Thursday, October 27, 2011

What a Blast!

Tonight was the glass fusing class that I mentioned yesterday. If you're in the Sacramento area and want to try something fun, check out Gina Rossi and Rossi Sculptural Designs. She teaches classes in welding and glass fusing. Very cool! Let me tell you a little bit about it.

The class took place in the center of Gina's warehouse studio, and her sculptures surrounded us. Take a look at this metal and glass tree--


During class, we each made one large (i.e., tile sized) piece and two small jewelry pieces. There were samples of both to spark our imagination. Here are some of the larger pieces Gina showed us. As with these samples, we could chose to have our pieces formed into dish shapes.


Here are samples Gina showed us of a few pendants. (I'll tell you a little about the gal who owns the bandaged finger in this photo in a minute.)


All of the available glass supplies were arranged on tables so we could make our choices.


The plastic jars on the left side--the ones that look like they'd hold candy sprinkles--contained glass sprinkles. Some of the sprinkles were as fine as glitter and some jars contained chunkier pieces.


Here's my workspace--as defined by the Starbucks latte, right?! And the gal with the bandaged finger? She sat across from me and worked on a really stunning tropical floral piece. Unfortunately, she cut herself several times; hence, the bandaged appendages. For my larger piece, I made a stylized Christmas tree.


Once we were done with our pieces, they were carefully placed in the kiln. My Christmas tree will be formed into a square shallow bowl shape when it's fired.


When I showed the Wild Child the photo of all the pieces, she told me she could easily identify which were mine. Funny how she knows my style! Anyway, these are the "before" photos. I'll be able to pick up my pieces on Saturday after they've been fired and fused. I'll show you the "after" photos then. And yes, this is definitely something I'd love to do again someday!

6 comments:

  1. That is actually very cool! I would love to be given a chance to do something like that. I think I'd have too much fun. ha ha! :)

    Thanks for the share!

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  2. Wow, that looks like a lot of fun!

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  3. Ummmm How fun does that look! Unfortunately i would be the gal with the bandage(s) on her fingers! LOL I love that christmas tree and cannot wait to see the finished product!! You are just so creative! And I have to say of everything on that tray I think i like the tree the best!!!

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  4. You certainly got a lot done in your first class. You must have taken to it like a duck to water!! Can hardly wait to see the finished products, but probably not as much as you! (smile)

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  5. How exciting! Can't wait to see how they look after their kiln ride.

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