Sometimes Things Work Out Better Than You Expect

I never thought about making fused glass crosses. I love playing with colors and patterns, but shapes don't fascinate me nearly as much. When my mom called and asked me to make a cross for my sister to give to one of her bakery employees I told her I'd give it a shot. I really didn't expect to end up with anything that anyone would want to wear, but I didn't tell her that.

My first challenge was designing a cross that wouldn't turn out lumpy and blobby. The easiest thing to do would be to layer one piece of glass on top of the other, but I knew that would come out of the kiln with an interesting shape. Not necessarily the shape of a cross, but interesting. I don't have a saw in my studio yet, so trying to cut a single piece of glass in a cross shape was out of the question.

This left me with no other option but to cut small pieces and fit them together, like a puzzle. Ahhh, the challenge of symmetry! Making two things exactly alike is not one of my strong points, and a lopsided cross can't even be called interesting. After making 6 or so (not very good) crosses I created the one in the photo, and both my mom and sister love it! It's pink from some angles, and shifts to green and yellow at other angles.

In fact they like this cross so much they've been showing it off all over town. My mom's always been my best sales rep, and last night she called with a list of custom cross pendant orders. Can I make one with the same pink-to-green glass? And a purple one? Do I have any blue? So I'm headed into my studio to cut and piece more crosses. If I can manage to create a few extra I'll list them in my Etsy shop. Feel free to follow my mom's lead and put in your color requests!