Fuzing glass

Have you ever fuzed glass? I hadn’t, but I recently took a class and found out how easy it is. Actually, getting out of South Minneapolis was harder than the class.

Artistic creativity, which is a big deal to me, has been sneaking in through the cracks of my busy life. In the last couple of months, I took a painting class and a glass pendant class, both through the blessing of Groupon discounts.

I had a hard time finding the host of the pendant class, Glass Endeavors, in South Minneapolis. It is on 31st Street in an unfamiliar area. I arrived on time, though I took a couple of wrong turns and guessed my direction. My guess work was pretty good coming in, but when I left, I took a tour through various neighborhoods as I meandered in a direction that I was hoping was west.

Anyway, the fascinating part of creating the pendant is the clear coat of glass is actually under the design. The grade of glass we used melts together in the kiln and the design slips underneath the clear glass.

You build the pendant in layers, with the bottom being the background color, and the clear sandwiched between that and the design. Spaghetti noodles of different colors create the straight lines, snips of glass tubes create the circles and crushed glass creates the small dots. There also are shards of different shapes and sizes to use in the design, or you can cut some of your own. You can layer various shapes and sizes of colored glass or make a simple one-layer design.

I had no idea what I wanted to create. The options were endless. After experimenting with a few different colors and abstract designs, I decided to design a tree of some kind. Who would have guessed? I used black spaghetti noodles for the trunk and branches, and green and gold crushed glass for the leaves, with a few gold leaves on the ground near the trunk. I will say, for an experiment, I think it turned out pretty well. If I were to do it again, I would add more crushed glass. Let me know what you think.

It only took an hour of the two-hour class, and I could have made more, but alas, the pocketbook dictated I stick with only one. I think it would be fun to take a few friends and spend the evening creating pendants.