I Ain't Lion (Glass Engraving)

Been having fun with my newfound hobby - glass engraving. I decided to fuse a glass blank and use my rotary tool to engrave it. It didn't show up well so I used some black paint and rubbed it into the engraving.. It's okayyyy....but meh. 

Then I found some clear stained glass I had put away and went to town! This lion is freehand, and my very first attempt. I actually drew it on paper first and then used it as a guide beneath the glass. I wanted to make sure his eyes were straight and the face wasn't lopsided, as in some of my sgraffito attempts!  There's a lady named Lesley Pyke who has a video on Youtube of her engraving a lion on a Tudor leaded glass mug...It is AMAZING. So that video was my inspiration, and  I really liked the way it came out...at first....for a first attempt, at least! I have some rubber polishing inserts for my rotary tool that allowed me to do some basic shading around his mouth and in his mane. I must get more! :)

I started looking around on the internet at tiger pictures and got a bright idea...why not use a better picture underneath the glass to work from? I don't know whose work this is, but it's really lovely...

This is the result. I finally got it through my head to only engrave the light areas of the picture...:)  It probably needs a little bit of tweaking, yet but - I am very happy with the way this one came out!

Thanks for looking - make sure to stop by my Pinterest page to see a lot more of my creations, and like my Facebook page, Karmic Confetti! 

Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright...(Glass Fusing & Mica Powders)

I have been on a tiger kick lately. No particular reason why.. I just like 'em and they aren't too difficult to sgraffito! :) Still doing my mica powders and fusing...just used up the last of my black scrap COE 96 tonight. The ones below are my first attempts, from left to right. 

This one didn't actually make it to the fusing stage...he was a little too crazy eyed! First attempt at drawing a snarling tiger. :D There are some amazing artists on Youtube sharing their techniques and I was attempting to copy an artist named Alphonso Dunn (see the tutorial here). The nice thing about doing the sgraffito before its fused is that you can wipe it off and start over...:)

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He also inspired me to try an eagle.  But this post is about tigers! :)

These two are much better. Practice makes perfect! I was happy that I didn't need to grind or firepolish the one on the right.

This guy did make it to getting fused, below. 

He hasn't been ground and firepolished yet but I'm happy with him!

Next, I decided to do a 3/4 view.  I'll probably repost his photo after I get him ground and firepolished.

Then a friend gave me some old bottles and I decided I needed a bigger canvas. :)

He sort of came out like a negative, so I took the photo into my graphics program and made it into a negative to see if it showed up better. 

I was worried about doing a rounded shape but I didn't slip. I wasn't using my rotary tool...I was using a much less powerful battery operated engraving tool. 

On the back, I tried to make one of those one stroke flowers with my engraving tool. Not too successful but it was my first try. :) With sgraffito, you are basically scratching the outlines of your picture into your glass. That's why I like using black glass...the scratched lines are black and outline your drawing nicely....like drawing with a dark pencil on white paper. But on the dark bottle, my tiger above looks like a negative. The parts I etched became lighter.  I watched this wonderful glass engraver named Lesley Pyke (see her amazing work here) and she talks about engraving the light. After trying to etch the flower, I understand that statement now. 

Then I tried a bottle that was sort of etched already. It wasn't shiny, in other words... The engraving didn't show up very well. I ended up using paint to rub into the etching to show it up more. It left a gold mica tint in the etching.

Then I bought a small red bottle with three flat sides. I really like the way this one came out! I think I see an improvement over my first few attempts, anyway! What do you think? 

Side two of the red bottle. Couldn't/didn't do the third side, mostly because there is a large seam running down the center of it. I may still do something with it, not sure yet. 

Thanks for looking and come back soon!

Poor Man's Etching (Glass Fusing & Mica Powders)

Warning: This post has a TON of photos! :) Not too long ago, I found out you could use Versamark, rubber stamps and mica powders with fused glass in my microwave kiln (mwk)...AKA "Poor man's etching", I fell in love with the technique and have used it extensively over the last couple of weeks. I got a deal on one of my FB groups to buy/sell glass and other fusing stuff and got three pounds of black 96 COE scrap very cheap. It is my ONLY 96 COE glass so I haven't been able to use it with any of my other glass....so I got stamping to jazz it up a bit! I had recently purchased some tree stamps and loved the way they look as a pendant. The tree below was done with three different colors of mica powder - blue, pink and green. I found the coolest bail for it, that looks like a tree, too. :)

Back of tree pendant with tree bail.

Then on one of my other FB fused glass groups, a gentleman made the most amazing fused glass panel by etching black backed dichroic with a rotary tool, so I decided to give it a try.  I've also been fascinated by the MUD technique by Margot Clark (link leads to her Pinterest board, some lovely examples of her work!), and have been trying to emulate it with other methods and tried etching a flower into the blue pendant pictured below. It came out a little dark but is a gorgeous color blue!

Then I got inspired and tried making a flag for someone special using a red background and white premade stringers with some dichroic. It came out really cute!

Another tree. This pendant showed me that I could add the mica on the firepolish firing. I wasn't happy with the red pendant - an attempt at the "bubble technique" taught by Tanya Veit...if you don't know who she is, go watch some of her Youtube videos on glass fusing, immediately! She is so talented and teaches such cool stuff. Anyway, I got some kind of devit or something in this and wasn't happy with it. 

Bubble Pendant before - showing devit?

I stamped it with the first tree stamp I had and still wasn't satisfied...(the one on the right in the photo has musical notes behind the trees...it's called Tree Song.)

Then I got a new tree stamp and tried restamping it and fire polishing it again. Surprisingly, it took! I'm very happy with this one. I have since learned that I could have ground off the original tree that I stamped at first and then restamped, but fortunately the first stamp doesn't show through this tree. 

More stamped pendants...this one with dichro.

This is more of my 96 COE glass.

Then I got on a sailboat kick. Don't ask me why. :) 

This one, I etched some birds flying into the sun. Somehow I got fish flying over the sun, as well. :)

This one is kind of plain but its the only one I used a pinch bail on....

 Then I pulled out my Asian stamps. Really happy with this one. :)

This one came out okay too. :)

 I got some cool tiny stamps of deer to go with the trees and got inspired with talk of landscape canes on both my polymer clay and glass groups, recently, so I made some tiny landscapes.  These deer are supposed to be standing by the dichroic water, at any rate. :)

This one was more of an Alpine feel but I wasnt' entirely happy with the result, so I restamped it with the light pink mica. Can you see the tiny millefiore flowers at the bottom? :)

Another sort of Alpine setting, with a sunset. :)

Deer at night. :D Found this Pearl Ex mica powder called Citrine that is so pretty fired! I think the Pearl Ex shows up better than the Perfect Pearls I've been using. I would love to find some black mica....I think that is next on my to-do list! If anyone knows any good suppliers, let me know in the comments!

More deer with a dichro moon. There is a tree in the background, as well. "Ghost Tree".

 I wouldn't say I got carried away making these stamped deer/moon landscapes, but....

Okay, I did. :D This is still just SOME of them...lol.

  

Then I found out about something called Sgraffito. (See why I love that Citrine? Looks like real gold, even fired on the bottom of a piece!) Sgraffito is scratching into a surface to reveal the color below. So, I covered the bottom glass with Versamark, dusted with Citrine, and scratched the name into it.

Tried doing it with this one. Not that great but it was my first one! :)

I then figured out I could combine the sgraffito with my stamps to make them look more detailed...or fix them if they didn't stamp perfectly...I added some detail to the palm tree and scratched waves into my "beach" background...

So, I have to finish this here....been trying to for a while now but I keep making more I want to put in this post!  I hope I've given you some ideas and some inspiration! And if you would like to purchase anything you see on my page, contact me! Thanks for looking and make sure to stop by my Pinterest page to see a lot more of my creations, and like my Facebook page, Karmic Confetti! 

A Clear Winner in the Polymer Clay Slicer DIY

I've been very busy with work and other projects but that doesn't mean I haven't wanted to post some of the things I've been doing! I had a previous post about a polymer clay slicer I made from parts from the hardware store. I haven't used it much because I've had so many  other things going on and besides, I really wanted to make one I had seen a few weeks ago. 

I've seen a lot of homemade slicers that I liked recently, for instance, I really like this one (seen below), but I'm having a hard time finding a metal slinky! I don't know if you could find one in a store, new! I thought there was some kind of safety issue with the metal ones...anyway, all I could find were plastic ones. This seems like you could control the thickness of your slices very easily, but of course that's just a guess until I make my own! :)  It might be rather limiting as far as what size cane would fit inside this contraption, though.

Then, there is this one at Kater's Acres.  I really like the design but I think it's a little more than I need for the few canes I have to cut!  At the time of this writing, i don't think she has a tutorial for it, anyways, and it looks pretty complicated! Like a Cadillac of cutters! :) Her father made it for her...what a wonderful dad! 

Then there is this one, simple and practical, by one of my favorite bloggers, Meg Newberg. Waste not, want not...although I've never had any clay go to waste, have you? :D It would take up quite a bit of room, though, for something I don't use that often.

And after re-reading Meg's post about weight, I may have to modify the one I came up with, based on a beautiful idea from France. Isn't it elegant? Mine is not nearly as well made as this one! But I did not want to spend a fortune on it, either...

Still, I am very happy with the result, below. :) I got the three sides, which are acrylic stamping blocks, from Joanne's, for $1.50 each. I cut one in half, with my rotary tool. That was interesting! The bottom ruled acrylic square is a 4" ruler from Walmart and cost $4. I got some two part epoxy from Harbor Freight for a couple of dollars to glue it together with, and I already had a a clay blade, although I think I need a new one as this one has a bend in it! After reading about slicers moving while trying to use them, I may add some suction cup feet to the bottom of this one to stick to the stovetop or my glass table...This system holds the blade nice and tightly, though, and you can put the clay cane on a sheet of plastic to move it back and forth easily for slicing. It is easily modified, if you wanted to make your own...just use larger blocks than I did. This one measures less than three inches high, so if you needed something larger, the base would have to be bigger, as well. As I said, I don't have large canes to cut, nor very many, very often, so this one is perfect for me! It doesn't take up much room, either.

Oh, and pardon my stovetop. At least it takes a good picture, even if it doesn't get used very much. :D