Glass Stuck in Mold

I am not having a very good studio day. I was fusing this neat heart shaped pendant and the glass got stuck in the mold - mainly due to my neglecting to put kiln paper in the bottom of the mold even though I had kiln washed it. Now I can't get the darn thing out. I have pried and prodded and tapped but no luck. I now have it in the kiln upside down reheating it and hoping for the best. At this point I just want to save the mold. If anyone has any suggestions as to what I can do, please let me know. I have never had this happen before.

What Type Are You?

What Type Are You?

Hearts for Haiti

"Hearts for Haiti" is a collective formed by a number of Etsy artists who have donated items to be sold for the Haiti earthquake relief effort. One hundred percent of each sale minus the Etsy fee and PayPal fee will go directly to "Doctors Without Borders" for the victims of the disaster in Haiti. This is truly a worthwhile effort. Please consider donating or purchasing an item from this shop. You may visit the shop at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/HeartsforHaiti.

Just in time for Valentine's Day but can be worn all year. You can view this pendant in my Etsy Shop.

I belong to the Handmade Artists Forum (HAF) and each week we are spotlighting one of our members. Our HAF Etsy Street Team member spotlight this week is on LauraDaGoddess. For more information go to: http://www.facebook.com/LauraDaGoddess

This has been a special day. I got to meet for the first time, an internet friend and fellow glass artist from Washington State. LaWatha Wisehart and her husband were camping in south FL along with their cairn terrier named Bailey and their golden retriver named Casey. They stopped by to visit and Bailey and Casey met Zoe, my cairn terrier. It was so nice to be able to meet in person after getting to know one another online. This is one of the true rewards of social networking.

To see more of LaWatha's glass work, visit her at http://www.lawatha.etsy.com

I just listed this "Kandinsky" inspired pendant in my Etsy shop this weekend. It is much more striking than my photographs show - I have the darnest time trying to photograph glass and have never had any luck using a "light box". I use natural light and hope for the best.

My daughter, Ann Scott, and I have collaborated on the necklaces shown in both of my shops. She designs and does the beaded work and I do the fused glass pendants/brooches. This "pot melt" style pendant necklace is one of my favorites click here

Frazzle Broochs

I have made a series of brooches/pins that were designed to bring a smile to the face of all those who wear or see them. They are made from bits and pieces of leftover dichroic and opaque glass and are all properly fused and annealed in the kiln. After cooling, various threads, yarns and fibers are added to make the "and you think you have a bad hair day". I have named these broochs "Frazzles" and hopefully they will make a frazzled day much less stressful.

Thoughts on 2010

I have been spending alot of time lately thinking about what I want to do as an aspiring artist in this next year. Some of them are pretty clear cut such as learning to drill a hole in glass and doing more work with glass frit. These will no doubt be challenging but the real challenge comes in learning how to market my work much more effectively.
One of my key problems is not knowing how to use the computer that well. I will try to do one thing only to discover that not only do I not know how to do it but I also don't know how to do several other things which would allow me to do the initial thing. Confused? Well now you have some idea how I feel. I get so frustrated and tired of trying to do something on the computer and not getting it to work that I just throw up my hands and quit. A case in point is how to get a mini-artfire set up and how to get various links and photographs on my blog. I want to make a special effort to get a blog up and going on a regular basis and I want to learn more about social networking in general. There is so much helpful information out there on how to do all of these things and I need to figure out a way to read and learn and experiment without throwing up my hands, pulling my hair out and quitting.
Another thing I would like to focus on is spending more time familiarizing myself with the work of other artists. There are so many talented and creative artists whose work interests and fascinates me. I try to post items of interest periodically on my FB pages but I would like to learn the mechanics of featuring other sellers on my blog. Again computer literacy is required.
Like everyone else I am faced with time constraints so becoming more focused, better organized and learning new skills needs to be addressed. It's going to be a busy year.