The same enamel on soft glass & borosilicate glass!! decals!

I have been running tests on borosilicate glass with the enamel decals I create.  The depth, and magnification properties of borosilicate create an entirely different language than what we are seeing with the soft glass beads.  Those trees are made with the exact same decal that was on my soft glass beads show in my last post here.

The tree itself is an excellent decal for borosilicate glass for many reasons.   The greens and blues do not burn out too easily because the oxides used in them hold up under high heat. The borosilicate glass appears to encourage the enamel mix to stay contained within itself.  The oxides are not sinking and spreading into the clear boro.  This sinking and spreading I get with softer glass tends to fade out the image.

I am very impressed about the magnification of the borosilicate glass.  To the right of the tree (on the ND photo) you can see the legs of a figure.  The way the edges of the pendant are curved, creates this natural accurate perspective of a shadow.  This is a tool I can use in my landscape work to create depth.

(Discovering something that inspires more! (by accident))

Every color is made with a metal, and each metal reacts differently. I made some 1/2″ tall x 1″ wide “strips” of people dancing in the same direction, and some music notes to go with. I used some of my favorite color combinations. This last bead is planned to be an orange, green, purple combination. (My favorite; Discord!) Smaller blue people are dancing   Some of the figures are “melded” to the bottom of the pendant; some are on top.  (The base glass is borosilicate glass.) The colors are brightened when you look through the glass to the image on the other side.

I am beginning a pretty big library of color possibilities with the borosilicate glass.  It is still always going to be a surprise to some extent. Each color batch is similar, but it is almost impossible to make the exact same color. You just never know what part of the world these elements come from, or what they have been through.

One of my favorite parts about making art, is seeing what happens. I very rarely have an exact image in my head when I sit down to create. I enjoy what Nature brings.  Check back for my next blog to see how my husband’s lily photographs meld to both boro and soft glass. (Something to look forward to!)

And! Did you know decals are older than paper? …interesting.

Sheila Morley is an Artist working in Southeast, Michigan.