NEW EARRINGS WITH ROLLING MILL TEXTURES

I just finished a few pairs of copper earrings that were textured using the rolling mill. The process is so much fun. It was back in May that I posted photos of rolled pieces using my new brass texture plates ... and I had ordered a package of skeleton leaves from an Etsy supplier. Here is the pair of earrings using the skeleton leaf texture. Can you picture them using sterling silver? WOW. I'm going to treat myself and order some sterling silver sheet, as apparently the price is its lowest in five years.

Here are the others rolled with a floral pattern.

MORE TESTING WITH POWDERS

I finished another batch of tests using the powders on fiber. Almost all of them came out so well.

As I was cleaning the glass pieces getting ready for the final fuse firing, I dropped one of the pieces and it broke into three parts. How clumsy! I didn't expect it to work, but I placed the pieces on black glass and covered the top with a layer of crystal clear powder. It's the top piece shown below. It fused beautifully, without a trace of the breaks!

Here are a few closeups of the ones I liked.

TOMATOES .... AND MORE TOMATOES!!

Such a pretty picture of tomatoes, my first cucumber and at least 20th zucchini!

THE FINISHED COBALT PLATE!

I'm so happy with the plate. Got up at 4:00 a.m. to get it out of the cooled kiln. The overglaze really looks good and covered all of the dull areas. Here are a few photos. Oh yes, another thing ... the customer wrote to say she really needed a 12" plate, so ... sorry!

PROGRESS ON COBALT BROKEN BOTTLE PLATE

Since my last post, I had to add more small glass pieces to an edge that was very fragile, so this piece has already gone through its second firing. Remember the photo with the drawn 12" square and the arranged glass pieces? Well ... you can see by looking at it that there is an inch around the whole piece, so it is not an 11" square. Duh. A senior moment ... it is a 10" square.

Early this morning I sprayed it with a light coating of Clear Coat Overglaze. When you fire a broken bottle, there are spots that look like devitrification and the glaze helps.

Here's the piece with the spray.

The piece will slump today in this beautiful stainless steel mold. I ordered it many years ago and have never used it. It got sprayed with MR-97.

Here's the piece nestled in the mold on the kiln shelf. Keeping my fingers crossed!!