Having a Summer Fiesta? Brightly Striped Serving Dish in Fused Glass Will Make the Party

Fresh from the Omega Glass Kilns comes this new fused glass divided tray with 39 stripes of bright colors. Shades of Orange, Blue, Green, and Yellow create a feeling of warm summer afternoons, family gatherings, and backyard barbecues. 

 Fully fused and slumped, this divided tray is food safe and washable. Handmade in our Seattle studio by Judy Macauley; signed for authenticity.

To purchase this tray or order a custom piece, go here:
Etsy shop

Sometimes I Go Mosaic-Crazy!

I've always loved mosaics, from the floors of ancient Pompeii to the walls of Seattle's bus tunnel. I used to create mosaics from broken plates. Now, I create them in fused glass. This is much better--no grouting! Enjoy.

Evolution of an Idea in Fused Glass Spurred By, "What Do I Do With Bits of Glass?"

I love our customers! They look at our work and get ideas that push us into new realms.

It all started with a simple tile I made when I piled up hundreds of bits of colored glass on a 4" clear glass. When I took it out of the kiln, Wendy and I both said, "Cool."

Then I thought, "If that looks good, then I'll bet it will look good as a bowl!" And it did! So I named this line, "Anything Goes."

Weeks later, an etsy customer contacted us. Could we make her an oval for her fireplace mantel in the same style? Yes, we could! And did! And IT looked cool.

So I tried it with a little bit of design, using orange, yellow, and blue frit swirled in the middle. (Truthfully, I did this because I was running low on glass bits, but I had jars of ready-made frit.) Thus I created "Starry Night."

Recently, a woman from Connecticut contacted me and asked if I could make her a piece similar to "Starry Night," but as an 18" platter. Whew! That's big! Her plan is to mount seven bowls/platters on her stairwell, kind of like bubbles (she said). When I opened the kiln to my fused 18" circle, we all stood around and said, "Wow. That's big." We liked it. We saw future table tops in it. We saw possibilities.

I slumped that bad boy into a platter, and now it is "Super Nova Explosion." My customer received it the other day, loves it, and is going to send me a photo when her installation is complete. And that's my story.

Mosaics in Fused Glass? Beautiful!

We love mosaics! Whether they are on the wall of an ancient Pompeiian villa or on the floor of a Seattle Banana Republic, mosaics appeal to something deep within us.

Using bits and pieces of fusible glass, I create my mosaics by carefully fitting together the pieces like solving a jigsaw puzzle. The colors need to coordinate, the shapes need to be interesting, and most of all, I need to be patient. The "grout" is really very finely ground glass called "frit."

Sometimes, I enjoy adding surprising details to my mosaics. The bowl above has bright lines of colored glass called stringer placed randomly on top of the mosaic.

The bowl to the left includes round dots of glass and a mix of translucent and opaque glass pieces.

The bowl below features stringer in the shape of swirls on top for something really fun.

I don't think I'll ever stop making mosaics, and fused glass mosaics keep offering me more opportunities to play!

Visit some of our mosaics for sale on our etsy shop:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/OmegaArtDesign

Fused Glass Class Leads to Very Cool Art!

Every once in a while Wendy and I teach a fused glass art class. (We keep saying we need to do it more often.) One of the benefits to us is seeing what our students create. I have to say this bowl is one of my favorites.

This was made by a young woman who was fascinated by frit. She began with the canoe-shaped clear glass then began creating her design on top of it using orange, yellow, and blue frit. Then she put a sheet of clear glass on top and added the black swirls in more frit. She added the dichroic glass touches last of all.

This bowl took two fusings: the first, at 1485 degrees, fused all the layers into one solid piece, while the second fusing slumped the piece into the bowl.

All in all, a cool project that we would never have thought of! Yay students!