As I mentioned this month I’m going to focus my blogs on fused glass webinars (Recycled Glass) by Jodi McRaney Rusho from Glass with a Past (on Curious Mondo). I just love these webinars both the format with curious mondo and Jodi’s classes. If you get a chance to buy 1 or 2 (or more) they are well worth it.
In both the basic and the advance webinars Jodi touched on recycled fused glass jewelry and then she did an entire webinar on recycled glass jewelry. To be honest I was having so much fun with Jodi’s other projects I just didn’t have a lot of time to do much of the jewelry other than the donuts, which I love.
But in this blog I thought I’d touch on a few, albeit I don’t have the time to fully delve into the techniques in her jewelry webinar. There are just too many cool things in her jewelry webinar and I want to devote more time to them than just one rushed blog.
First Jodi has created several jewelry molds (in addition to her bottle bottom molds) and I’ve been able to purchase a couple and will be purchasing a couple more soon.
I wrote a blog a few years back discussing the first time I used two of these molds (triangle and lentil molds). Ironically I didn’t use them again but I do like them and after watching Jodi’s webinars I plan on using them again. The key I think is what Jodi said and having them ready and just adding them to other kiln firings.
Anyway I digress, The triangle mold is cool because you can use either a mandrel to make holes to make them actual beads, a loop to make it a pendant or a wire to make loops on both sides of the bead. To do this you have to have high fire wire for the loops or a mandrel coated in bead release to make the hole. The beads turn our like a triangle instead of flat so that’s kind of cool.
The lentil bead mold makes round beads and are done with frit verses sheet glass. They can be made the same way i.e., loops or mandrels. The ones I used this time I used medium frit, next time I’d probably use a mix of med & coarse frit. I also had a hard time getting the mandrel out so I’d probably dip them again before firing them.
My newest mold from Jodi is the channel mold and can be used to make long or short pieces that can be used for jewelry or dangles for a wind chimes. Oh did I tell you how I got this mold? Curious Mondo has give-aways during the live webinars and I was lucky enough to win twice. The first one was a mold and Jodi, being the smart business woman that she is knew I had the other two molds and sent me the channel mold. I like this mold because typically when you fuse sheet glass it’s flat this gives a curve to the glass. I really like the pendants that come out of this mold. I think I will be doing more with this mold, I love the curve the mold gives the glass.
Jodi also has some cool texture molds that I don’t have yet but I love the idea of adding texture to recycled glass donuts and art glass.
Three other jewelry techniques Jodi taught is toggles, barbels and the use of found glass.
I like the toggles because I like jewelry that moves. I look forward to making something out of these toggles.
I like the barbel technique because of the shape. I look forward to making something out of these barbels.
The found glass technique was the most enlightening to me and I’m still working on working with my firing schedule for my specific kiln. Not what I want yet. I’ll keep working them.
Again the pieces I’ve shown here are made with art glass verses bottle glass but the bottom line is these techniques and molds work with any glass.
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.
Fascinating – I have been watching Jodi’s webinars too.
Yeah Jodi Is awesome. I’m looking forward to her next class!