Glass Fusion

I went to a ‘taster’ lesson for glass fusion recently.  What fun!  It was another course advertised on Groupon, so one Saturday afternoon I took myself off to Hove to meet my friend Burnice.  We did the course with a lovely French lady, Chantal, at her little workshop called Inlight Design.  Check out her lovely pieces! 

The idea is to fuse different coloured glass to make a design.  We learned to cut coloured glass to place on top of the glass plates to make our design, and then used smaller pieces of glass in between the two glass plates.  We could also use bright shiny copper leaf between the plates, which oxidises in the kiln to a lovely dark colour.

Here are my 2 coasters before being fired.  I decided to go with a seaside theme.

And here are Burnice’s coasters.  The first one is a log cabin quilt!  Unfortunately I don’t have a picture of her finished coasters, but perhaps she’ll put them on her blog.

Here are my finished coasters:

First one – the fish.  The ‘seaweed is made from copper sheet – see how it has gone a purpley colour?  The ‘waves’ are made from knitted copper wire (like one of those scourers you use in the kitchen).  The air bubbles have really enhanced the look.

I have used more copper leaf for the sky.  Some of it has gone blue, and the thicker bits look black.  A stormy day at the beach!