Recent Fused Glass Jewelry

I started working with fused glass earlier this year and fell in love with it. While larger pieces give me more flexibility to create unique designs, jewelry gives me more immediate gratification.

It's difficult to photograph fused glass well, particularly the pieces that have dichroic glass in them. All of the pieces shown use dichroic glass as major elements in the design. Dichroic glass both reflects and transmits light resulting in shimmering multi-color surfaces.

The rightmost piece has bubbles in the glass, caused by air trapped in between the wavy dichroic segments and the straight dichroic "noodles" on either side. I didn't plan this - it just happened. The most fun and exciting surprises come out of the kiln! Often, I learn an new technique this way.

Most of my fused glass jewelry pieces consist of 3 or more layers of glass, 1) a black or dark opaque layer, 2) 1 or 2 dichroic glass layers and 3) 1 or 2 clear glass layers. Many of them are fired in the kiln more than once, with the top layers added in a 2nd or 3rd firing. I use only sterling silver and fine silver pendant bails and ear wires because the quality is so much better than that of the silver-plated findings many of the glass vendors sell.