Pressed Glass Earrings - some of the many steps from start to finish. One of my latest designs! Fun earrings that I've made, simply put, by "pressing" a design into the glass and then filling in the detail with metallic glass paint
Like many other makers and artists, I'm doing less selling and shipping at the moment. In my case this means more time for designing and finishing old projects. I've finally been able to make some progress on designs and experiments that I started last year...or even earlier!
One of the most challenging was this pressed glass project.
Like many other makers and artists, I'm doing less selling and shipping at the moment. In my case this means more time for designing and finishing old projects. I've finally been able to make some progress on designs and experiments that I started last year...or even earlier!
One of the most challenging was this pressed glass project.
I was keen to make some fun and bold earrings that were also light weight. This meant flattening the glass. I also had some metallic glass paint that I'd been itching to use.
On a long drive I worked out the basic plan and got started.
Plus several trips to the library.
The plan was to make a 3D stamp with a design which I could press into porcelain to make a clay stamp. The clay stamp could then be used in a kiln to press a design into small pieces of glass while at the same time flattening the glass.
Things did not usually go to plan...since I really didn't know what was possible in the first place. Some of my favourite results remain in the work-in-progress stage.
Once I had at least a couple stamp designs with promising results, I focused on perfecting the kiln-firing. There were quite a few tests with different temperatures, glass and clay thicknesses, shapes and sizes.
