I'm very excited because a few things are happening, and its exhilarating, exciting, terrifying and nerve wracking... So here's the announcement I made via FB and soon IG.
I love sausage and veggies so I decided to mix them together.
SAUSAGE BAKE
sausage links (though you can use ground. I usually do blueberry sausage but have done other flavors as well. the links, I tend to not pre cook as a lot of them are already pre cooked.)
**Note if using ground sausage cook in fry pan first til browned than add to veggies for their last 15 mins cook time.
veggies chopped up bite size-ish to large diced
I use carrots, mushrooms, peppers, onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes
toss all veggies together with a drizzle of oil, salt and pepper to taste.
(sometimes I add seasonings such as italian seasoning, ranch seasonings etc. depends on my mood)
layer a cookie sheet in tin foil (or parchment paper) add the veggies and sausage,
cook 450F for about 25-28 minutes until the sausage is cooked through and veggies are tender.
TaaDaa! Easy Peasy... Serve. Sometimes I pour some real maple syrup on it, but that's a personal preference, try it you may enjoy it..
As you can see I'm very not methodical, I just kind of let my thoughts take me to what ever direction it wants. Sometimes it works like this dish and other times, hmmm not so much. Unfortunately I don't have any photos of the dish, but I will add one later when I make the dish again.. Enjoy and Stay colorful!
So I started to work on some new swizzle stick designs using decals. It's been a journey so far and I'm pretty sure it's not done.. I've used decals a few times in my designs but not often enough to really learn the best way to incorporate them into my kiln firing schedule.
So my first attempt was full fused, you could see them but they were really faded, so I ground those off to clear blanks. Sadly no pictures.
My second attempt was, first I full fused blank clear glass swizzle sticks. After they were fired and cleaned I than added the decals. Once they were dried I fired those to the suggested decal firing. It worked a little better but still lost color. So I than figured I'd add white powder frit (ground up glass) to the backside and it helped. I did another firing with the frit. Once that was cooled I noticed I wanted more white so did ANOTHER firing with more powder frit.. Got to say I like how they came out, so cute.
this is the only one I did on fully white glass.
I loved them. they will be going up in my shop in the next few days.
cute, right?
I even ordered more decals so I can play with other designs and make more.. :) very excited. Someday I need to learn how to make my own decals.. Oh well..I'm using frit glass (bullseye glass) and putting in the feather mold. Once I'm done with my colors I then top it with clear glass. Firing it in the kiln to become one solid piece.
definitions;
frit - ground up glass
swizzle sticks - drink stirrers
Tomorrow I have a craft show I will be vending at. Its being hosted by Martian Margarita in Aurora, Texas. I'm so excited margaritas and shopping is there a better way to spend a saturday??
The cool thing with working in glass fusion, is mistakes and broken pieces aren't that big of deal. Well they are from an emotional standpoint but they can be recycled and re-fired into a different creation or sometimes into the same depending on the break..
When my job closed (yes due to Covid) I got a fair amount of fusible glass. Some were old samples some were scrap but there was a fair amount of it. Unfortunately it's not the *COE (Coefficient of Expansion) I generally work with, which basically means the glass I got from work would not work with the glass I typically work with. Mixing the 2 *COE's would be very bad. So I have to not mix them EVER. So what can I do with all this glass, can't sell it as mine as I didn't make the samples. Not a fan of some of the designs created, so what did I do???
I had a mold, that's basically a coaster or tile mold. I actually have 2 ones a single square and ones a 4 square (so big that its the only thing I can put in my kiln when its being fired). So I chopped up a bunch of the glass and laid it in the mold fired it and taa daa! Coasters, really cool coasters.
pre fired coasters, just the glass in the mold
after firing in the kiln, glass is all melted and fused together
finished coasters
so many different variations
close up view of one
same close up view but different angle.COE or Coefficient of Expansion - how much a material will expand for each degree of temperature increase.
