Pendant Project No. 2

Here is another project that I am working on for a friend. She liked the blue dichro pendant that is featured in the Plum Wild Glassworks+ slide show -- upper right corner of this blog. That pendant sold a couple of months ago. It is hard to duplicate a pendant made several months ago, but I happened to have another one that was made the same day. I did not like the look of the pendant after doing a wire bail. At last, there was a good reason to rework the entire pendant.



Since I drilled a hole in the glass, I had to come up with a new idea to use the same pendant for my friend while at the same time satisfying myself.



I decided to break it up. One problem, though, it was so thick that it was next to impossible to break along the score line. As you can see, out of desperation, I put the glass in a workshop vice, tightened until I thought the pliers would break, held my breath, kept tightening, and the glass finally broke as shown in the photo below.


My friend not only wanted a pendant but also wanted earrings, and if possible, a ring. I used the grinder to shape all the pieces; you'll notice the dull edges. One of the nice things about glass is you can do what is called a fire polish at a temperature lower than a full fuse and the grinding marks go away.
Viola! This is what you get after doing a fire polish. The sides are rounded, smooth and "glassy." :D Pay no attention to the dark spots in the pendant; it is just the way the light hits some of the dichro. I tried editing the dark spots, but it looked weird. The spots are not there when looking directly at the pendant. It is quite a challenge photographing pendants, and I haven't yet gotten it down nor have I become accomplished on my photo editing software.

The earrings are done with only the ring to be finished. I'll use the single piece of glass as a cabochon. I have the plan. It has been three or four years since I've done any silversmithing, so the ring is taking a little longer to finish. I just hope the plan works as I see it in my brain!

My friend is quite pleased with the pendant and earrings which is what matters. :D She is patiently waiting for the ring.

Until next time, God bless.

The Pendant Project

Some friends helped me out with a problem; and as a thank you for their time and suggestions, I made geometric pendants based on the dominate colors in their wardrobe.

I cut, glue, stack the glass, and place in a kiln to fuse the pieces together.

Using a six segment program, the kiln is ramped up to 1425 degrees and then cooled down to 100 degrees. When programing the kiln, particular attention is given to sufficiently cooling down or annealing the glass so stress fractures will not appear months or even years later.



Each pendant is capped with a piece of clear glass in a second firing, following the same type of six segment, ramp up and cool down schedule. The cap glass is slightly larger than the piece to be capped -- appears bigger in the photo than it actually is. While the second firing is in progress, I start on the bails.

I begin with a flat piece of 24 gauge silver, a ruler to set the width, and a scribe to mark a line for me to use when sawing then divide the strip into three bails.












After sanding the strips to get a straight edge, I wrap each strip around something that will give me an opening large enough for a jump ring and chain to go through. Next, the bails go into a tumbler filled with water, a few drops of Dawn liquid soap and stainless steel shot. After four or five hours in the tumbler, the bails come out smooth and shiny.


When the pendants come out of the kiln after the second firing, I use sandpaper to scruff up the silver bail so the epoxy will have something to adhere to and stick the bail on the pendant.

And that, dear people, is how I make fused glass pendants. :D

Until next time, God bless.

Adios, sayonara, and au revoir

Let's just say all the above plus a hearty goodbye to this week! The week started out well on Monday but then slowly descended into an almost disaster. :D



Venting for a hot water heater in 1984, the completion date on the house, is not sufficient for the newer hot water heaters. When I walked into the utility room Wednesday morning, a strong smell of something burning met me. In a nutshell, we needed another vent in the hot water closet to circulate the air so the fumes would go up the vent. Fortunately, a truly wonderful plumber, Jim Berry at Clearwater Plumbing in Driftwood, TX, was referred to me. He came within 30 minutes of my telephone call, identified the problem, completed the work, and best of all, at a reasonable price.



I bought a new printer the previous week and had all kinds of problems getting the software installed. I installed and uninstalled five times. I spent several hours online with tech support on Tuesday and Wednesday. Just when the sixth uninstall was about to be done, the computer went crazy. The computer has been acting up for a few days, but Wednesday afternoon the computer's performance became more and more erratic.



Again, I was fortunate in that a friend's husband told me it sounded like a virus. He made a disk of two programs that helped him fix his son's computer; but if I couldn't get the computer fixed, he would try this weekend. I drove 40 miles to get that disk. However, it was too late as the computer was on life support. I considered waiting until the weekend but made a call to Dell and was switched to Dell-on-Call. The computer was locked out of the Internet. So after approximately two hours on the phone trying to get around the connection problem, I had to do a restore to the day-one configuration. Again, sensing that something was going haywire on Tuesday with the computer, I copied of all data files to a stand-alone hard drive.



I must sing the praises of the Dell-on-Call tech support person. He was wonderful, patient, knowledgeable, and got me back up and running. I've heard of computer viruses, but never had one. And frankly, I always thought "we were on our own." I had no idea that Dell or any other computer manufacturer, etc., would walk you through the process. I originally called Dell to see what I could do if my friend's husband could not fix the computer this weekend.






So while the week was full of challenges, there were fortunate components in each challenge that minimized the inconvenience. The bright spot came yesterday, Friday. A local art gallery, Sol'stice Gardens, put my fused glass on display. He sold a pendant within 30 minutes after my leaving his office. My name will be listed when Chris, the owner, updates his web site on Sunday. I'll do a separate blog entry on this wonderful place.






Until next time, God bless.

Safety First

As I've mentioned several times, it has been three-four years since I've picked up a torch to fabricate a piece of jewelry. It is, therefore, understandable that I ran into problems with the equipment from an empty oxygen tank to a split oxygen hose to a leaking propane tank. All malfunctioning equipment is replaced and/or repaired and in good working condition. After connecting the propane and oxygen hoses, a soapy leak detector is swabbed on all connections - the gauge connection, the hose connection and even the opening and closing valve connection on the tanks. When the tanks are opened, bubbles will quickly form if there is a leak. If there is no leak, the next step is placement of the tanks.


Fuel tanks need to be securely anchored when placed under the work surface so the fuel hoses come from below, preventing an
accidental torching of a hose which, of course, can cause an explosion.

It is now a matter of getting your solutions ready. There is a solution of boric acid and denatured alcohol which is used as a pre-flux and offers some protection to the metal during the soldering process. There is another light acid solution in a crock pot that removes some of the gunk and oxidation on the metal after soldering. There is a solution of baking soda and water which neutralizes the acid solution in the crock pot, and then there is a simple water bowl for final rinsing.

This may appear involved, but after a few times, it comes naturally to dip, flux, solder, dip, dip and dip. lol Next up is the soldering process.

Until next time, God bless you.