I decided to make this for someone who has a lot of trials in thier life lately. They have often joked with others about things being a dumpster fire, so I felt this was very applicable. I threw together the design by looking at some images of dumpsters and then added some flames to the top. It was a fairly quick pattern to put together. I like the simplicity of it. 

Building it probably took about 4 hours. The glass was all extra pieces that I had on hand already.  I would say the difficulty level is easy, with the only small pieces being the little "loops" on each side for when the truck comes to scoop it up. 

I wrapped the piece with hobby came to give it extra support, although it was small enough that it seemed pretty stable without it. I also added a couple of supports to the back so that it will be free standing in a windowsill without needing a stand. 

Approximately 19 Pieces. 6 inches by 6 inches. 

I have seen many of these style of pieces, usually they are with Cardinals. I cannot claim the pattern as my own concept, but I did take an existing free pattern and heavily modify it. I did this piece as I wanted to add something with a winter theme to my glass collection. The changes I made include including Eastern Bluebird and modifying trees and branches, which is quite a few changes considering the simplicity of this piece. 

In the western state where I live, we only get Mountain Bluebirds in the summer, and they are hard to spot. The Eastern Bluebird is common in the beautiful deciduous of the eastern states. They often stay year round and can be seen in the winter, long after the leaves have fallen from the birch trees. I think the asthetic is beautiful and makes a great glass design that would look good in any mountain or forest home or cabin. 

The clear glass is a texture that allows light through, but does a good job scattering it. I think it gives an illusion of a cold winter type setting. The glass for the trees is an Oceanside white/medium amber. I picked it up at a local shop near Norfolk VIrginia. I though it worked perfectly as a color and texture that fits birch or aspen style trees. 

Many of the lines on the trees, resembling the black bark "scars" that these trees have, were created used copper tape and solder. It helps give the added dimesnion of depth. 

17.5 x 12 inches, 87 Pieces, ZInc border with decorative hooks for window hanging. 

 I decided to take a short break from a larger piece I am building to create a fun little dragon. It was a simple and fun little project, something that took me just a few hours after work for a couple of days. It was actually a great use for some scrap glass that I had leftover from a previous project. The red is a water glass with a very wavy texture and you can see it clearly in the light. (I was happy to use up the rest of the water glass, as it is NOT easy to cut). The wings are made from some glass I got in a pack that was VERY ugly, but made for great wings on a dragon.

The end result is this cute little Suncatcher that looks really neat in the sun. I plan on hanging this guy in my window by my mid-life crisis alien.

42 pieces. 7 inches by 7 inches. 

If interested, I am selling the pattern for really cheap on Etsy as a fun and more simple project. 

My biggest piece up to this point by far! Took 2 months to complete. That doesn't include the two weeks I worked on this complicated design  I decided that I prefer medium size pieces, a bit smaller than this. At least for now.

This was a huge project. Due to its size, I had to use the more sturdy Zinc came for the first time. That was a learning curve. Especially cutting it. And messy!

The colors of the sun changed drastically during the making of it. Originally it was a brighter yellow sun with orange and yellow rays. But, by the time I began foiling the pieces, I decided I need to have a sun that draws less attention. I also had a design that included clouds, but I decided it was too busy  

The variety of colors and cuts in the tree itself lends to a really neat texture look. It seems to give it an older, rustic style tree design. I purposely decided to leave the size of the leaf pieces smaller, to give it more depth and character, and still make the colors symmetrical, yet a whole variety of greens. 

It is a beautiful, striking piece. 286 pieces. 23 inches by 23 inches. 

Used over 3 pounds of lead solder. Approximately 15 hours of copper foiling, 10 hours glass grinding, and 18 hours of soldering/finishing. Along with cutting, layout, design, polish, and cleaning! Whew! 

The pattern for this piece is available in my shop in the link above. 

This was a quick and fun project. I made this for my wife for Valentines Day. The red glass was the absolute worst to work with. It was slightly thicker, with a wavy texture, and more expensive the most of the glass I have used. That red glass fought me, and probably got more red from the cuts it gave me along the way! I ordered some brass rods to use as the stem and figured out how to tin and patina them. In the base, I chipped a lot of extra green shards that I had laying around from other projects. 

I do love how it turned out.  It was a hit, and it made excellent use of an Kauri Wood dish I had made 29 year earlier, when I was in New Zealand. The Kauri Wood was leftover scrap from a designer shop, and a local with wood working equipment allowed me to experiment and make it for fun. I have had it sitting around in storage ever since, and it has become a great base. 

The smaller heart piece, with chipped glass was actually something my wife requested for Valentines, so I was a bit busy for this holiday. She originally requsted something like a heart mosiac, but I am not very experienced with those, so I made my own twist on it. 

The heart is cut and soldered into the larger piece of clear/white streaky glass. Then I chipped a variety of scrap glass shard colors and weld bonded them to the heart. I made sure it was several layers deep. Once the weld bond dried, I scraped the excess glass away that hadn't stuck. (reminder to self -- use glass gloves next time. Ouch).