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.

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 -- Ready for the Kiln!

It was hard cutting up those pieces! But it had to be done. I wanted to post a photo before I fire them tomorrow. Wow, aren't they bright and perky?!

Another photo to come in a couple of days. This was a super fun project and I want to make another batch.

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.