Fused Glass Whale Sharks and Rays

Fused glass whale shark ornaments.

A school of whale sharks swimming happily across transparent turquoise sheets of glass. Whale sharks are the biggest species of fish in the sea and can have a mouth as wide as 5 feet across! These tiny specimens of the gentle giants were each painted by hand in my tiny workshop in Okinawa, Japan.

Painting the whale sharks with enamels.

My whale sharks and rays are created with Colors For Earth glass enamels. Each color comes in powdered form and is mixed with medium to about a melted ice cream consistency. I found it best to mix and apply these paints with tiny wax carving tools. It has taken some time to get used to applying the enamels in the right thickness to get an even color saturation. Dots are applied with a dotting tool and each ornament is fired in my fiber kiln to 1410 degF for a solid fuse and nice rounded edges.

My finished whale shark and spotted ray.

 

I created small whale sharks and spotted eagle rays perfect to hang in any window or on a Christmas tree.

Sharon Warren Glass | sharonwarrenglass | sharonwarrenglass.com | FluttterByButterfly | Sharon Warren Glass Artist

Fused Glass Ocean Waves Sea Water Scrap Glass SUNcatcher

Fused glass ocean waves suncatcher

When you live on a tiny island like Okinawa, you can see the water from almost anywhere. This inspires the way you live and definitely what you create. This fused glass sun catcher is created from organic layers of many shades of blue for an abstract reminder of the ocean the surrounds us.

Bullseye transparent glass in shades of blue

To make each glass wave, I carefully cut and arrange layers of transparent sheet glass in many cool shades of blue. The glass ocean is then heated in the kiln to 1375 degF to create a textured finish. Like any wave, each one is unique.

Fused glass waves before firing

Sharon Warren Glass | sharonwarrenglass | sharonwarrenglass.com | FluttterByButterfly | Sharon Warren Glass Artist

Okinawa Map Ornament Fused Glass Art

Fused Glass Okinawa Map Floating on a Sea of Blue

Spring in the military is PCS season, the time when everyone begins to move to their next duty station. PCS stands for Permanent Change of Station and it means saying good-bye to friends and hello to a new adventure. These Okinawa fused glass maps will help to celebrate time spent on island.

Painting the map with enamels. 

I hand paint each map of Okinawa on a square of Bullseye glass using specialty paints. These glass paints are purchased in powder form and mixed to just the right consistency. They will fire to a glossy finish when heated in my kiln.

Glass ornaments ready to heat 1475 degF in my kiln.

Once the glass paint is dry, I create a sandwich of two clear pieces of glass filled with a mix of crushed glass and glass powders in many shades of transparent blue. Each ornament is fired in the kiln to a temperature of 1475 degF.  After more than 13 hours, each sandwich becomes one solid piece of glass with the map of Okinawa permanently fused to the surface.

My finished Okinawa map. 

Happy moving season!

Sharon Warren Glass | sharonwarrenglass | sharonwarrenglass.com | FluttterByButterfly | Sharon Warren Glass Artist

Okinawa Whale Shark Spotted Ray Enamel Pained Fused Glass

A fused glass whale shark

We took a day and visited the Churaumi Aquarium on the north side of the island of Okinawa, Japan. We love to visit this aquarium and see the whale sharks and rays in the Kuroshio Sea exhibit through huge viewing windows. The spot pattern on a whale shark is unique to each one, like fingerprints for people.

Churaumi Aquarium in Okinawa

I want to create glass that is unique to Okinawa, so I decided to make a whale shark and a spotted ray. After creating the sketches, I cut out a plastic templates to transfer the images to glass.

Whale shark sketch

The next step was to cut out the complex shape on a glass ring saw. I could hand cut the piece, but there would be quite a bit of waste.

Cutting out a whale shark on a glass ring saw.

After cleaning the glass, I added the unique spot pattern with Colors For Earth enamels and set the whale shark on top of an ocean background created in a separate firing.

Adding the spot pattern with glass enamels 

I also created a spotted eagle ray so the whale shark would have a happy friend to swim with!

A fused glass spotted eagle ray

Sharon Warren Glass | sharonwarrenglass | sharonwarrenglass.com | FluttterByButterfly | Sharon Warren Glass Artist

How To Make a Cherry Blossom Sakura Flowers Fused Glass Painting

Delicate cherry blossoms in transparent and opaque shades of pink bloom on a painted branch.

Fused Glass Cherry Blossoms Floating on a Sky of Glass

This glass painting was inspired by a photo taken in Kyoto Japan of cherry blossom trees being pruned. My husband took this picture in March at the beginning of cherry blossom season in Mainland Japan. In Okinawa, where we live now, cherry blossom season is in January.

Workers pruning cherry blossom trees in Kyoto Japan.

The sky is a gradient in shades of blue enamels painted on a piece of white Bullseye sheet glass. I tried for loose brush strokes to create lots of soft movement. To create the branch, I used different shades of brown for the striations and shading on the bark. After the enamel was set, I added blooms made from Bullseye crushed glass in both opaque and transparent glass. The glass painting was then heated in the kiln to 1475 degF for a full fuse.

The sky painted with enamels. 

The tree branch painted with enamels and sprinted with frit.

After the first firing, I added more Bullseye crushed glass so some of the flower blooms would be raised and add texture to the finished piece. I then re-fired this glass painting to soften the edges of the frit for a slight contour fuse.

Adding more frit before a second firing.

I love how the the layers of petals give such depth against the painted blue sky. I hope this fused glass painting of the cherry blossoms blooming helps to capture the moment.

Sharon Warren Glass | sharonwarrenglass | sharonwarrenglass.com | FluttterByButterfly | Sharon Warren Glass Artist