I love taking classes and with the economy being what it is, I haven’t been able to take many lately. But I couldn’t resist the Stained Glass Pendant class offered at The Beading Place in Tustin, taught by Katie Casey. I know Katie from The Bead Society of Orange County and I knew I’d have a good time and learn a ton.
Here are my two fledgling creations (1 1/2" x 1 1/2"):
They are basically designs stamped on glass, then embossed and colored with alcohol inks. When that process dries, you add another piece of glass to protect the color and solder them together. Sounds easy, huh? Hmmm… Yeah, after a lot of hard work and practice!
I did the pumpkin first and by the rule of beginners luck, this one came easy. It is by no means perfect (too much scattered black embossing, uneven color) but the process went smoothly. The heart, one of my fave themes, gave me endless problems. Moral of this creative story: make sure the embossed lines are intact~untact lines let paint spill out into other areas of the work… Also, be more gentle with the paint bottles or the drop you’re trying to let fall on the glass will be the size of Denver…
When I signed up for this class, I thought it was the charm class, which is similar but uses paper collage instead of stamping/painting, which I‘ve been doing for some time. To be honest, what I really wanted to take the class for was the soldering portion. I haven’t soldered in over 30 years and even then, they just threw a soldering iron at me and said, fix this… It wasn’t a skill I could claim. So learning the stamping and painting process was a huge bonus. I’d always wanted to play with alcohol inks but never had occasion to try them. And I have a stash of 300 rubber stamps and a heat gun from the 80’s, when The Husband and I were into stamping and card making. So I’m all set, whether I want to stamp or do collage.
August 24 Addendum: My friend, Deborah, loved the heart pendant so much, I gave it to her! It was a real boost to me that she liked it so much :-)
Oh, and don’t forget Bear Chick’s Blog Contest. Go to my Etsy shop (http://bearchick.etsy.com), tell me in a comment to this blog which piece in my shop is your favorite and have a chance to win the Orange Blossom Anklet.
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