Heart Workshop Successes on Valentine's Day 2019

I want to share with you some of the delightful Hearts that have been created in our Heart in Art Glass Workshops. There are some lovely stories that have come as a result of creative the workshop: no wonder I love my “job”.

As you can see, people come and make hearts in glass in all different colour combinations. Its a fun – and fast – workshop. Just 90 minutes long – but plenty of time to learn new skills and have fun!

After they’ve gone from the studio, I put the hearts which are sitting on the kiln paper on ceramic fibre board, and put them into the kiln. I don’t want the hearts to lose their lovely texture so I put it into a firing which is not too hot. If I did a hot fuse or a full fuse as we call it, the glass would all melt together and the heart shape would be lost.

Here’s a picture to describe what I’m doing at this point.

Close up image of a heart after its been “tack” fused in the kiln …

And this is what a thick piece of glass looks like when its been “full” fused.

So I “tack” fuse all the hearts in my kiln. After that I cut clear pieces of glass that fit perfectly inside the square box frame in the colour they have chosen. Mostly people choose white, but sometimes the black frame looks better given the colour combination they’ve used for their heart. This week I built a heart in a black frame and it looks simply stunning. Here it is!

at the end of the workshop before firing
after firing and ready for putting in its box frame
ready to be collected, ready to hang!

At the same workshop was a young man who asked if his art glass heart could be ready for him to collect on Valentine’s Day. This was certainly possible as its usually only one firing for the hearts. He had organized to come to the workshop and make the heart in the colours most loved by his girlfriend, and then give her the heart on Valentine’s Day.

Here he is building his heart in the workshop.