Glass-Fusing: Part One

Months ago I saw a Groupon for a glass-fusing class. Impulsively, I convinced my friend Courtney to buy the same Groupon. Why? Well, because it was interesting. And, it was a BYOB affair, which means it involved wine drinking.

So, yesterday afternoon I jetted from my company picnic and headed over to meet Courtney for the class. As we approach the door, Courtney states, "We're the youngest ones here!" This worried me only because what I thought was going to be a young, hip Saturday evening activity now seemed like it was going to be kind of lame. Then, upon listening to alllllllll the directions and instructions and the information about the tools we would be using, I started worrying again this was going to be wayyyy more work and a lot less fun than the Groupon let on.

But, after awhile, some younger folks starting showing up (one girl brought Dos Equis AND her own pre-cut limes) and once we got up and starting actually doing stuff, it was a lot of fun!

Glass-fusing starts with taking pieces of colored glass (that can be transparent or opaque). You take this glass and layer it and place it where you want to make a design. Then, you lightly glue them with some Elmer's so they can be transported to the kiln. The employees put in a mold to give it its shape. You can take the glass and melt it into all kinds of things. For example, you can make a votive candle holder, a wall hangy, or a sushi dish (a.k.a. a plate the rounds up on the sides). A sushi dish is what Courtney and I made.

I opted to model my project off this one:

Going with an autumn / fiery color theme, I chose pieces of transparent red, orange, yellow, amber, and brown glass. Working with transparent glass is a challenge because you have to be really cognizant of your layering approach so the colors actually show up. And, layering can make colors appear. Courtney for example layered blue and yellow glass, making green.

It takes like a week for these things to be ready. For now, here's what mine looked like, before getting fired in the kiln:

I'll post an update once I get it back from the place.

Overall, I totally recommend an Saturday evening event like this. It was fun. It was different. It involved wine. And, it got me in bed before 10PM. Gotta love that.