Fused Glass Cabochon Pendants Made With Glass Frit -- And A Glass Tutorial

I've loved making heart pendants with my glass molds and purchased a few other molds in different shapes. I have teardrop and trapezoid molds on order and I also have a circle design. The simple cabochon might seem like a very basic shape, but you can do a lot with a circle! After all, our entire solar system -- and beyond -- is made of circular and spherical objects.

So far, I've made two round pieces: my Sunrise Pendant and my Planet Pendant. I created these color combinations simply by arranging and fusing glass frit in a design. For the Sunrise pendant, I went with typical early-morning colors: red, orange, pink and yellow. I suppose this works as a sunset, as well, but I think of evening colors and being more red, pink and orange. That yellow adds brightness to the pendant and gives it more of a "morning" feeling.

For the Planet Pendant, I simply combined blue, green and white glass so it looks like a continent surrounded by water and ice caps. It's not quite Earth, but similar. I've named it "Naomius" because why not?

I'd love to try making a Jupiter-like pendant with stripes or even a wire wrapped Saturn pendant. My friend Judith suggested that I make a cabochon to represent each planet in our solar system and then put them together in a mosaic or shadow box, but that seems a bit too 7th grade science fair project to me. Jon likes her idea, though, so maybe they're on to something.

In other news, I did something today that I haven't done in YEARS. I wrote an article for HubPages. For a while, I wrote for them almost every day -- especially after I left the magazine -- but it was a lot of work. Eventually jewelry and life took over and I had less time. It's a great way to get one's name out, though, and is another way to advertise my business. So I put together a tutorial on making basic fused glass pendants with a microwave kiln. I go into pretty thorough detail on the types of glass you can use, and how you can best use the microwave for this project. I also have photos of my work. I've included links back to my various sites, which helps me, but at the same time, I hope my tutorial can encourages others to take up glass fusion. It's a win-win! You can see it here at HubPages.

If you're not interested in making your own glass jewelry or art, please check out my page. Naomi's Designs. I'm constantly updating that, as well as this blog, so be sure to stop by often!

My Fused Glass Mosaic Is In A Gallery!

It's been a bit more than two years since I started working with fused glass and I'm eager to make bigger and more complex pieces. I LOVE making jewelry and my microwave kilns were a fantastic investment, but I'd really like to create vases, sculptures and larger art forms. Since I still only have my microwave kiln, I've had to get inventive in what I CAN do -- and have designed several fused glass mosaics. My hard work has paid off, though, because my piece, "Winter Frost" is currently on display at a gallery!

I made this mosaic by using clear dichroic glass, which I layered and fired multiple times. From some angles, the glass appears to be clear, but from other viewpoints, it's very colorful. I was inspired to create the piece when I saw some frost on the ground during a sunrise. I am not usually awake that early, so it captured my attention!

"Winter Frost" is part of an exhibit called "Of Women," which is at the Studio 7 Gallery in Fort Tilden, Rockaway, NY. Fort Tilden, as you may have guessed, was once a military base out in Queens. Many of the buildings are in ruins, but several have been converted into galleries and a theater. The compound is right near the beach and is in the middle of Riis Park. It's isolated, but apparently well known. I've been told the area is packed in the warmer months.

"Of Women" runs through April 8, celebrating Women's History Month. The exhibit isn't so much about women as it is about honoring female artists. True confession: Winter Frost is not my favorite mosaic. It's not the one I would've chosen for this exhibition. But once I saw it hanging on the wall under the large amethyst sculpture, I could see just how it fits in.

As you can see, Of Women features some very talented artists. The gallery itself is stunning and I still can't quite believe that I'm a part of this thing. I went there on Saturday to do my volunteer shift and really enjoyed looking at the other ladies' masterpieces.

Far Rockaway itself is kind of a pain to get to. It's in Queens and is part of NYC... but it's in the middle of nowhere. I didn't think the middle of nowhere exists in NYC, but it does! My neighborhood has a suburban feel, but we're near the subway, LIRR stop and several bus routes. It's easy to get around and takes 15 minutes to get to Manhattan. Rockaway does have an LIRR stop and subway, but you have to switch trains several times and then take a bus to Fort Tilden. The first time we went there, we took three trains and two buses -- remember, we were just traveling in Queens!. We then discovered that you can take a bus almost all the way back to our area, so that cut down on the travel time. Still, it takes about 90 minutes to commute in our own borough!

Rockaway is also super windy and cold. It's beautiful, though, and I'd love to return in the spring when it's warm enough to walk along the boardwalk. While I was doing my gallery sit, my husband spent several hours crawling around the abandoned military ruins. Yes, this is how Jon entertains himself!

If you're in the NYC area, try to check out Of Women. I have one little piece in the exhibit, but there are many memorable and provocative paintings and sculptures. It's the type of exhibit that will stay with you for a long time.

Meantime, please check out my NEW Naomi's Designs website!

Making fused glass jewelry: glass scenery pendants

For the last two years, I've mainly been working with shiny dichroic glass. Lately, I've been working with other types of glass so I can make different kinds of pieces. Now that I finally have a professional website, I need to increase the variety.

I really like plain, old Bullseye sheet glass. Bullseye is the glass-making factory where most outlets get their materials. They make every color imaginable and it's all hand-pulled. It's actually kind of cool to see it being made because it looks a bit like the artists are pulling taffy. Because it's made this way, each sheet is slightly different.

My favorite sheet glass comes from a series called "Streakies." When I first read that name, I laughed because I have the sense of humor of a teenage boy. But it's not called this after naked folks running through a field. The glass has streaks of color, which allows for depth and shading when making pieces.

The streaked glass works really well for scenery pendants. When you deep fire dichroic glass, it'll hold its shape because the dichro is actually a coating on top of the glass. So a thoroughly-fired square patch will still look like a square. However, the sheet glass melts more intensely and the colors bleed into each other. You can't quite mix them the way you would with paint, but you can set them up so they run together.

I had some beautiful scenic glass decals, so I decided to try my hand at making sunset pendants. I layered red, orange and pink glass to make my sunset sky and fired the piece until the glass was fully melted and blended:

I then added the decals to finish the scenic effect. I love the reds and oranges, but you can use blues to create an ocean scene or greens and rainbow colors to design a field of flowers. I'm not a great painter, but these scenic pendants are prompting me to arrange the glass in realistic color sequences. Most of my designs are abstract, but I've been looking at photos, as well as the actual outdoors so I can get a better idea of how to use the glass for shading. For instance, you can depict an ocean scene by simply having a blue bottom half of the pendant. However, it looks much more realistic if you combine navy and turquoise blues, and have a touch of white thrown in for the foamy tops of the waves.

Today at Stein Senior Center, I had my students play around with sheet glass. I first had them make an abstract pendant, arranging the colors any way they liked. I then had them arrange pieces in more natural color combos. I'm firing their work right now and am excited to see how theirs turned out. Once they get the hang of it, we'll move on to adding the decals.

The great thing about fused glass is it's so versatile. You can sculpt with it, use it in mosaics or use it almost as paint. I'm eager to try everything!

Check out my NEW website, Naomi's Designs, for my latest jewelry and art pieces, news and craft fairs.

Yes, I'm Alive! An update and photo gallery

So, I haven't written in this blog since September -- the longest I've stayed silent on this thing since I created the page. Oops. Well, for all three of my consistent readers, yes, I am alive and well, and still making jewelry.

I've been MIA for a good reason, mainly in that I've been working my butt off in both my jewelry and music careers. I've been teaching at seven different locations and have a couple of regular music gigs -- and even got a mosaic accepted into a gallery! It's been rewarding and tiring at the same time.

I really love teaching fused glass and enjoy interacting with seniors, but having to deal with "personalities" on the job again has taken some getting used to. Most of my experiences == especially with my students -- have been great, but I've have some not-so-good encounters with the administrative folks. I didn't expect this to be an issue while working as a private contractor, but I suppose this type of situation will come up at any job. It was naive of me to think I could avoid it just because I'm a freelancer.

There are definite pros and cons to being on my own. A big pro is that I get to experience many different types of jobs. While some people prefer being at the same place every day, I love to switch up my environments. The Atria group has been particularly good to me and has had me teach at a few different locations. Also, I make more per hourly class than I would per hour at a salaried job.

On the other hand, these gigs are flimsy and can end at any time, especially if a senior home lacks the budget for freelancers. The good news, though. is that there are always more gigs waiting for me. I'm constantly having to hustle and make calls, but you can find jobs in strange places... like cemeteries or historical societies (this one is still pending, so hopefully, more details to come).

Meantime, I'm still making jewelry -- and art! I've been expanding my repertoire to include glass mosaics:

I call these pieces "Shout In A Dream," "Skyline At Night" and "Anywhere You Go." I'm especially proud of the Skyline piece, which took forever to make. That's an 18 X 20 inch canvas, so it's enormous -- and it's made of 230 fused glass parts (about 1000 altogether, if you count how many little pieces I cut and fused).

My mosaic "Winter Frost" was accepted into the Rockaway Artist Association's exhibit, "Of Women," which is on display through April 8, in honor of Women's History Month. I'll be at the gallery for the opening this weekend and will take a photo of it hanging.

Now that I'm growing beyond jewelry, I'd really like to make some glass sculptures. But first, I need a larger kiln. I adore my microwave kilns, but they only fit small pieces. I'm saving up to buy a medium-sized table top kiln and will work my way up from there.

In order to get into the sculpture mode, though, I've been playing with different glass fusing techniques. Lately, I've been working with molds and glass frit, which is chopped glass. The granules can be fine, medium or coarse -- very much like in enamel. But you place the bits into a mold and can cast different shapes. I made these pendants using my heart mold:

There are hundreds of molds out there, but again, most of them only fit into larger kilns. I've been having fun making these and it's great practice for when I eventually mold bigger pieces.

As you can see, I've had a lot going on. Before I end this, one last bit of news: I FINALLY have a professional website. Check out Naomi's Designs for photo galleries and my online store! The site even links to this blog. Etsy has been great and I'm sticking with it, but I like having my own shop, where I don't have to worry about constantly relisting items. That 20 cents per listing doesn't sound like much, but it adds up when you have over 300 items in your Etsy store -- especially since listings expire after four months. In my personal shop, I can list up to 1500 items and simply leave them.

So, that's what's been going on in my life. Take a look at Naomi's Designs, keep reading this blog and look forward to updates on my jewelry and art career. Thanks for stopping by. It's been way too long!

Abstract and geometric fused dichroic glass earrings

Many people ask me where I actually get my dichroic glass. I shop for it in a few online stores. My favorite is simply called ArtGlassSupplies and they have everything from dichroic sheet glass to fusible shapes and decals. I also like Stallings Glass Supplies, Delphi Glass ... and even Amazon. In other words, finding glass to purchase is pretty easy if you know where to look.

I'm a bit of an addict when it comes to acquiring new glass and LOVE sample and scrap sets. This way, I get many colors and patterns at once and don't have to choose! I recently purchased ArtGlassSupplies' "Etched Glass Mystery Box" and am really pleased with it. It contains five 1.5 by 1.5 sheets of patterned glass from their etched dichroic collection -- and the pieces are stunning.

Of course, I had to create something immediately, so I spent the next couple of weeks using these patterns in earrings and jewelry sets:

I've made many pairs of square earrings, but have been playing around with other shapes, like those triangles. I cut those by scoring across the end (the right angle) on the base glass, which always comes in square sheets. These long, thin strips are more difficult to cut in the base glass, but I really like how they look. Plus, the earrings are lighter and more comfortable to wear. The trick is to press firmly when scoring the glass, so you get a deep cut -- which makes it easier to snip the thinner piece. I've also been adjusting the tension on the glass cutter so I can get cleaner lines. For me, a looser tension works better on thicker glass, so I can properly grip it. I suggest experimenting with thin and thicker glass, so you can see which grip feels most comfortable to you.

The challenge with the triangles was fitting the dichroic strips onto the base. I found that the easiest way to do this was to cut regular strips of dichro and then use my snipper tool to clip the ends so they fit. I'm getting better at working the snipper, as well, and can now cut straight or angled lines with it. I used to make a mess and had jagged edges when I used it, but I'm much more comfortable with operating it.

I recently did a couple of craft fairs (more on that in a future post) and the new earrings got a lot of attention. It's hard to ignore the colors in the gorgeous glass! I just ordered another sample pack and can't wait to see what they send me. I'm looking forward to making many more new pieces.

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

Selling handmade jewelry: Tales from the Long Island Vegan Fest

I don't know if the eclipse had any influence, but this was a really good jewelry week for me! It began on a low note with jury duty (Yuck), but then quickly picked up and just kept going. I've once again been accepted to the local art fair, I have a couple more people interested in me teaching classes at their venues, and I sold a piece to a new (for my business) country: Finland. The week was then capped off with my friend Christopher's amazing Vegan Fest.

When Christopher and his husband, Scott, proposed I sell my jewelry at the event, I was skeptical. I wasn't sure that jewelry fit in with holistic doctors, nutritionists and vegan caterers. However, Scott reasoned that they wanted to include a shopping experience at the fair and that my pieces would appeal to an "earthy" vegan crowd. I agreed because I'd planned to attend, anyway, and figured I could make some animal pendants for charity. Chris decided that money would go toward Broome Animal Sanctuary, up in Middleburgh, NY. I designed 18 of these pendants and at least felt that I had a purpose for being there.

Turns out that the guys' instincts were spot-on. I raised $300 for the sanctuary -- and completely trounced my previous sales record from an event. "Earthy" vegans really did like my work!

I usually have a little down-time at fairs, where I can walk around, eat and do some shopping, but at this fair, I barely had time to use the ladies' room. It was great, though. I met some interesting, kind people and enjoyed introducing them to fused glass, as well as the sanctuary. Since this was mainly a Long Island crowd, not too many of the attendees had heard of BAS, which is in central NY, but I explained what the farm is like and how passionate Christopher feels toward this place. Some had visited local sanctuaries, but were now eager to see this one. There was even a case where one of Scott's co-workers did not purchase an animal pendant, but insisted on giving me a generous donation for the sanctuary. I offered to give her a bonus piece of jewelry, but she refused. THAT's what most of the attendees were like: open, warm and giving.

I'd expected my animal pendants to be the main draw and surprisingly, they weren't. People liked them and purchased several, but also bought my regular work. As I'd expected, I got many questions about the materials I use and how I actually create the pieces. Several were intrigued to hear about my microwave kiln. Perhaps we'll hear about some more glass artists in the near future!

I did get to take a very brief lunch break and picked up a combo plate from the vendor across the way. They served homemade black bean burgers with spicy barbecue sauce, potato salad made with cashews, mustard and vinegar -- and the most chewy and delicious brownies I've ever eaten. I never did ask what was in them, but they were rich and fudgy. I'm still dreaming about them.

One company called Pride Enjoy sold vegan rainbow cookies. Rainbow cookies!!! Those are my favorites, but I refrained from buying any because I didn't want to go overboard in sampling treats. The guys bought two containers, so maybe they'll save me one ... if they don't eat them all first.

Jon came for about an hour, but I was so busy working, I didn't even get to talk to him. He had a jack fruit and pineapple curry and was still raving about it hours later. He even said that if all vegan food is like that, he could deal with being vegetarian.

There weren't just food vendors, though. Several organizations gave out literature containing information on veganism and vegan foods; one booth had vegan cookbooks; a couple of tables represented local sanctuaries and farms; a mother and daughter team sold cruelty-free makeup and one company sold hydroponic garden supplies. There were also eight lectures, a masseuse on hand and outdoor yoga classes.

I can't begin to express how proud I am of Christopher. He's a great guy and a close friend, so I'm biased, but he really did a fantastic job in putting this event together. He sought out quality vendors. He promoted the fair like crazy on social media so he'd get ample traffic. And he put together a fair that encompassed an entire vegan experience for attendees, incorporating food, fun and wellness. I've been to dozens of events at this point, and this was one of the most well thought-out and organized. He managed to get over 600 attendees! Just look at the happy crowd. There I am (to the right in blue), selling my heart out:

I'm trying to figure out what I did *right* at this event, so I can do it again at the next fair. I think that some of the reasons I did well here were because A) I had a table right by the entrance, so people saw me as soon as they came in. B) I didn't have much competition since my booth was different than anything else there. C) I've gotten better at schmoozing and selling. That last one is important because it's a skill I'm still working on. I did channel my friend Lani a few times during the fair and managed to close the sale. She'd be proud.

The festival was so successful that Christopher has decided to turn this into a bi-annual affair. I'll definitely be back for the next one. After all, I still need to taste those rainbow cookies!

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

Handmade fused dichroic glass farm animal pendants for Vegan Fest!

It's less than a week until the Long Island Vegan Fest -- and I'm getting excited! I'm so proud of the work my friend Christopher Jaie has done putting this event together. He's going to have nationally-known speakers, nutritionists, vegan cooks and holistic doctors on hand. He has about 30 booths ready to go at this point and has organized a quality festival for vegans and those interested in learning about veganism.

As for me, I'm mainly selling there due to nepotism, LOL. It helps to be close friends with the organizer, even though I haven't really made an impact in the vegan world. Still, I'm determined to use my jewelry for good, especially when it comes to this event. In addition to planning this fair, Christopher is raising money for the Broome Animal Sanctuary in Middleburgh, NY. He's visited the sanctuary several times and knows the owners Greg and Tony well, and also volunteers with several farms and animal shelters on Long Island. Rescuing and caring for animals is Christopher's passion, so his being vegan isn't just about him eating -- or not eating -- particular foods. He really walks the walk.

I've created a line of fused dichroic glass animal pendants, for which all of the proceeds will benefit Broome Animal Sanctuary. I'd made a series of African and wild animal pieces, but Chris, as well as Rhea from Woodstock Reveries, had both suggested that I do something with farm animals. So I found these adorable decals featuring pigs, cows, ducks, horses, etc. and turned them into these pendants:

So far, that psychedelic pig is the favorite! I love the pig, but I also really like the colorful chickens. I didn't decorate all of the pieces with crystals, but tried to adorn the pendants to fit each animal's personality. The pig already had so much color with that tie-dyed background that it didn't need a wire wrap, but chickens and roosters are "frilly" with their combs and feathers; that's why I added the wire wrap to their piece.

Christopher has described this fair as being a labor of love and it's the same for me with these pendants. It's taken a lot of work to make so many in time for this event, but I hope they do well in the auction -- and raise a lot of money for the farm. I'd love to visit there one day and actually meet the animals. Chris has promised to take me.

Meantime, I'm looking forward to learning more about veganism at this festival and to making some new friends. As I've said before, my jewelry is taking me on some interesting paths!

Check it out at Naomi's Designs and MayaGirl Creations.