Playing with Powders

Today, I played around in the studio and got quite a bit accomplished, I'd say.
First, I cleaned up a couple of mosaic-ed stepping stones and poured the cement for mine. I'll have pictures up of that Monday or Tuesday, I imagine. The cement we used, Quikrete, takes 24-48 hours to set, depending upon the size of stone made.
After pouring my stone, I UV glued the bases on some of the Intermediate Glass Class Final Projects. So, that means that mine is finished:) Here are pictures from all angles:

I used a quote from As A Man Thinketh, by James Allen, "Dreams are the seedlings of realities."
When viewed from the side or the top, you can see the layers of glass used. There were three 1/4" thick pieces of glass "painted" with powders, and two 1/8" glass spacers to add depth. It was on one of these spacers that the quote was written on.
The piece is translucent, and from the back you can still see all the layers, although it's not as impressive from that angle...
After gluing this piece to its base, I soldered up the rest of the pieces for my stained glass mirror. It is now ready to assemble, apart from the cutting of the actual mirror.

Lastly, after loading the kiln, I started on a "palette project." I have decided that I really like working with glass powders and the painterly effect that they offer:

I started this one as an example for my fusing student and it evolved into a princess and dragon scene with a few paramecium thrown in for good measure:)

I love the shadow that the piece cast, and I'm thinking that I'd like to make a series of sconces.
So, my "palette project" consists of using different powders together to come up with a palette of colors for use in future "paintings." I'll post pictures when I have the samples all finished and fired.

New Plate! and I may be close to finishing...

My final project from Intermediate Glass is going in the kiln within the next few days! Finally!
There's been a huge line-up at the kiln for a few months, but it's time... Soon, this piece,

will be totally altogether as one. I'll photograph that as soon as I have it:0)

And these lovely pieces below...
at top : the mold,
the bottom layer of glass in in the middle, and the top layer of glass at bottom.

Also, I assembled a new dish to full fuse. I'll have it out of the kiln and then back in for a slump firing which will give it its shape. I will post those as soon as it's done as well!

My first California Earthquake...

So, I was sitting in my bedroom, pruning back the poor peace lily that's been sitting in sub-zero temps in the back room all winter, when I felt a jolt like someone pushed the room from the outside. Everything moved for a split second, and then stopped. It really spooked me out until a few minutes later when Todd announced that there was just a 4.2 magnitude earthquake centered in Lafayette (about 30 miles SSE of Napa). Wowsers!!
Now I know.

On another note, I just finished writing out the quote, "Dreams are the seedlings of realities," from James Allen's book "As a Man Thinketh," on a 1/8" piece of clear glass to be fired with my dimensional "painting" project. See the pictures below for a better idea of what I'm talking about:



The three layers of 1/4" thick glass laid out side by side...



and the three stacked upon each other. Next week, I'll add the text layer. After that, a little UV glue to secure it to a base, and the piece should be finished.