jewelry making

Fused Glass Ring

I got to spend a good chunk of last weekend happily playing around in a glass & metal studio. Squeeeeee! I ended up making this ring:

Glass Fused Ring with Silver bezel
I made this! 😀

It’s made of fused glass with a sterling silver bezel and ring band. And it’s a BIG honkin’ ring. I can’t help myself!

glassfusedringworn

I took a workshop at Nanopod, which is a funky little metal and glass studio on Harbord Street in Toronto. (Nanopod also offers taxidermy workshops in which participants learn how to stuff mice and birds and set them up in their own happily-ever-after little dollhouse-like dioramas. I took a pass on that one.)

Nanopod studio
Nanopod studio
glass_goodies1
Some fused glass goodies in the foreground, and sheets of glass, frit, and glass paint in the background.
glass_goodies2
Some glass fused goodies

Tosca Teran is the owner and resident metal and glass artist. She taught us how to cut glass and let us play around with sheets and rods of glass as well as “frit” (ground up bits of glass in various degrees of coarseness) and glass paint. It was super-fun learning about a new creative medium and experimenting with it. By the end of the Saturday session, our experiments were ready to go in the kiln for fusing:

glassfusing_before
My glass experiments, clockwise from top left: clear glass square with coral and pink frit, a corny experiment with a dolphin decal, a ginko leaf made using a stencil and some sparkly green frit, a “let’s see what happens when I stack some very thin rods on top of each other”, an oak leaf, another ginko leaf, an experiment with cut glass rods stacked on a clear base, and a bullseye motif that I hope will become a ring.

I joked with long-suffering husband when I got home that it’s possible I was bleeding to death without realizing it because I was probably covered with microscopic cuts, and I was sure invisible nano-particles of blood were exiting my body at a likely fatal rate. (Did I ever mention I’m a hypochondriac?) Anyway, presence of micro-cuts confirmed quite clearly later as I squeezed a lime for salad dressing. YIKES!

On Sunday (yes, I did survive the night; thanks for your concern), here’s what we found after Tosca had fused the pieces in the kiln for us:

glassfusing_after

I think my favourite is that pathetic shriveled orange thing up in the top right…so much for the thin glass rods experiment! None of them turned out particularly gorgeous but it was interesting to see what happens after fusing.

Glass bullseye: before and after fusing
Glass bullseye: before and after fusing
glassring_inprogress
The band ring has been formed (I never was good at perfect circles) and the bezel for the glass is in progress.
Tosca demonstrating how to solder the bezel. She didn’t want to be in the photo which is too bad because she’s got a ton of interesting tattoos.
Ta-DA!
Ta-DA!
There are a couple of tiny skull and crossbones on the back of the ring. IRL there is no pink on the ring; that's the reflection of the flowers in my garden where I was shooting these pics.
There are a couple of tiny skull and crossbones on the back of the ring which you can’t quite see cuz they’re out of focus. IRL there is no pink on the ring; that’s the reflection of the flowers in my garden where I was shooting these pics.

glassfusedring2

jill_Ring
And here’s the lovely Jill, who was also taking the workshop, with her ring creation

I really enjoyed playing around with glass (despite almost DYING in a freak lime juice accident), and would love to go back to try some more glass fusing now that I have some idea of the results to expect. Tosca is REALLY talented at it…I couldn’t believe the jellyfish pieces she did that look so realistic they’re like paintings, only she made them with GLASS. Which blows my mind. You can see one of them here in the Nanopod Etsy shop.  Also, do not dare miss out on looking at these SHOES. Shoes! SHOES! made with glass and reindeer hide featured on Nanopod’s homepage.

5 thoughts on “Fused Glass Ring”

  3. Huge gaudy rings and lots of dangerous fun sounds like a fab weekend. I rather like the turquoise and lime fused piece. I’m so glad you didn’t die horribly in a freak citrus accident!!!!!

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  5. This looks like so much fun!! Your ring turned out lovely:) I quite liked your yellow and turquoise art too. (also glad you survived.)

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