was fine the base broke in half. Below is a picture of the bear she cut out for me; pressed glass (left). I’m so glad he didn’t break. She also cut out bears from sheet glass. I have yet to use all of them because I have a difficult time using my pretty cutouts because I want each one to be special which takes a lot of thought and I don’t want to rush it.

So I’m curious, what’s your favorite animal? I hope you like my fused glass hummingbirds and bear. Also what do you think of my display? By the way if you want get some of Tracy’s glass cutouts here is her site https://littlellamastudio.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 sites; my Art fire Store, and my 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

Keeping my kiln warm,

Karen