Handmade Glass Ornaments

The snow swirls outside and the stereo practically blasts Christmas music.  'Tis finally the season!  And I finally got around/was in the mood to "hang" my handmade blown glass ornaments!  They're not exactly hanging on our tree, but up high on one of our antique light fixtures so that cats won't find them...

My husband and I spent some chummy time together and took a hand blown glass ornament class through the community education program in our area.  (Did you read about the other glass ornaments I made??)  With torches and hot glass involved, I knew we were in for a good time!

The whole process was intimidating at first, but turned out to be very simple:

 

 We started with pre-fabricated glass tubes and added glass frit to them.

 

Using a torch, we heated the glass until the frit stuck to the edges and the glass glowed warm orange.

 When the glass tube was toasty warm, we blew into them and our little ornaments took shape!

 

It was so much fun, and they're really quick to make!  You just have to be patient while they cool. Now we have twenty unique glass ornaments to deck our halls with! 

Last Year's Snowflake Ornaments

Hurray!  Finally a moment to pull some Christmas decorations out of the attic!  The tree is assembled (yes, my husband firmly believes in the artificial, renewable, reusable and recycled from year to year tree), but it has yet to don the sparkles of Christmas.  So in order to soak in some Christmas cheer, I'm sitting in the living room, enjoying our two smaller trees.  Daylight illuminates the living room of our little bungalow through two bay window, but during the holidays at night, the windows each twinkle with their own mini Christmas tree! 

Thinking ahead last year, these came perfectly out of the attic this year with lights, tinsel and sparkles ready to plug in!  (Finally, something simple!)  When I find another spurt of decorating energy, I'm off to find the homemade Plexiglas ornaments that adorned them last year. 

My husband designed the snowflakes using CAD, cut them with a laser cutter, then spray painted them with a silvery metallic paint.  I tied them with red ribbon, then hung them all over these trees.  They added a homemade Christmas touch to the room, and everyone who came to our Open House Party last year got to take one home with them!

December Snow!

We're getting our first taste of December snow today!  It's starting the next months of winter weather off with a little more of magic than misery and is definetly more welcome than rain.  Luckily, I have nothing more to do than stay inside, warm and cozy, and day dream out the window at the falling puffs of white.

The snow makes me anxious to crawl into the attic for the Christmas decorations, but we have a couple home improvement projects to clean up first.  So for now, I'm going to focus my excitement on the glass fusion Christmas ornaments I finally got back from the kiln!

I love the way they came out and am excited to get them on the tree!

Here's a before and after of the one I made of Zorro, my cat!  (I couldn't decide what to do, so someone suggested a pet.)

Before:

After: