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Slumped Glass Bowl

Fresh out of my art studio.
Here is a Slumped Glass Bowl I made for my daughter, Beckie, for Christmas.

#slumpedglass #bowl #daughter #Christmas #fusedglass #christinamleedesigns #christinamlee #leeshorestudio #jewelrydesignartist #lampworkbeadartist #fusedglassartist #fusing #slumping #fusedglassart #armstrongglass #fuberartist #fiberart #florida #floridaartist #floridaart #followme #instalike #instagood #artstudio #artistlife #artofinstagram

 

 

 

 

 

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Fused Glass Kitchen Cabinet Door and Drawer Pulls

Finally finished all my Fused Glass kitchen cabinet Door and Drawer Pulls.

I started by out laying out and cutting my glass in 1 and 1/2 inch squares.  I actually started these quite some time back in the old art studio upstairs, and finished them in the new art studio.

I ground the edges so they were not sharp on my glass grinder.

Here is a group all cut and ready to start placing the diachroic pieces on top.

Then I started laying out the little dichroic pieces of glass and the stringers on top of the blue glass and securing them with a drop of clear craft glue, so they don’t move in the kiln as the glass begins to work when firing.

In the top section of the pic above you can see 6 already fused drawer and door pulls.

I fired a total of 47 door and draw pulls.  I needed 45 for my kitchen.  I wanted a couple of extras, just in case one breaks in the future.  Below, another group cleaned, laid out, glued and ready to fire in the kiln.

Below: In the kiln ready to fire.

The two pics below show some of the finished, fired pulls after they came out of the kiln.

Each draw and door pull is a one-of-a-kind original piece of art.

Below is a pic of the backing pieces I purchased especially for mounting on fused glass door and drawer pulls.

Backs epoxied on and ready to mount on the cabinets.

Mounting them on the kitchen cabinets

Here we have some of the hand built Hickory cabinets, built especially for my kitchen by a wonderful friend!!  I had to do his beautiful cabinets justice and make special door and drawer pulls for them.

Below: Close up of a couple of the upper cabinets with pulls mounted.

 

Below: Close up of under Island cabinets with pulls mounted.

I even added a pull to my microwave door.

  Thanks for checking out my blog post.

#christinamleedesigns #christinamlee #leeshorestudio #followme #floridaartist #fusedglassartist #lampworkbeadartist #fiberartist #art #artist #florida #followme #awesome #picoftheday #artstudio #newartstudio #kiln #fineart #awesone

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Finishing Up The New Art Studio

I am down to all the finishing touches on the new art studio.

Here you can see I finally got all my sheets of stained glass out of the house and back into the cabinet where they belong safe and sound!  Yay!!  Only chipped the corner of one piece.  I thought that was a pretty good accomplishment.  It took me months and months of carrying a few sheets out at a time every time I went out back.   As you can see I have a lot of beautiful stained glass to work with.  I have it all organized by brand and by fusible and non-fusible, and have one cubby for my glass rods for lampwork or flamework glass bead making.  This will make everything very easy to access when I want to create!!

I started grouting the tile on the new counter top, messy, but a necessity.  My wonderful Hubby, Rick, got the trim board mounted on the front of the counter top.

Finally all the grouting mess is done and the tile cleaned!!!  Yay!!!

My two 110 Kilns and my microwave are now reposing on the new counter top in their new home.

Now I am back to finishing the painting of the floor!  You can also see I put spray foam in the crack in the floor between the two units to seal it up.

Prepping the next section of the floor for paint, under the window on the South side.

In between waiting on paint, grout and caulk to dry, and while cleaning out the old art studio upstairs in the house, I found this old Dave’s Insanity hot sauce bottle rack.  I stuck it away some years ago on a shelf and forgot I had it, thinking I could use it for something.

I flipped it upside down, and got my wonderful Hubby to cut a dowel and drill holes in it for the dowel.

I put a couple of coats of some pretty blue paint on it and, presto change o, I now have a new “upcycled”/”recycled” rack for my spools of bead stringing wire and my small pliers, cutters and crimping tools!!!  I love my little rack!!

Things are progressing nicely!!

#stainedglass #cabinet #fusedglass #fusible #art #artist #artstudio #newartstudio #instalike #instagood #picoftheday #dreamcometrue #awesome #upcycled #recycled #davesinsanitysauce #beadstring #beadstringingwire #countertop #grout #paint #pliers #crimpingtool #painting #lampwork #flamework

 

 

 

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New Art Studio, Almost Done

Here is the latest update on the New Art Studio.  It is almost done.

I have been continuing to bring all my stained glass out of the house a few sheets at a time and putting them back in the cabinet.  I have been organizing it by brands of glass, and fusible and non-fusible glass.  I also had a cubby for my glass rods for lampwork bead making.  Everything will be real easy to access for ease of creating.

Just had to show you this pretty piece of my stained glass.  I have so many pieces of beautiful glass.  I was very fortunate to buy a lot of beautiful glass some years ago from a lady who was moving out of state for a very reasonable price.

We brought my stainless steel table out of storage with help of my grandson, Devin.  Forgot how heavy the thing was!!  It will be the prefect work surface for my torches for lampwork, also called flamework, bead making!  This is not it’s final resting place, but we got it into the studio.  I will move it after the rest of the floor is painted.

Final coat of paint on the last wall on the north side by the door, except for that upper corner and the door trim on the right hand side.  My Hubby, Rick, is installing a motion detector light on the outside of the building, and then that panel will be put up and painted, and the door trim painted.  It is dark at night walking in and out of the house into the back yard, so the light is much needed.

Hubby put the trim board on the front edge of the counter top and I started grouting the tile.

Removing the blue painter’s tape from around the window on the north side.

Next work to be done: finish grouting the tiles, finish painting the floors, also have some touch up spots of paint here and there, and paint the trim boards on both counter tops.  Almost done!!

#almostdone #artstudio #newartstudio #instalike #instagood #picoftheday #art #artist #flamework #lampwork #fusedglass #stainedglass #painting

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First Artwork Done in New Art Studio

I took a break from all the painting of walls and floors to do a little creating.  I needed a birthday gift for a friend, so decided to fuse some glass.

Covered my table with butcher paper and set up all my tools, molds and glass.

img_1041

Set up my glass band saw and glass grinder and filled them with water.  They have diamond bits and so I have to water cool the bits.img_1043

Laid out the glass and the mold and drew up the pattern on the glassimg_1044

Shinning the light through the stained glass so you can see how pretty it is. img_1046

Cutting the first glass heart. img_1052

Cutting the second glass heart.img_1062

Laying out the stained glass and the dichroic glass I plan to fuse onto the heart-shaped bowls, and preparing the molds for fusing. img_1063

Fiber paper placed between the molds and the glass so the glass will not stick to the molds as it slumps down into the molds.  Molds in the kiln, and ready to fire. img_1076

Kiln door closed and started on high.  I set my desktop 110 kiln on top of the large kiln temporarily so I could fire it, as the counter top has not been build yet where it will repose permanently. img_1079

50 minutes of firing in the kiln, then cool down.  Once the kiln is shut off I cannot look in it until the glass is completely cooled for risk of it cracking.  That is always the hardest part, waiting to see the finished pieces! The next morning I opened the kiln and, yay!  Good firing!!!  img_1081

Glass removed from the molds and cleaned, signed and dated on the back. The finished fused glass heart-shaped bowls!img_1086

Linda loved her birthday gift.  These small fused glass heart-shaped bowls are great for putting rings and earrings in on top of your dresser at night.  They are one of my popular sellers.  I can create them in any color under the rainbow.img_1141

And there you have the very first artwork created in my new art studio.  It was so nice having all that room to spread out, work and create, and so much fun creating after the long break of building the studio.  Even though the studio is not done yet, I improvised.

#newartstudio #artstudio, #instalike #instagood #picoftheday #dreamcometrue #fusedglass #creative

 

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Black & Dichroic Fused Glass Shawl Pin

Here is a beautiful fused glass shawl pin I created in 2011.  It has black background glass and beautiful pieces of dichroic glass fused to the black glass.  I would love to make you a special shawl pin just for you in any color you desire.  #fusedglass

SANY0086

 

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Fused Glass Wind Chimes

Here are the Fused Glass Wind Chimes I made for my Son, Robert, for his birthday, yesterday.  I just realized I have not posted any blog posts since after Thanksgiving.  Was totally swamped over the holidays.  Seems like the days just get by so very fast anymore.

SANY0002 I made them small because in the next 7 or 8 months the kids are going full time into an RV.  They have been downsizing so I wanted something that could travel with them.

SANY0009Here is a close up of the top, black glass with colored dichroic chips and stringers fused onto it.

The top piece is about 3 x 3 inches.

SANY0008A close up of the upper 3 chimes.  Blue streaky glass and Purple glass with bits of dichroic glass fused onto them.

Each chime is approximately 1/2 inch wide by 3 inches long.

SANY0007And a close up of the lower 3 chimes.

The two outside chimes are actually Dark Purple glass, when held up to the light you can see they are purple.

All together is was quite a fun little project to create.  The first set of Wind Chimes I have ever made.  I strung the chimes with 8 lb fishing line my Hubby, Rick, had and used a fishing swivel for the top to hang them from.

Drilling all the holes in the glass before I fired them in the kiln, and tying the knots in the fishing line to string each of the chimes, all took quite a bit of time.  I also had to learn to tie a couple of new knots, fishing knots, so the knots would not come untied and the glass fall off and break later on.  Thanks Rick for sharing some You Tube videos.

 

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Totally Stuffed like the Turkey

Hope everyone had a very wonderful Thanksgiving.  I am totally stuffed just like the Turkey was.  Actually my sis in law fixed a Turducken.  It was fantastic!!!!

Totally excited I sold my first piece in my Etsy Shop, my Fused Glass Shawl Pin below:

SANY0086

This pin is made with dichrioc glass in copper, purple, blue fused onto a black base.  I can create these in any color you prefer. $35.00 each.

Hope you got to share your Thanksgiving with family.  Many blessings to all!!!

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Black & Gold Fused Glass Sushi Plate and 2 Sauce Dishes

Just added to the website on the fused glass page:

I love glass fusing, is such a fun process.  I cutting the glass, I layer the pieces and place them into the slumping mold.  I then place them in the kiln and turn it on.  I ramp up the temp in increments of 100 degrees every 10 minutes, working my way up to 1450 degrees.  Holding it at that temp and checking every 10 minutes to see how the fusing process is coming along.  When it gets to the place I want it to be, then I start the cool down process.  The anticipation of waiting to see how the glass turns out is so much fun.  I can hardly wait until the kiln cools enough to open it.  Of course, I have to wait for it to cool completely so I do not crack the glass, so that takes 2 or 3 more hours after the kiln is turned off.  The glass starts out hard, gets soft as it slumps and fuses, then hardens again as cools.  Fascinating to say the least.

Black & Gold Fused Glass Sushi Plate and 2 Sauce Dishes

 

I layered the glass, in put it in the my kiln and fused it together while slumping it into the wavy plate mold.  The glass is taken to a temp of about 1450 degrees.  One plate takes about 3 1/2 hours in the kiln.  Plate is approximately 7 inches square.  The gold dichroic glass is original Wasser glass.  $72.00 for the set.

Black and Gold wavy sushi plate

 

Two sauce dishes

 

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Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and your family from Christina
Rick and I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas from our house and art studios to you and yours.  No matter how you celebrate the Holidays, we pray Christ’s blessings on you, and pray that the Holidays are filled with love, peace and joy for you and yours.  We also praying you have a prosperous New Year too.   Christina
Here are a few pics of the Fused Glass gifts I have been cranking out of my studio for Christmas gifts the last few weeks:
Fused Glass Clock for my Daughter, Beckie
Fused Glass Clock for my Son, Robert
Fused Glass clock for my Daughter-in-law, Stephanie
Fused Glass Sushi Plates for my Son-in-law Richard
Close up of the Frit piled edging, Richard is an Oklahoma State U fan, thus the Orange and Black.
Completed Set of 4 plates
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Upcoming Blogs

In the next few weeks I will post some blogs about free form design, i.e. designing a necklace or bracelet when you have not drawn out a sketch in advance.  As in the pic below.

This is a carved bone pendant, strung abstractly with 6 of my handmade glass beads (lampwork) and various bone beads.  I dropped the beads on the bead board and let them fall where they may, then strung them. 

Most of the time I am very symmetrical in my designs, making each side of the necklace match, left and right of the focal piece in the center, whether it be a bead, a carved bone pendant or a fused glass pendant I created, but occasionally I get a little wild and just drop the beads and string them.  (My husband likes it when I do.  The necklace in the pic is one of his favorite pieces.)

Maybe you purchased some semi-precious gemstone beads or just some glass beads, and you have been looking at these beads in your bead box for quite some time trying to figure, what am I going to make with them.  How do you take them from just being a pile of beads, just sitting around the art studio, to finished jewelry?  I will do some layout on my bead board and shoot some pics and post them to give you a concept of how I get creative, whether symmetrical or abstract, how does one come up with a design. 

How do I get ideas for my designs, you ask?  I look at the seasonal color charts that are published and I look at clothing magazines and jewelry design magazines.  I get ideas from various places, nature, leaves, flowers.  I never copy anyone’s work.  All my pieces are my originals, but I can look at someone work and get a basic idea and then create my own unique piece from there.

If you have any questions, please post them.  I will try my best to answer them.

Christina

 

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