New Dichroic Fused Glass Pendants

I love my new pendants. Dichroic glass strips, as well as black glass pieces, were cut and carefully stacked together using super glue. Once I got the measurements correct, the assembly part was not so hard. The pendants are 2-1/4" high, including the bail.

NEW DICHROIC PENDANTS!

I tried a new technique from one of Tanya Veit's videos (AAE Glass) using stencils and etching cream. All my pendants turned out SUPER! Here are two I photographed and listed in my Etsy shop:

More Engraved Dichroic Pendants

Remember the dichroic pendants I posted last year with the engraved zentangle patterns? Here are a few more that just fired yesterday. These were done by using rubber stamps on the glass and then engraving the design with a diamond tip ball engraver. The engraving goes through the dichroic coating so that the black glass underneath shows. The next step in finishing these pendants is gluing on the bails.

"Six More Weeks of Snow Storms!" Treasury

This Etsy treasury predicts 6 more weeks of snow storms? Sorry about that. Being in Southern California, we are hoping for rain starting in two days. We LOVE rain! My lovely blue dichroic glass heart pendant is included in this treasury.

'Six more weeks of snowstorms!' by norarssmith

Ready for Spring? You bet! But someone forgot to tell that groundhog.

snow photography winter 8x10... mylittlepixels $25	2 x Printable Frozen Poster ... POSTERED $8
Dichroic Glass Heart Pendant... RoseMarysGlass... $18	Powder Blue, Custom Knit Ruf... CreationsJasmi... $145
Snowman Disney Frozen Movie ... TheCaseHaven $14.99	powder blue extra-long cowl slouchypouches $35
Snowman Family Dog Collar - ... ThePerkyPet $15	Melted Snowman Water Bottle ... WakawooEvents $6
Snow Photography, Pale blue,... moonlightphoto... $15	Cute Owl Nightlight on Paste... HappyOwl $42
Powder Blue Contemporary Bas... africanbaskets $199	Snowman Pin, Crochet felted ... WoolyYarns $8
Wristlets, Fingerless Gloves... enchantedsquir... $20	Snowman 2: 361 ... Personali... PinkPicklePart... $10
Pure LINEN Scarf. Powder Blu... LinenWorld $24.9	Michigan Photography,Michiga... 1029Gallery $30

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PICASSO Pendants

I wanted to show you a few of the Picasso pendants I recently listed in my Etsy shop. These are from the original firing. My second piece sits waiting to be cut up into pendants ... but I've been so busy working with clay. My first bisque firing of white clay pieces is done, and I just unloaded it to make room for red clay pieces. HELP! Anyway ... here are the pendants.

These last two pendants were fused a second time as an experiment, and I really like the effect!

Another Picasso Piece -- Wild and Crazy!!

I've been working with clay the past two weeks. So much fun, just hand building and rolling different textures on the clay. Why didn't I take photos? .... Those pieces are in the kiln now bisque firing. It's my kiln load full of white clay pieces. This morning I cleaned everything, put all my tools away, vacuumed .... so tomorrow I can start with red clay. The same tools, but different clay boards, different slab roller canvases ... everything already stained from red clay.

So yesterday after the kiln was loaded, I put together another wild and crazy Picasso glass piece. This one is really bright ... maybe too much color? I got out my Dremel and ball engraving tips today and started drawing on my glass piece. In about five minutes, the Dremel made a strange sound and completely stopped working. I got out my portable Dremel and of course the battery died after a few minutes. One more Dremel to try. It's one with the long flex shaft that would be ideal for engraving, but how to get the grinding wheel off and the engraving tip on? I finally remembered the little hole you had to insert something into, and also that you needed the special wrench from the Dremel box to loosen the fitting. Like magic, I was able to get it ready to engrave.

So the following two photos tell the story .... before and after. Yes, it has gotten wilder and crazier!!! More to come....

Fired Picasso Pieces

I'm soooo pleased with these pieces. I was not expecting them to have this beautiful shine. I'll add bails now ... and start another batch soon!

Picasso Pieces -- Engraving Finshed

I had so much fun engraving these pieces today ... I wish I had more to do. Both Tanya Veit and Deborah Read said it would be addicting ... they were absolutely correct! My portable Dremel was disappointing, as it kept losing its charge. I finally got out my electric Dremel and was happy to learn it was just as comfortable to hold.

Remember the BEFORE picture when the glass pieces had been engraved around the edges only ....

Here is the AFTER photo with all my engraving ... What a difference a day makes!

I especially like this piece:

The next step will be to get out my jewelry templates and decide how to cut these pieces into pendants. I've ordered a new fine blade for my tile saw, so I may wait for it to arrive. More to share later.

Fired Picasso Pieces - Next Step

The pieces fired perfectly. Remember, the firing was done with the dichroic glass facing down on the shelf (on kiln paper). They look really good. I noticed an error I made, OK maybe two. Can you spot them? I used two pieces of clear glass by mistake -- I should have remembered you do not "cap" these pieces, and putting a piece of clear on top is the same thing. The pieces will be engraved with a ball tip, so if you carve into clear and refire it, you will lose the carving. Anyway, I learned something by my mistakes.

I took a photo as the pieces were removed from the kiln this morning, and then later today I got the nerve to get my little portable Dremel, my set of round diamond bits, a spray bottle with water, and my pieces on top of a towel. It's important to keep water on your glass pieces while you engrave. Also you lightly draw the bit over the glass, as if you were writing with a marker. Don't dig in. I found it easier than I expected it to be.

Here are the fired pieces:

And the same pieces engraved:

I simply outlined each glass piece by engraving around it, and the colors seem to pop. The next step is to engrave patterns. If you look at the website zentangle.com or their blog http://zentangle.blogspot.com, you will be amazed at the patterns! Endless. I've never been much of a doodler, but there's a beginning to everything. There's more to come soon ....

Picasso Webinar with Tanya Veit

I have been following Deborah Read's blog http://deborahreadcom.blogspot.com for a long time and am amazed with all the wonderful work she does. And she does it all! She downloaded a Webinar a while back that featured the work of Tanya Veit of AAEGlass.com. I have been wanted to try it, so over the weekend I bought a copy of the webinar through AAE. It's called, "Picasso and Creme Etching Engraving Technique Instruction". The price $59. It has extra project ideas too and am so excited about doing everything! I noticed Tanya will be featuring another Picasso Webinar in December through GlassPatterns.com.

This morning I got out several small pieces of black glass (Bullseye 3mm) and decided to try this project in my little Paragon kiln. The shelf is like 6" x 7" (I'm guessing), but when you are fusing small jewelry pendants, it holds a lot. So onto the black glass you layer and glue dichroic glass pieces with the dichroic side up so they are touching. This is the hardest part. I had odds and ends of all kinds of pieces. And you stay away from patterned and textured dichroic. Then on top you can add (glue) strips and pieces of contrasting colors here and there, again with the dichroic side facing up. Now the reason you glue everything together is that you will fire the pieces upside down on the shelf. That way the dichroic surface will fire flat.

And why do you want the dichroic surface flat? That's the next step. I can't show you until my pieces are fired. Here is a photo of the pieces on the kiln shelf, glued and ready to go. I'm keeping my fingers crossed ... probably won't sleep tonight wondering how they will look in the morning ...

Remember, we have to fire these pieces upside down. Here they are on the shelf ready to be placed in the kiln.

Can't wait to show you the next step!

"Violet for June" Treasury

I love the color violet. This Etsy treasury is beautiful and represents the coming of warmer days! My dichroic fused glass pendant is featured.

'Violet for June' by bonnylo

woman shawl Cozy wa... ZOJKAshop $60	Violet Amethyst Nec... MapenziGems $49.5	Sapphire and Perido... BevaStyles $38	Vintage Violets Sca... FabVintageEsta... $13.5
Hecate Lip Gloss: 1... FabledFragranc... $7.88	Vintage Purple Lila... TequilaCloset $38	Photograph Vibrant ... HenaTayebPhoto... $25	Mint and violet sca... Farfels $55
THE DAYDREAMER: Vio... PrimpedandPrim... $30	Trendy Color Block ... TerriStegmille... $65	Fused Glass Dichroi... RoseMarysGlass... $18	Purple and Violet H... BlessedEarthDe... $110
LEATHER FLOWER. Bro... elegri $135	Sweet Buttons Assor... Meikkonen $4.45	violet monolith - O... SarahIntemann $125	Violet petals - 20x... napareaya $25

Treasury tool supported by the dog house