October 2018

Beautiful fall day.
Enjoying the mild weather.
Spending some time outside.

~Julie

New Jaws Project

The weather here has been really nice and allowed me to finish up the outside projects before the real cold and snow hits. I do love to take walks with the sun shining and the leaves crunching under foot.

I used the Patty Gray Jaws technique to create a project. Partly to refresh my memory of the process and partly to use up some scrap glass.

I have a 8" Patty Gray dam that I can use and if I use this dam I will be able to slump it because I also have a slump mold that will fit the 8" dam project.

I started with a clear base with two layers of black glass for the sides.

I then started adding yellow, red and clear scrap.

Here is the jaws scrap glass before fusing.

Here is the project prior to fusing it.

Here is the project just after fusing - still in the kiln.

Here is the finished project in a sunny window. 

The center section (jaws) really pops with the black sides.

Love this technique and the project.

~Julie

New Work

This past summer I was able to retire.

Yes. I retired from my day job.

It seems impossible that I could be entering this new stage of life, but I am very much looking forward to spending more time with glass. Last spring I signed up for a few glass classes in Madison, WI during August that would get me back into fusing and slumping. The classes worked. I hope to showcase a few new projects in the coming weeks/months that show off my new skills.

This piece is a favorite of mine from the class. It was a new technique for me using a new mold. This class was taught by Patty Gray and the mold we used for this technique was a 12" Round Patty Gray Dam Mold. The technique is called 'Jaws'. Until this class I had only used dam molds limitedly. I only own a small one.

 I started with a clear bottom layer and then the top two layers were circles with a center portion removed.
Three layers.

I used scrap glass to cut triangular pieces from various colored glass.

All the various triangular glass pieces were then put into the gap in the circle.

The project was then full fused.

I love how it turned out and need to find just the right mold to slump it. I'm thinking a mold that will give it a gentle rounding or curve. I will post again once I have it slumped.

~Julie