There was a nasty storming hitting the southeast coast of Florida on the same day of my second fused glass class, but I was determined to go. I drove through the lightening and heavy rain, ready to make my first fused glass creation. When I arrived, I found I was the only pupil who decided to brave the storm. So, lucky me received a private class that night.

Stephanie explained her suggestion for my first project – making a color graph. Okay, this wasn’t the wildly inventive art I was planning to make, but, as she went onto explain the reason for her suggestion, it made sense. In her campaign to "know your glass," she recommends also getting comfortable with the various colors of glass. These colors can look different depending on the light you view them in or the temperature and length of time they are heated in the kiln. Too often, beginning students are unaware of how the colors will turn out when they make something. Instead of making each project a guessing game, the color graph can be used as a reference piece when planning out a design.

Stephanie urged me to use my imagination. So, I decided to pretend I was a painter and make a picture with the glass. She handed me some clear glass (about 6 x 6 inches) and introduced me to her "freebie" scrap box. I got busy picking out as many colors as I could find.

As I cut, ground (using a grinding machine), and pasted little glass pieces onto the clear glass, I felt like I was in kindergarten. Remember the joys of finger painting? That’s what it felt like.

A note about gluing: Though there is glue available for fused glass, it takes awhile to dry. For projects such as this one, regular white glue works fine and dries more quickly. Just a little is needed. The glue is only helping you put your pieces in place. It doesn’t have anything to do with the fusing of the glass.

I left my first creation at the glass studio to be fired. After looking at various finished pieces throughout her studio, I decided on keeping the 3-D effect. I like to feel the different layers of glass. And, ta da, here it is:

Okay, maybe it’s not even worthy of my refrigerator. But, I learned a lot doing this project. Not only did I become more familiar with the different colors of glass, but I also did a lot of cutting and grinding, which, in turn, made be feel more comfortable handling glass.

Color graphs are a nice way to start with fused glass, and there is still a lot that can be done with color graphs. They can be turned into a pendant. Larger graphs can be glued onto the back of a barrette. Cabs could be created using the color graph idea also. Well, you get the idea.

All graphics created by Tammy Powley.

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