USA

June '19. My buffer is officially six months past the actual creation of the thing. This sucker doesn't photograph well, but it's got this lovely twisty clear/red/blue glass icicle I lampworked, as well as red/white/blue glass around it, and mirror. Here it is in a few lightings. Kudos to my coworker for the dark photography. Happy New Year's Adam!

Genders--in progress

May '19. To look at my phone, apparently all I did throughout April was watch hockey.
Anyway. These are going to represent different genders, intended to show the wide spectrum of nonbinary. Pure girl is pink with pink glass. Pure boy is blue with blue shell. Everything else varies, sometimes subtly, sometimes not. At some point I'll put them on some sort of framework. Happy Christmas Adam!

Genderqueer, girl, boy, demigirl

Agender. My own gender. Yellow with dichro plastic. Bigender and a different kind of nonbinary visible in the corners.

Glass dinosaur

March '19. Dinosaur made out of blown glass that was supposed to become a christmas ornament, but developed a hole. Fun fact: If a glass bubble has a hole in it, no amount of blowing will make it expand. I bent over the point to make a long neck and attached legs and a tail instead.

Showing off his lovely scales

Volcano--in progress

February '19. Placed on hold for months after the fact, not done as of writing this post (Sept. 30).
This isn't exactly the first time I used lampworking in a piece--that honor goes to the waterfall, which is shell on the bottom and clear/blue borosilicate glass worked in the flame until it was the right shape. This is just little stringers of red boro, laid against the wood to make them the right shapes, and also setting the wood on fire. I had to use a whole system to keep straight which one went where.

Fire

The fire doesn't photograph well, so have a few shots.

Pangolin

Figured out with the waterfall to use clay over foil to make bases. Best idea.

Fire--in progress

June-August '19. I spent a good section of my stained glass class on this.

Planning out how the flames would go with a pseudo-pattern

Gluing in the lights

Looking good!

This photo was taken so I would remember where all the pieces went.

I wash the numbers off as I glue them down.

Green snake--in progress

Green snake! The theme of this one is celebrating your flaws. February '19-ish.

River nightlight

Pangolin--in progress

This is supposed to be another variation on a fire nightlight, but my mother dubbed it a pangolin for reasons unknown and it's just become easier to call it that. It's balanced on a paint bottle. February-May '19ish.

River nightlight--in progress

August '19.
Allegra: I'm using the fire as a nightlight. I keep having to change the batteries though.
Me: What do you want for a new one
A: My favorite color is blue.
I cannibalized a blue vase for the glass, painted it and the wood, and ran Christmas lights through it.

The glass

The wood--prettiest thing I ever painted

Finally bought myself a ratchet/clamp, coming in handy here

Close-up of how they fit together

Used the rest of the lights for leaves on a tree. Painted the edges of the glass to make them safe.

"Trophy"

The idea behind this one is that it used to be beautiful, and then someone killed it and stuck it up on a plaque, most of the scales sloughed off, silver blood still staining them.

FINALLY hanging on the wall

Detail of the glass work

"Trophy" in progress

Started in ~February '19, completed in September of the same year. This sucker was difficult. I painted it and glued down the pieces with the intent to solder the seams, learned how to solder, and pulled them all up. Then I wrapped them all with foil (took me about 3 episodes of Supernatural), glued them to a piece of foil wrapped around the wood so they'd keep their shape as I soldered, and actually did the soldering. Then I pulled it off the foil so I could tin the edges, stuck it on the wood, melted the seams until it took the shape it had somehow got out of, and glued it down. Whew. Then just to mount to the wood and stain the wood (yes I know, should have done it the other way around, I was having trouble with the stain and didn't think it was going to happen). And of course initial it.

Original work--all of this had to be redone

Solder job!

Attached

Woodburned initials!

Next week, the finished product.

Blue snake

Snek!

That rock took some DOING. It's foam with about four layers of paint on it.

Blue snake--in progress

Jan-Feb '19. snek had to be propped up in order to paint and glue it. Natural bark left unpainted. The idea is it's shedding a skin to reveal the glass scales. I do a lot of sneks. Wood lends itself to the shape, funnily enough.

Propped up on a convenient piece of wood

Now on a box of Van Gogh glass, and duct taped

Moon

It's intended to be looked at in the center of a room, so it can be walked around.

Left side--glass

Right side--shell

What it looks like head on

Moon--in progress

Dec 18-Jan 19
Laying out the glass/shell first to see how it would look, then having a lot of trouble getting the pieces to stay together long enough for it to dry.

Glass, just looks like shell

Held down with a heavy-duty clamp

just straight up duct taped it

#ShutDownDC

I feel like this isn't getting a lot of coverage in my area of the internet, but we did in fact shut down DC via gridlock on the 23rd in protest of climate change.