Glass Lightcatcher - Autumn Sunset

Autumn always feels like a time of new beginnings to me - probably stemming from my school days. I am looking forward to getting back into the swing of things - going to my evening classes, cosy evenings in with some craft, getting back into a routine. I'm particularly looking forward to going back to my stained glass classes, especially as I have FINALLY put the finishing touches at the piece I finished last term. It wasn't planned that way but the deep colours feel very Autumnal to me:

This is the first piece I have made incorporating fused glass into a leaded piece. It was a really good learning experience and I am definitely going to do this again. I'm having trouble getting a decent picture which really shows the rich colours (glass is SO difficult to photograph!) so here is a picture in front of a light box:

Each element of the glass was fused before being leaded up.

The pieces making up the sunset are coloured glass (purple, pink, amber) fused on top of iridescent glass - this gives them a lovely sparkly effect that can't really be seen on the pictures. In between the two layers I have used purple and amber frit (finely ground glass) to try and give the impression of the colours blending together. I think this is the part of the design that worked least well and I would probably change it I did it again!

The green glass was fused in different ways to try and give the impression of fields and give the piece some different textures. When fusing glass you can lay it on plaster in the kiln and any texture you put into the plaster transfers to the glass - this leads to some interesting effects.

I really enjoyed making this piece and it was really good to work with fused glass and find out the different challenges of leading it up. The main difficulty is that the glass changes shape (usually expands) in the kiln and this is not completely predictable so even a perfectly cut piece of glass may not fit the design after firing. The fused glass is also thicker than the glass normally used because several layers are fused together - I bought special lead to cope with this.

I haven't decided what to do for my next stained glass piece - I'd really like to do a big window but I don't really have any space in my flat for anymore. I think I'm going to have to get a friend or member of my family to commission me!

I hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Dotty xx

PS. Thanks for the sympathetic comments about my ankle "incident". I am on the mend and starting to hobble a little faster that before!