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Although this could very well be a picture of me finding a new treasure at a favorite nursery, it's actually an illustration by David Catrow for a children's book called Plantzilla.

Thursday, December 7, 2017

It's Cold Outside - Time to Fire Up the Kiln!

When the mercury plummets, there's nothing like playing with a little 1400 degree heat to warm things up a bit.  Like most people who do crafts, I find myself with a lot of scraps.  It's hard for me to throw away anything useful so here's my latest attempt to use some of what's sitting around.

Cut a triangle, throw on some scraps.

Add a little heat and trees appear. 


Every year for the last several, I've made snowflakes for fun.  These were mostly designed by the delightful and talented Lani Neil whose Etsy shop is here











This year, I decided to depart a little from the blues.



Now I'll just repeat this a few times. It's as easy as baking cookies, less fattening, and they last longer.
Hope you are finding creative ways to keep warm!

20 comments:

  1. I like your focus on "trees" in recent posts. These are great!

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  2. Better than cookies? Well at least you are having so much fun. I like those little trees which would be so pretty with tree lights shining through.

    It's cold enough here to have reports of flurries in higher spots nearby.

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    1. What was I thinking? There's little in life better than cookies but these are just as easy to make.

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  3. This post has me wondering, do you have a home kiln?

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  4. "Cut a triangle"... also made of glass, yes? Love the little trees. And if you hold them upside down, you can call them dreidels.

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    1. Yes, the triangle is of glass as well. My kids played the dreidel game today for goldfish crackers and we had great fun!

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  5. I haven't been doing crafts, but when the garden bug hits I do sometimes go out to the greenhouse and check on things out there. Jack Frost has overstayed his welcome.

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    1. I agree. Tired of Jack Frost already and it's not officially winter yet.

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  6. Love, Love, Love them all, but especially the red snowflakes

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  7. I think that's a great way to spend a cold winter evening!

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  8. Wow, these are GREAT! I love the trees, and the blue snowflakes. I bet they look wonderful hanging to catch sunlight.

    Happy creating ~ FlowerLady

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  9. I like to do watercolors, make sketchbooks, write during the cold months. I think your hobby is better for cold weather. The snowflakes are nice. I like the little trees too. They would make wonderful ornaments, the same with your snowflakes. I would like the snowflakes up all winter though.

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  10. Beautiful and fun glass work, Peter!
    I'm not big on crafting. But I do like to crank up the wood stove - I don't think I could live in this climate without it!

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  11. Love the idea that it is as easy as baking cookies. Just don't forget and take a bite!

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  12. Oh, I love your fused glass creations!

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  13. Peter, those are the most gorgeous snowflakes and trees! I really should buy a kiln, a friend of mine who used to do ceramics has one she'd like to part with. Heaven knows I have enough scrap glass around here. I'm curious, do you have to worry about COE with the glass when fusing? That would be a problem; I do know which glass maker I'd be using for designs, but not the COE.

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    1. You do need to worry about COE or the things will break apart. Spectrum (bought by Oceanside) has always been 96 COE even before they started marketing their system 96 stuff. Bullseye is mostly fuseable and is 90. Moretti is 104, etc. Uroborous makes both 90 and 96 coe. You can always test for compatibility using this methog http://www.glass-fusing-made-easy.com/compatibility-testing.html or by fusing a variety of glass samples to a strip of whatever base glass you want to use. Using two polarizing filters, view the fused sample on a light source. If there's a clear halo around the tested pieces as you rotate the polarizing filter, the glass isn't compatible. If your friend's ceramic kiln has a computer controller, it'll be very easy to use for glass. If not, you'll need to get either a computer controller or a pyrometer installed. You can use cones and there is a temperature/cone equivalency chart online somewhere but the ramping up, annealing, etc. are more tedious to do manually. You'd have great fun playing with a kiln!

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  14. Do a lot of these show up on your tree? Must be brilliant!

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  15. Beautiful.Love them all, Like the red snowflakes.

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Thanks so much for taking the time to comment! I love to hear your thoughts.