I decided to create glass art based on one of my myriad of tutorials. The class I chose is from Sarinda Jones, her curious mondo & patron class – Fused Glass Sugar Casting. I’ve wanted to do this for a while. I love texture and sugar casting has a lot of texture. Because it’s a class I don’t want to show my process pictures, but casting is with molds. I thought I’d show you some comparisons between sugar casted pieces and normal casting. You can see the difference, the full fused castings are thicker and shinier. *I also added gold luster to some of them.
As you are about to find out, I went a little crazy with this technique. I used a variety of molds, the first group is leaves. I wanted to show you the differences between full fused and sugar fused e.g., thickness, texture, matt vs shiny.
Love flowers, so I thought I make a variety. My favorite has to be my sunflowers or my little rose bud. I can’t really do what I normally do with my castings i.e., magnets, plant stakes, etc. The first piece I made was the bear. Isn’t he pretty, I like that he’s variegated on both sides, but he’s not as sugary – it’s all about the firing schedule.
The feathers were some of my first pieces, after the bear. They turned out great and pretty thick. I wonder if I could add some gold but if you take them too high they will loose their shape and texture. The bottom sugar casting is a face, I love this piece and may leave it as a pocket charm – I love texture and it’s a pretty color.
I like my moons and suns. The snowflakes had some issues I need to becareful with not over filing them, next time.
I made 2 dragonflies, the middle two are the top and the far right is the bottom of the dragonflies. The bottom 3 pictures are my angel wings. This is a brand new mold. If you look closely one is shiny and one isn’t. I find this very fascinating because it’s the same mold, same kiln, same firing schedule. I also made them thin (the last picture is the angel wing compared to the feather). The angel wings are thin so there are tiny holes.
I know I said this already but I really love this technique and these sea creatures are some of my favorite. Seahorses, starfish, shells, and coral; I’ve so need to figure out what to make with them. The majority turned out perfectly, however sand dollar didn’t pick up the design very well, so I may refire it.
In addition I made ornaments e.g., tree, cross, star, and hearts. The left pictures are the top (more sugary) the right is the bottom of the pieces. I’m not sure if you can tell but the hearts are different thickness. It’s interesting how thick some pieces are but I have to becareful about making them too thin. Because of the texture I would not wear them; they would probably scratch you.
My struggle is what to do with them. I started by putting, them in some of my washi and glass frames. I love these frames and they look great. My concern is the sugar casts have a lot of texture and are porous so dust could get into them. Sarinda displays hers in a box frame with glass on top to keep out dust and to protect them, I may try that.
Ok I know that was a long post, but believe it or not I actually took over 120 pictures! I’m curious which is your favorite sugar piece? How would you like me to display them? As you can see I enjoyed this technique. What technique should I try now.
If you would like to see some 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 and learn a little more about jewelry, check out our newsletter. It is published the last day of each month.
Keeping my kilns warm,
Karen