How to make fused glass in a microwave kiln: large versus small kilns for making glass jewelry

When I was at the craft fair yesterday, many customers were intrigued to hear that I make my glass jewelry with a microwave kiln. A few wanted more details and wondered which is better: a large or small kiln? After working with dichroic glass for a year, I'd say that both are useful for different reasons. Here are some pros and cons for each.

SMALLER MICROWAVE KILNS: I think these are perfect for beginners. These kilns become hot at 1500 degrees F and the smaller ones are less cumbersome to handle. So as you're getting used to opening and closing the lid, checking on the piece, etc., I'd recommend starting with the small one. They're also less expensive, so why spend the money until you know you truly enjoy making glass?

As an intermediate glass maker (I refuse to call myself a "professional" at this point), I prefer using the small kiln for fine detail work. Because it heats quickly, I find that it's good for firing pieces at a particular stage or for adding decals. The small kilns heats within a few seconds, so I can heat items in 10, 15-second increments and then stop the process at the exact moment I want. This is especially effective when I want to purposely underfire an item or play up a particular glass texture.

Having it heat quickly is great when you're an impatient person like me, but large glass pieces tend to break when they gain too much heat at once. I've learned to deal with this by slowing down the heating process, but it's frustrating when your glass cracks right down the middle.

LARGER MICROWAVE KILN: The big kiln is bulkier and more difficult to handle. When I need to bring it to class, it's a pain fitting it into my bag. It also take about 8-10 minutes (depending on the microwave) for it to even begin heating.

Still, there are many advantages to using a large kiln. For one thing, it holds more pieces, which is especially helpful when I'm teaching. Because it heats more slowly, large pieces fire more evenly. I can stick a big piece into the large kiln, set the timer for 8 minutes and not have to worry about cracking. Even better, the slow heating time helps smooth out jagged edges, so glass that was cut on an angle ends up lining up with the rest of the piece.

The large kiln works best for larger pieces, however. When I've heated a batch of smaller ones, not all of the pieces have fired at the same rate and I've had to re-do them. Not does the big kiln work well for decals, which tend to come out over or under-fired. Of course, it's also more expensive.

Overall, I'm happy with both of my kilns and am getting better at using each for different techniques. Mostly, I love the fact that I can make beautiful pieces in my apartment -- and that the kilns are portable, which allows me to teach in different places.

Whether you get a large or small kiln, you'll enjoy your foray into glass making. Of course, wear gloves, protective goggles and always, ALWAYS put safety first!

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

Tales from the craft fair: Ridgewood Market Night Bazaar

Last night, I sold my jewelry at a unique and fun location: Ridgewood Market, located in Ridgewood Queens. This was the first evening market I've worked at and I had a great time!

This market is four years old, but I didn't hear about it until last year when my friend, Susan, suggested I sell at it. She lives in the area and I always enjoy visiting the neighborhood, which is about four miles from mine and borders Brooklyn. Ridgewood has many funky shops and an artsy vibe -- and this eclectic fair, which is held once a month at Gottscheer Beer Hall, fits right in.

Our evening kicked off with a bit of adventure when our friends, Rachel and Henry, offered to drive us over. We ended up at another beer hall in the neighborhood -- that also doubles as a spot for craft fairs. Who knew? Thankfully, we were close to Gottscheer Hall, so we had a good laugh and arrived with plenty of time. Meanwhile, we took the scenic route around Ridgewood, which is known for its historic row houses.

Ridgewood Market is juried so there were some interesting vendors present. One woman sold honey, all of which is produced in Queens, NY. You can order the honey by zip code. Apparently, NYC has a bee keeping scene, with people keeping hives in their yards, roofs or public gardens. Very cool! Another woman sold zombie-inspired accessories... and one man sold animal parts in jars. Definitely NOT my thing, but his booth stood out!

Many of the vendors also sported memorable looks. About half of the participants had blue or green or pink hair, and multiple piercings. One man donned about 50 chains and a top hat. I felt a little underdressed with my plain, black outfit and brown hair, but I don't think I could pull off a pink 'do.

Here are a few shots of my booth. No animal parts present...

I was seated across from sisters who baked the most delicious and beautiful pastries. This was dangerous for me because I wanted to eat 'em all! I settled on purchasing ONE chocolate chip cookie and enjoyed every bite. Next time, I'll request to be placed across from the zombie lady...

Our friends, Scott and Christopher, were there, representing Lewis Oliver Farm Sanctuary. They're trying to raise $600 so Annabelle the cow can get her hooves fixed. They sold a variety of items, including stuffed chicken toys and Christopher's yummy vegan cookies. All of the proceeds went toward Annabelle's manicure. Scott explained that as great as it was to get donations, they were simply happy to tell people about the sanctuary. Still, I was pleased to see that their items were selling well and that people were being generous. One person purchased two chicken dolls and then took them into the bar, where he made them dance. The guys had a good laugh when the person's friend showed them the film he'd made of the dancing chickens.

Our other friends, Nancy and John, planned to surprise me with their appearance, but Scott blabbed and told me they'd be showing up. Oops. We still had fun hanging out. My Jon enjoyed sampling beers from the bar, while Scott splurged and had a giant pretzel. Seriously, these pretzels were the size of a person's head!

Though I didn't sell as many items as I had at the Kew Gardens Art Fair, I still did pretty well. Customers really liked my glass rings and were intrigued when I explained that I fire my glass in a microwave kiln. "You should tell them you make it in your STUDIO," Nancy advised. I argued that people are more surprised to hear that I create my work in a microwave. Sure enough, I got a lot of questions about my method. It was a good conversation starter and kept people at my booth where they'd take a longer look at my jewelry.

At one point, a little girl -- about 5 or 6 -- arrived at my booth with her mom and asked if she could try on a necklace. I helped her put it on and she admired her reflection in my mirror. She then tried on a bunch of rings as she made faces and struck poses, all while staring at herself. Her mom finally dragged her away and she walked off with my mirror. Jon had to chase after her to get it back.

The guys befriended a 10-year-old boy, who lives in the neighborhood and comes to the market every month with his dad. He was already a fan of the giant pretzels and wore a "Got Pretzels?" T-shirt. He kept returning to the guys' booth and serenaded us with his rendition of "New York, New York."

One thing that surprised me was that people are still interested in my wire wrapped pieces. I've gotten a lot of attention for my glass work and have made that the focus of my business, but many do like the wire jewelry. I actually sold two pairs of wire chandelier earrings, both of which I've had in stock for YEARS. I almost didn't put out one pair because the earrings are huge and I figured no one would want them. I was wrong because they sold early on in the evening. Next time, I will make more wire pieces and have a much more even distribution of wire and glass jewelry.

The night wrapped up around 11. I was exhausted, but happy because I'd had such a nice evening. I hope I'm invited back to Ridgewood next month. Meantime, check out my jewelry at Naomi's Designs and MayaGirl Creations.

Silver wire wrapped fused dichroic glass bracelets

The Ridgewood Market Night Bazaar is this Saturday! I'm looking forward to this event, especially since my good friends Scott and Christopher will be there. They'll be representing the Lewis Oliver Farm Animal Sanctuary and will be selling food, paintings, books and other educational materials. They've been huge supporters of Naomi's Designs as my business has grown, so it'll be great having them there with me.

Of course, I also hope to sell many items. I've been working literally round the clock as I finish my final rounds of jewelry. I've made dozens of fused glass pendants, of all shapes and sizes. I also made this collection of dichroic link bracelets:

I'm particularly fond of the crystal Rainbow Swirl bracelets that match my Rainbow Swirl rings. I think the prism glass resembles moonstone, but my friend Diana says it looks more like opal. What do you think? Either way, I love the colors! I've managed to clock the exact firing time for these so they form perfect circles.

I also like the color block bracelet, which is simple, but so pretty. Honestly, I don't wear much of my own jewelry -- terrible for business, I know, I know -- but I actually plan to make one of these for myself.

Along with the bracelets and pendants, I also made enough rings to fill all 36 slots in my ring box:

When I sell rings on Etsy, they're usually made to order so I can size them correctly for the customer. In this case, I couldn't do that, so I made the rings in a variety of sizes. The ones toward the front are small, ranging from a 5-6.5 US. The largest ones are toward the back of the box, going up to about a 7.5-8 US. I figure that these rings will fit the fingers of MOST people -- and if they don't, that person can always order a custom piece from me.

Ridgewood Market advises their vendors to have an interesting table set-up, so I purchased a few new display items. I have that ring box, as well as black velvet leveled columns. My plan is to lay a few glass pendants on each column so they can be seen at a distance. I usually just spread everything out flat on the table, but I'm trying to spice up my booth. These tables are going to be 9-feet, which is much bigger than the spaces I've been given at other events. I've almost always had to leave items off the table for lack of room, but that won't be an issue here. In fact, I'm hoping I'll have enough inventory to fill the entire table.

The rest of this week will be spent getting ready for the fair. Here's hoping that all of my hard work is appreciated!

You can check out my jewelry at Naomi's Designs and MayaGirl Creations.

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 jewelry art: Making art at Maple Grove Cemetery

Now that I've taught a few jewelry making classes at Maple Grove Cemetery, I decided to take one as a student. I love teaching, but wanted to see what it would be like to relax and be on the other side of the table, so to speak.

Yesterday, I joined my friend Helen's jewelry art class. Helen put together frames with velvet backgrounds; we then glued old pieces of jewelry into designs. Here is my masterpiece, which is supposed to be a vase filled with flowers. Not my finest work, but I had a good time making it!

I always enjoy exploring the administration building because it's filled with so many interesting old items and is like a museum. At this workshop, we got a chance to sift through the bags and bags -- and bags!!! -- of jewelry. It was overwhelming! There were cabochons of every size and color, pearls, beads, gold pieces, decorative hearts, filigree pendants... you name it, it was there.

A few of the other women had done this project before, so they had great ideas. One made a giant shamrock filled with green beads. Another made a sailboat out of shells. And one woman made a silver and turquoise Southwestern-style cross for her ill friend. She actually brought her own beads to the class; they were from a broken rosary. Her design was so clever and turned out beautifully.

It took a few hours to complete our pieces, but I really enjoyed the company. I chatted with the other ladies, but no one bothered me during the times when I needed to zone out and concentrate. One of my issues with the enameling class was that the conversations always turned to stressful topics. I like to use art as an escape and don't want to spend that particular time thinking about politics or personal problems. I certainly don't want to block out reality altogether, but I need my art to be a refuge. In the Maple Grove class, it was the escape I was looking for.

In the early afternoon, we broke for lunch, where we were served our delicious meal of polenta and rice on hundred-year-old plates. As we ate, we were told tales about the cemetery's residents by our other host and local historian, Carl. According to him, Maple Grove includes the grave of George W. Johnson, a famous African-American singer from the late 1800s, who was known for "The Laughing Song," as well as the tomb of Count Joannes -- an actor who was so brilliant that thieves attempted to steal his brain from his plot.

I was especially pleased to see a couple of my students at this class -- and a few of them were wearing the pendants they'd made in my workshop. They were eager for me to host another class, which was really nice. I plan to have them make earrings during the next session.

I'm so happy that I discovered Maple Grove last year. It's a wonderful place and an important part of my town's history. I'm also grateful to have made some new friends.

Check out my 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.

Teaching handmade jewelry making: my fused glass heart class at the cemetery!

First, some good news! My work has been accepted at Ridgewood Market's Nighttime Bazaar. Ridgewood Market is a monthly indoor market in Queens, NY and I've been trying to get in for a while. It's juried and is supposed to be a great place to sell handmade crafts.

Then on Friday, my birthday, I heard back from a store that wants to carry my pieces! I haven't yet hammered out the details of the deal, so I don't want to name the place just yet. But it's a really cute shop in upstate NY. This was the best present I could've asked for.

Yesterday I taught another glass fusing class at Maple Grove Cemetery. Since Valentine's Day is right around the corner, I had my students make mosaic glass heart pendants. Joining the class was my oldest friend, Lani, whom I've known literally since I was a baby and is like a sister to me. Here she is, showing off her work:

Lani loves Victorian history and old cemeteries, so we took a walk around Maple Grove before the class. She was intrigued with the historic graves and noticed that many people died in 1909. We'll have to do some research and find out what was going on during that year. The Spanish Flu came later and it was before WWI.

I knew that Lani would enjoy touring the administration building so I made sure we had plenty of time to look around. She had a blast going through the costumes and jewelry, and even wants to return to play a character in the annual "Spirits Alive" event. She also got a kick out of meeting Sky, the cemetery's canine mascot.

Soon, my students arrived and we got started. This group was a bit livelier than the last and I wished I had three hands to keep up. Firing the hearts was a bit tricky because I needed to make sure that they didn't overfire and turn into shapeless blobs. Also, a few students ended up making two pieces. So the firing process took longer than last time. Happily, everyone finished at least one piece.

Well, except for Lani. I'd warned her beforehand that if I didn't get to her piece, I'd just finish it at home since she was staying over. Sure enough, this was the case. I put her heart in the smaller kiln with another woman's but ended up taking out Lani's because I didn't want the hearts to fuse together. Unfortunately, the pieces came unglued and I suggested she re-do them so she could fire it again later on.

Lani was NOT happy. She's sitting right here as I write this, so I can say this to her face as I type it in this blog: she was being a big, ol' pain in the ass. She kept on whining about her messed-up piece as I kept on apologizing, and I tried my best to stay professional. She then complained that she couldn't glue her pieces back on, so the ladies started loudly chanting, "Glue it! Glue it! Glue it!"

Lani later explained that she couldn't glue the pieces because the women were shaking the table. Instead, she took a break and had lunch... and that seemed to calm her down. Lani likes free food!

A couple of the other hearts didn't turn out perfectly. One woman's was a little overfused and needed to file the top of the heart to get a deeper V in the center. Another lady's was underfired and asked me to give it some more time in the kiln. However, the rest turned out well and everyone said they had a great time -- even Lani.

Right after the class, I had to rush home, grab my flute and then hurry back up the hill to do a performance at a nearby coffeehouse. I've played there a few times, but since this is my birthday weekend, I'd prepared a special program: I performed all '80s songs, including hits from Bon Jovi, Queen, Debbie Gibson, A-Ha and Tears For Fears, among others. I probably shouldn't have scheduled the gig so close to my class, but I wanted Lani to see me play. I got a nice surprise when some college friends showed up for the gig. They don't live nearby and had spent all day at a teachers' workshop -- and they still came out for me. It was very sweet. A few other friends came, too, including the rec director at one of the homes where I play and my music partner, Judith.

I had a great crowd, a great playlist and was all set to go... and my speakers wouldn't work. I tried playing with my laptop at regular volume, but couldn't hear the backing track and butchered my version of "Baker Street." It was humiliating and I apologized to my friends for the technical difficulties.

They were understanding and the manager had a speaker on hand. Hooray! I was able to successfully finish the show and even managed to hit the highest note -- a fourth octave E -- in Whitney Houston's "Saving All My Love For You." Whew! At least my friends hadn't come out for nothing.

It was a busy birthday weekend, but I had a great time. I got to do my favorite things and spend time with my favorite people. Oh, and Lani did finish her necklace after we came home from dinner. She even wore it out to lunch today.

For the record, Lani is a wonderful person and a great friend. There's a reason why we've stayed close for 43 years. She's a pain in my butt, but wouldn't be herself if she weren't. She's already planning to terrorize -- ahem, I mean "attend" -- my next class.

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