Stained glass window ornament

My show schedule has been wearing me out lately, and I decided to take a bit of time off to regroup and recuperate.

In addition to reorganization of my work studio, which slowly took over most of the lower level of our house and ended up being also a storage space for every craft imaginable, as well as a dumping ground for random odds and ends; I decided to take some classes which can be crossed off my “bucket list”.

Stained glass class is one of them. My main goal, in addition to trying something new and harnessing a new to me medium, was to learn how to apply stained glass techniques in my vintage glass button jewelry.

Some of the buttons in my stash are transparent, reverse painted or antiques made of fragile glass, and I had to find a different way to use them without risking damage and properly showing off their beauty.

I believe, that applying stained glass techniques with help me with achieving this goal.

The class I took at the Art League of Long Island was so much fun. I found glass much easier to work with than I anticipated. The truly hard part for me turned out to be soldering, which I figured initially would come naturally, since I have some experience with metalsmithing. I imagine, it will take a lot of practice and patience, but even though I can see every mistake I made while creating this lovely tulip suncatcher, I think, I did a pretty good job for my very first try;O)

I’m planning to take another class in the fall, which concentrates of applying stained glass techniques as well as fused glass techniques in jewelry making.

I’m planning to take another class in fall, which concentrates of applying stained glass techniques as well as fused glass techniques in jewelry making. 

Can't wait!