Adding a Little Glitter to Life

Just a quick post to share one of my new favorite pieces.  I wanted to step up the content and interest level of my vases so I pieced together multiple glass components, fully fused them, and then draped them to form this glittery vase.

Yes, I used some iridescent blue glass along with my more traditional black and white opaques.  The blue and purple colors are actually the same glass.  One side has a thin metallic layer sputtered onto the surface of transparent blue glass (don’t ask me to explain sputtering – that’s actually a key process in my day job and I can wax eloquent for days).  I cut squares and other shapes from this iridescent blue glass and then fused some ‘face up’ and some ‘face down’ so the metal layer exposure varied.  When the metal layer faces ‘up’ it creates that glittery, metallic purple sheen.  Pretty snazzy!

Here’s another viewpoint of the vase.

When I did my first flat full fuse, I really focused on creating a geometric shape.  It was very satisfying and somewhat lucky that the second slump fuse allowed the melting glass to drape along the pattern.

I had to share these pics since I’m not ready to part with this particular vase and put it up for sale.  It gets a shelf in my house for now.