The Making of a Chandelier: Part 2

I need a bigger kiln. Of course I have been saying that for years already ... but this time I meant it. My chandelier design calls for 3.5" x 12" panels. So I went and bought myself an early birthday present. And then my fabulous husband built me a stand. This is true love right here folks:

glass fusing kiln and stand
My new baby! ProFusion 16

In addition to a bigger kiln, I needed to stockpile a lot of glass too. Heaven forbid that gorgeous stand my hubby built have any bare shelves. I filled it. And then some.

I knew I wanted color, texture, and movement in this chandelier. After a couple of prototype panels, I finalized the design. Now it was just a matter of building the individual glass panels. All 20 of them.

In order to keep the overall structure lightweight, I went with single layer panels. Glass naturally wants to be 6mm thick, so in order to keep it 3mm I chose to break all the rules: I tack-fused and slumped all in one firing. Cue the shock and horror.

glass panels on slump mold
rule breaker! fuse and slump together

textured fused glass panels
panels ready to fire

The result was exactly what I wanted. Check out all that wonderful texture!

closeup fused glass panel texture
color and texture up close


Two down ... 18 to go. Stay tuned for the finishing touches and big reveal to come ...

See Also: The Making of a Chandelier: Part 1

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Color Palettes: How to Incorporate Brown

Image
Lampworking Glass Color Reference Brown has not been a trendy color in glass for quite some time ... except with those beadmakers who make adorable critter beads or decadent sweet treats. It has been difficult to find brown clothing as well. It seems when grey became the new ' it ' color for literally everything from fashion to home decor, brown ceased to exist. Trying to find a nice pair of dark brown slacks has been next to impossible. I've all but given up and banished my blouses that need brown slacks to the back of the closet. For those of us whose natural skin and hair coloring pairs better with warm palettes over cool palettes, the struggle is real. I actually prefer grey and cool tones myself, but my person looks better in warm colors. So for the other warm palette people out there like me, I'm single-handedly bringing brown back in style. And if the rest of the world chooses not to hop on board that is okay. At least folks looking for warm colors know they ca...
Read more

Color Palettes: What to Pair with the Color Red

Image
Lampworking Soft Glass Color Reference Red is not a color I tend to gravitate towards. Whenever I pull it from my glass stash I usually just stare at it aimlessly trying to figure out what to pair with it. Then it goes back in its little cubby ... until I feel guilty that it never gets attention like the other colors do ... and I pull it out again,  only to repeat the cycle . But Fall is another story. When mother nature paints a gorgeous picture outside your window full of reds and yellows and greens and blues, then you know it is time. The red glass will have its day. Red, orange and yellow are a natural pairing as they are on the same side of the color wheel. Red and turquoise have been a popular combination for southwest designs. Red and green are together frequently at Christmas. But put them all together and it's like the most perfect woolly sweater ever made. It's as if Fall just opened up the gates and poured itself all over the studio. And really, who doesn't swoo...
Read more

Striking Glass: How to Get Color

Image
Lampworking Tips & Techniques Any lampworker who has ever attempted to work with 'striking' glass has experienced the struggle. How do you get all those fabulous color ranges and not just boring tan? Not that tan is a bad color ... but when you spend a small fortune on premium striking glass, tan is not the desired outcome. If we go way back into the glass time machine, the whole striking glass frenzy started with a furnace glass:  Reichenbach R-108 Iris Orange - lovingly nicknamed 'Raku' by the lampworking community ...  now I'm sounding like a food blogger 😉 There have been countless forum threads, e-books, tutorials, and conversations around how to get Raku to do its magic. Every single one of them has excellent information that anyone who chooses to work with this glass will benefit by reading and watching. I am no expert. I still can't get the full color range I want out of this glass after all this time. However, if we break down the already kno...
Read more

Recent Etsy Listings

Loading...