Silver wire wrapped spiral glass decal rings!

The Ridgewood Market is in less than two weeks and I've been working like crazy to make new pieces for the event. I'm particularly excited about my new line of fused dichroic glass decal rings:

I've made a couple of other glass rings, but they've been heavy and bulky, so I came up a design that's light and fun to wear. Basically, I took my decal pendants and condensed them into tiny ring-sized pieces. I then fired the smallest decals onto the glass. I recently purchased a sample set of dichroic solids, so I could use a variety of colors for background.

The other challenge was coming up with a ring that would work as a base. I adapted my spiral backing design into ring form; these rings are made of 18 gauge silver plated wire. I create the spiral, loop the band around a ring mandrel to size it and then kind of knot the band around the spiral to secure it in place. The flat spiral gives me a surface to glue when I attach the pieces together -- and voila! I have a ring.

You'll notice that I also have a few pearl-looking rings in the mix. I call those my Rainbow Swirl rings because they're made of clear prism glass. I got the rounded shape by fusing two squares at separate angles rather than placing them in the same direction. The bottom square was vertical and the top square was horizontal. When placed like that, the glass melts and fills out the space, and fuses into a round cabochon.

In the photos, that glass looks whitish, but you can see various colors when you hold it up to the light. Because it's transparent, the spiral backing shows right through and it looks like a swirl is running through the glass -- hence then name "Rainbow Swirl."

These aren't difficult to make, but are time consuming because I have to cut the glass and fire it, apply the decals and fire them, make the rings and then attach everything. The good news is that I can put several pieces into the kiln at once since they're so small. I really like these rings, though. I have a ring box that holds 36 pieces, so my goal is to fill it with rings of various sizes. I'm up to 24, so I'm getting there!

I never know what will sell at craft fairs. It's always a crap shoot. Still, I have a good feeling about these rings. They're so cute and colorful -- how could anyone resist? :-)

Check out the rest of my handmade jewelry at Naomi's Designs and MayaGirl Creations.

Handmade wire wrapped jewelry: wire wrapped dichroic glass pendants with glass decals

It may only be February, but I'm already thinking ahead for Spring. Specifically, I'm planning for the two big markets I have coming up: the Ridgewood Night Bazaar on March 4 and the Readers Studio Tarot convention at the end of April.

Lately, I've been experimenting with more decals. I really like working with them because they're cute, but also target specific audiences. I'm hoping that an owl pendant will call to any bird lovers or that my fairy pieces will attract those who are interested in spiritual matters.

I've gone a little crazy in purchasing the decals because there are so many to choose from! Out of all, I think my favorite are the colorful butterflies. I first fired a red one onto a red pendant, but that didn't work so well because the reds were too similar. The butterfly kind of "sank" into the glass and you couldn't really see it.

Next, I tried firing them onto black pedants, thinking that the bright colors would pop against the dark background. They... didn't. You can see the butterflies, but they're dull. I added some other decals and crystals to brighten them, but they didn't turn out like I'd hoped.

I finally tried them against lighter backgrounds, gray and white. I LOVE them against the gray. That silvery color is one of my favorite dichros because it goes on so smoothly and looks good with every type of decal or crystal. It also works so well with the blue and orangey decals.

I like the white butterfly piece, but it was a bit plain, so I added that spiral on top.

The owl is interesting because it began as a pink-colored decal and fired white. I'd made that triple layer pendant without a decal in mind, but the green and black swirls reminded me of a forest. I thought the owl would fit right in and would look as if he were flying through the woods or maybe sitting on a branch.

What's great about these decals is you can mix and match sets to create new pieces. I love working with straight-up glass, but these add a fun and kitschy element to my work. We'll see if customers like them in a few weeks!

Check out my jewelry at Naomi's Designs and MayaGirl Creations.

Handmade fused dichroic glass jewelry: working with glass decals

It's been almost a year since I started making glass pieces. To date, this is my favorite jewelry discipline. I love wire work and enamel, but I'm happiest when I'm fusing glass.

I still have a lot to learn and am constantly experimenting with new techniques. Lately, I've been playing with glass decals. In April, I'll be selling my pieces at a Tarot fair, so I plan to have jewelry that resonates with this particular audience. My glass pendants will be adored with celestial symbols, Zodiac figures, Trees Of Life, etc. You can pretty much cover any interest with decals!

Hundreds of different decals are available on specialty sites and even Amazon, which has a surprisingly thorough collection. They're super easy to use: you soak the decal in warm water for about 30 seconds, gently peel off the backing and carefully apply the decal to the glass. Once the decal dries -- usually after a few hours -- you can fire it onto the piece, making the design permanent. So simple! Or so I thought...

I purchased several decal packs, including cats, sun and moon figures and fairies. As soon as they arrived, I eagerly got to work sticking decals on pieces, but I really should've watched an instructional video before digging in. For my first attempt, I heated the decal onto a piece of unfired glass, which you aren't supposed to do. The glass fused, but the decal burned, leaving a black mark on the surface.

Next, I correctly added the decal to a piece of already-fused glass... but this time, I heated the glass too quickly and it snapped in half. Damn!

Since the decals look best with solid backgrounds, I purchased beautiful fuchsia and gold glass. Unfortunately, the glass kept cracking in my kiln. I finally tried a new technique where I very slowly heat the pieces, 15-20 seconds at a time. It's a time-consuming process, but the glass heats evenly and doesn't break. I'm also doing this with the decals, so that they don't burn.

I'm still making some mistakes: there were a couple of pieces where the decal was underfired and rubbed right off the glass. The sun and moon figures have a backing and a coating on the front, which I hadn't realized, so my first attempt at firing them resulted in my pieces catching fire. But I'm learning! I'm practicing and am getting there, and as you can see from my above photos, have managed to create some beautiful pieces.

I've just ordered a couple more packs: inspirational words, like "Love," "Hope" and "Piece" and designer hearts. These decals add a fun, new dimension to my glass and it's been worth the effort to work with them.

Check out the rest of my handmade wire wrapped, fused glass and enamel jewelry at my WEBSITE/STORE or Naomi's Designs and MayaGirl Creations.