The Making of a Chandelier: Part 2

I need a bigger kiln. Of course I have been saying that for years already ... but this time I meant it. My chandelier design calls for 3.5" x 12" panels. So I went and bought myself an early birthday present. And then my fabulous husband built me a stand. This is true love right here folks:

glass fusing kiln and stand
My new baby! ProFusion 16

In addition to a bigger kiln, I needed to stockpile a lot of glass too. Heaven forbid that gorgeous stand my hubby built have any bare shelves. I filled it. And then some.

I knew I wanted color, texture, and movement in this chandelier. After a couple of prototype panels, I finalized the design. Now it was just a matter of building the individual glass panels. All 20 of them.

In order to keep the overall structure lightweight, I went with single layer panels. Glass naturally wants to be 6mm thick, so in order to keep it 3mm I chose to break all the rules: I tack-fused and slumped all in one firing. Cue the shock and horror.

glass panels on slump mold
rule breaker! fuse and slump together

textured fused glass panels
panels ready to fire

The result was exactly what I wanted. Check out all that wonderful texture!

closeup fused glass panel texture
color and texture up close


Two down ... 18 to go. Stay tuned for the finishing touches and big reveal to come ...

See Also: The Making of a Chandelier: Part 1

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