Welcome

Welcome to my Blog. I am always trying to find new and unique ways to express myself through my glass. My work has evolved into my favorite item; pet cremation remembrance pendants. This is where I permanently fuse ashes between layers of glass. My most recent creation is my sepia - pictures in glass, where I take a picture and fuse it into glass. I have also done a few remembrance items with people's ashes which turned out amazing.

My glass can be purchased on either of my two websites
http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/studio/addicted2glassfusion
and
http://www.etsy.com/shop/addicted2glassfusion

If you need something different, please contact me at
addicted2glassfusion@yahoo.com so we can discuss what you're looking for.

Enjoy my blog. Hopefully you'll find something that inspires you.


Some of my items at addicted2glassfusion.etsy.com

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

My 2012 reflection my 2013 goals


I'm not very good with social media and I'm a little challenged when it comes to all the different types of technology that are useful to crafters like myself.  One of my new favorites, is Pinterest.  I get a few more "recover webpage" error messages than I'd like when I'm on the computer, so I use my phone mostly to view and post on my board.  I have less chance of being kicked out from my phone.  Not sure why that is.  It's a little frustrating, but I'm sure Pinterest will fix it at some point.  I'm sure most of you use it already, but I have to give a shout out and say thank you to Pinterest for coming up with the most useful tool I can use.  It's easy and I can put everything together in one place.  My favorite category is, OF COURSE, fused glass.  I have been able to look at other people's art and save it to my board for inspiration.  There are so many talented people out there.  Of course I'm posting some of my work and directing people back here to my blog, so it's a win, win in my book. http://pinterest.com/addicted2glass/ is my link for my pinterest if you are interested in taking a peak at my likes.  Of course the name is a little different because it took my login addicted2glass from my Twitter name and Twitter only allows a certain number of characters so it doesn't exactly match my business name Addicted2glassfusion.  Like I said before, I'm a little challenged, but I'm hoping to change the name eventually if it's possible to be my full business name.

In this blog, I wanted to reflect on 2012 a little and what my plans are for 2013

2012 was a great year for me in getting my fusing skills more tuned in.  I am getting more organized with my firing notes and trying to keep pretty good logs of what works and what doesn't.  I was disappointed with how my craft shows did and the amount of time I spent making things, setting up for craft shows, taking stuff down and all the in-between work.  The economy here in Reno is not what it's been in the past. At this point I am going to skip most, maybe all craft shows in 2013.  I did fairly well at 1 of the events and there was heavy traffic at another one.  I will decide at a later time if I want to do one or both of these again.  As it was this summer/fall, I did 4 craft shows this year and it did not pay off.  Unfortunately, the McQueen craft show was a bust for me.  I purchased 2 tables in a prime location and the traffic was not there.  McQueen, unfortunately did not have the amount of people that have been there in the past.  I am going to visit there next year as a customer and see if next year is any better.   I did visit a few other events this year and saw that there was traffic, but people weren't buying a lot.  So, for the upcoming year, I am going to focus on my online websites artfire and etsy and have a little more fun making some items for my home.  In the past I've focused so much on making stuff for other people, so now I want to have some fun and play with some ideas and start adding more art into my own home.

A few of my favorite items I recently made are shown below.  This was the first time I used glass frit and made bowls with them.  They are truely awesome.  I made a variety of colors and I think I may put them in my kitchen to use.  I also used glass frit to make my first wall pockets which are very pretty.  I was a little nervous to make them and everyone loves them.  I haven't sold any online, but I'd like to get some bigger pieces made to offer to my customers.


Pinned Image
Fused glass platter and matching bowl.  The platter is really large.  It took so many firing steps.  First I had to fuse the bottom part into bricks, then I used my saw to cut them into this design.  My next step was to lay the platter out and fuse it.  The final step was to slump it into a mold to get the shape.  It is truely amazing and a work of art.  Looking back on it, I would say, I spent a good 17 hours making this platter, maybe more.  What a beauty it is in person.  I'm so in love with it, I'm not sure I can part with it.  I would love to sell it, hmm, we'll see.  Maybe you'll see it on my etsy or artfire site. 

The bowl at the top matches so perfectly too.  I used the same colored glass so that I could have a matching set.  The bowl turned out so fun, that I think I might make a few sets and sell them in groups.

Pinned Image
I made two of these wall pockets.  One had a deep chocolate brown glass around the edge and this one was made with the blue color.  As you can see this matches the bowl and platter perfectly.  This was given as a gift to my friend for Christmas and it matches her new house colors.  The other one was sold to one of my favorite customers that visited me at the McQueen craft show.

Here are the two links to my Pinterest site if you want to see some other artist's work as well as a few more of my items.
http://pinterest.com/pin/211174954543892/
http://pinterest.com/pin/211174954543883/

My next exciting pieces were my two beautiful potmelts.  A potmelt is where you put a bunch of glass in a bowl, raise it above the board below and melt the glass at higher temperatures than most other glass until they become liquid and basically pour out of the bowl onto the board below.  I have to say, they turned out so amazing I am definitely going to try them again.  I had a few problems setting them up, but once I really thought about what I was doing, I went for it.  Here's the link to my Pinterest site with these two bowls. http://pinterest.com/pin/211174954543870/. 

Pinned Image

The one on the right was supposed to be much more green than it turned out, but that didn't matter, it is beautiful.  The one on the left was made with a lot of fuschia and purple glass, but it turned out more blue than I thought.  What I learned from this technique, is to have fun.  It'll be a surprise so just go with it.  I can't wait to make a few more.


I just purchased some new colored nail files. They are perfect for my fused glass. I had a few mosaic pieces that were the perfect size, so I attached them and they are so striking. I already have 3 people in mind for them, so I will be working on more in the near future to sell on my etsy site.Pinned Image http://pinterest.com/pin/211174954554874/
Looking forward at 2013, I'll take a step back and re-evaluate my etsy and artfire shops.  Some of my pictures could be a little better.  I have taken some photography classes and I've been trying out my new methods so my pictures have improved quite a bit.  Another goal I want to achieve it my packaging. I'd like to give another shout out to Pinterest. I have found and posted so many ideas about packaging to my Pinterest board, I can't wait to start playing with some new ideas.  I ordered some new gift bags and boxes online. I received my new Paw Print bags that I can't wait to start using with my local vet customers when I finish their pet memorial pendants.  The bags are white with big black paw prints and I will put black paper inside to decorate it further. They are going to be super cute. I will post a picture when I have a little more time. I also ordered some colored boxes (turquoise with brown and dark brown with light brown. They are the perfect size for 1 pendant.  I will post some pictures when I have time to play with the packaging.

Two items I'd like to try to make are some large flowers for my wall and boiled glass.  When I have some new items to show you, you'll be the first to know.  Just keep checking back to see what's new.  I think you can also be added to see when I post something new.

I hope if you're another fuser, my information is useful or gives you inspiration.