Happy Holidays! I hope everyone has a safe and cheerful holiday season.
This year, I was lucky to be the Featured Artist in December at one of the galleries (Backstreet Gallery) where I sell my fused glass art. This means I have an extra space in the front window in which I can show new and different items to feature and of course, holiday themed is good. Some are ornaments which we hung from the top of the window.
I have used many Colour de Verre molds over the years and tried two new ones this year, Holiday Tree and Stocking and Stars. I liked leaving them hollow but also tried the idea in their tutorial for filling them in. Wow! Very cool!
My other new try was to make some tree ornaments but rather than hanging them, I added a copper wire before firing, made some squares out of fancy wood, drilled a hole for the wire and then stuck the wires in the wood for a standing tree decoration.
I used both 12 gauge and 14 gauge wire on the trees; 12 gauge is probably better as it will be sturdier. I flatten the wire on the end I plan to put between two pieces of glass, however this step is not required. The outside of the copper wire exposed to air will flake off in the kiln and you will need to vacuum the flakes, but the copper itself will be just fine. After removing the glass piece from the kiln, sand the wire to remove any of the black copper oxide flakes (I used 220 grit) and then lightly hammer the wire to harden it as heating the wire softens the wire and you want it to stand firm.
Holiday Fused Glass Trees on Wood
You can scrap wood, nice wood, plastic … I used a fancier wood, but it was a large scrap piece. I cut the wood into squares and then drilled a hole in their center very slightly bigger than the wire as I didn’t want much play but I also didn’t want to have to use force to get the wire into the wood. I also added a little glue on the wire so it would hold firm in the wood. Very easy to make and people loved them!
Hope you have a wonderful 2019 and for all you fusers, Happy Fusing!
Idle Creativity 