Fused glass jewelry: magic dichroic glass pendants!

When working with glass, the final product will often have a different color from when the glass was in its original state. The fired glass's color also depends on what type of base metal/glass is used. When making an enamel piece, blue glass powder won't look the same if it's placed on copper vs. silver or with a white vs. ecru enamel base. The same goes for dichroic glass.

Dichroic glass has even more surprises in store for the glass artist because dichros are multicolored to begin with. The glass has a prismatic effect and the colors shift as the light hits. The glass's hue also changes during the firing process -- sometimes even more than I'd anticipated.

With enamels, you have a pretty good idea how the color will turn out. Blue is almost always blue, though the final shade might be darker or lighter. Sometimes enamels will turn odd colors when fired on silver -- for instance, yellow becomes pink in this case -- but for the most part, you can predict what your piece will look like.

Well, dichroic glass continues to surprise me. You can shift the glass downward at a 45 degree angle to get an idea of how a fired dichro will appear, but this is not foolproof. This afternoon, I made two new pieces using some interesting patterned dichroic glass. On one piece, I used a black base and layered it with clear butterfly-print and pink mirrored glass. The end result? The clear glass came out dark blue, while the pink glass turned into shiny gold. I like it, but so weird!

I used a clear base for the second piece and fired that with some yellow dichro... and that turned out to be turquoise with deeper blue undertones. Not at all like the colors I chose.

This makes it difficult to repeat or design custom pieces since I can never be sure of how my glass will appear in the end. It's certainly an adventure working with it, though. I kind of like the fact that I can still be surprised.

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

Fused glass jewelry: Dichroic glass pendant "Fire And Ice"

I've been making fused glass jewelry for about a month -- and while I've had quite a few failures, I've happily had many more successes. There are quite a few pieces that I genuinely like and would wear myself. One of my favorites is my "Fire And Ice" pendant:

Dichroic glass is so much fun to work with because there are hundreds of different patterns available. I usually order a bag of scrap pieces, so I never know what I'll end up with. I enjoy the surprise! I'm also never sure what the jewelry will look like when it's fired in my microwave kiln. Dichroic glass changes color in the light, anyway, but it often turns out to be a completely different hue when fused. I've used blue dichroic glass which came out pink or pink glass that came out yellow. Using this kind of glass is always an adventure.

Because of this, I'm always pleased when a piece turns out better than I'd expected -- like my "Fire And Ice" pendant. I made a simple design by sandwiching blue tie-dyed glass between shiny yellow dichros. The blue ended up being a deeper color than I'd anticipated and the yellows are shinier with hints of oranges and reds. They reminded me of flames, which is my reason for giving the pendant this rather obvious name.

I recently sold this glass pendant to my good friend, Nancy. She's purchased a lot of my handmade jewellery over the years because she enjoys supporting small businesses. She wore several of my pieces on the recent cruise with took together and I got a kick out of seeing her in my jewelry designs. She was ready for something new and chose "Fire And Ice."

I was sorry to let the pendant go, but I know Nancy will wear it well. And I can still borrow it! That's one advantage of selling to a friend.

I've made dozens of fused glass pendants at this point. Hopefully, all will find good homes. You can check them out, as well as the rest of my handmade wire wrapped and enamel jewelry at Naomi's Designs and MayaGirl Creations.