Screen Printing Success!

My Conan coasters look terrific! I added clear glass to the top of each and fully fused them yesterday.

I like the white ones the best.

Screen Printing A Christmas Present!

I purchased the Cameo Silhouette years ago and it continues to amaze me. It can cut the most intricate patterns ... think of a doily with all the little cutouts. Yes, it can do that. I'm not really interested in cutting doilies, but have made some fused glass plates in the past year with feather designs that were screen printed.

My daughter and son-in-law have a wonderful dog, Conan. He's a Rottweiler who weighs over 150 lbs. Can you imagine how big he is? I have a great photo of him and my daughter Kirsten (below) and wanted to screen print some coaster for them as a Christmas present.

I started this process yesterday morning by downloading the photo of Conan into the Cameo Silhouette. Here is a screen print of the photo.

It's a confusing process, but I have to remove all the black from the stencil. Having the screen print really helps. The next step is to cut the stencil on the vinyl and weed out all the parts. What?!!

In the next photo I have placed the weeded stencil on the screen.

Here I have used painter's tape around the stencil to protect the rest of the frame.

Underneath the frame, I have attached a sheet of paper on which I will print the first image. I'll then cover it with a piece of plastic wrap and it will help me in the placement of my glass pieces for screen printing Conan's images.

Here's the messy process of mixing the enamel.

Here I've added the enamel to the screen. (Actually, between you and me, I made a mistake. I have to move the enamel mixture to the longer side of the screen since my squeegee is too wide!) Hopefully I'll remember that next time.

Here's the first print on the paper I attached below. It really looks good. IT'S CONAN!!

I printed four on a nice blue glass and two on white. What happens next is that I will fire these so that the enamel sets on the glass. Then I add a layer of clear glass on top and fuse them together in the second firing. The four on the blue glass will be coasters. The white ones will go into a third firing and will be slumped into curved dishes.

Here's one of the white ones. I think Kirsten and Tim will love Conan's presents. DON'T TELL THEM ... THESE ARE A SURPRISE!

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.