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| A finished fused glass abstract landscape in mini. |
I love to create landscapes and cityscapes. When I begin a project, I usually start with a reference photo from a favorite place, but for my abstract landscapes I worked from memory. I hoped that maybe not beginning with a specific image would help me create a more abstract universal image of the landscape I was imagining.
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| My watercolor sketches for a fused glass abstract landscape. |
My first step was to paint a few small watercolors and find the best place for my horizon, adding in distant islands and the rocky shore up close. With each iteration, I came closer to the colors and layers I wanted. I tried more greens and thought about some colors opposite blue on the color wheel but decided the yellows of the spring green were too bold. Looking at the finished little watercolor sketches, I wished for the cooler tones of blue and purple.
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| Bullseye glass in shades of blue and purple. |
My next step was to find the glass palette I wanted to use. I opened my bins of Bullseye glass sorted by color family and found the shades of turquoise and sky blue that paired well with the lavender and plum. After I cut my base clear base glass, I added a metal ring for hanging.
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| Fused glass abstract landscapes in progress. |
I still couldn't settle on a completely cool palette, so I created 2 versions to play with the tones. It took longer than expected to place the fiddly little bits and I become too focused on each piece. Reminding myself that this was just an abstraction, I added a second layer of color.
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| The glass layers of an unfired fused glass abstract landscape. |
Layering transparent glass can create different results, like a third color, a greater color saturation, or a dilution of an area for more transparency. These effects really show after firing in my kiln. All the layers are fused together when the glass is heated to 1375 degF, but you can still feel the contours of each piece.
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| Firing my abstract fused glass mini landscapes. |
I tried to avoid creating too much detail with tiny bits of darker glass or any complementary colors that might draw your eye to any specific place. I wanted the horizon and the shore to be the only focal points in the finished tiny abstract landscape.
Sharon Warren Glass | sharonwarrenglass | sharonwarrenglass.com | FluttterByButterfly | Sharon Warren Glass Artist
