SIFTING POWDER ON GLASS PLATES

It's been cool enough the last few days that my energy level has gone up! And cool enough to work in the garage and be creative. I've been wanting to try two techniques where you sift powder directly onto glass using a stencil or dry leaves. Bullseye has videos of these processes that are very helpful.

My first projects were done with a wonderful bamboo stencil. I made two similar plates, so I'll only show you one. I first made masking tape handles for the stencil so it could be easily removed from the glass. I used French vanilla glass and dense white powder for these pieces. In this photo, the stencil sits on the glass piece, ready to receive powder.

I've sifted the powder onto the stencil.

Well, the stencil wasn't that easy to remove, as the powder weighed the stencil down so lots of it fell off and the powder image was not crisp. I dumped several stencils of powder and finally got a fairly good image. Next time I'll try adding BBQ skewers or a cardboard frame around the stencil to make it more sturdy, less droopy.

My next project was done with dried leaves I've kept in old catalogs for years. I used dark iridescent glass, added the leaves and sprinkled clear powder over the entire glass piece. Removing the leaves was a little easier than the stencil, as long as you kept a stem off the glass so you could lift up. Needless to say, lots of powder was dumped here too, as you can see! Here the powder has been sifted, the leaves removed, and you can see the iridescent glass showing.

The four pieces all got clear glass bottoms, and here they are in the kiln waiting to be fused.

Here they are after cooling overnight ... and looking pretty good!