First flowers.

Enameling. The art of fusing glass to metal. So much fun, and surprisingly time consuming. I'm starting out slowly. I think I'm mainly going to stick to smallish shapes, each one an experiment in color.

The colors. My goodness. The colors. The possibilities are endless. I want to try something new on each piece. Just to see what will happen. And learning with each experiment.

I have already learned several things. Like while a finished piece is quite sturdy, it's still glass. And if you drop it on a concrete floor it will chip. :p

And you have to sift about a bazillion layers and fire that many times to achieve a really nice finish. Okay. So it's not a bazillion, really more like ten times, but it feels like a bazillion when the whole time you're wondering if it will work, what will the colors look like? Am I finished? Could it use one more layer? I'm not patient at all. It's just that I want to see the colors!

And even when it's 50 degrees outside, sitting in front of the kiln is hot work. 1400 plus degrees! And the there's the particulate mask and the welders glasses. It's really a sexy look....

And before all that there's the sawing and refining of copper shapes. Would you do all this if you didn't love it?

So. This is the first batch of experiments in color out of the kiln. I had several pieces that didn't meet my standards. One pair of little bright pink hearts that were slightly burnt from over firing that my oldest said she wanted anyway. She's been wearing them as earrings non stop since I made them for her earlier this week. Another pair of hearts are just so, so, and she wants those too.

Except for the flower, the hearts all have a speckled sort of look about them. I can't help but think of the speckled Easter eggs I love to make every year. :). Like I said it's all an experiment....I wonder what will happen if I.........:)