Wendy Harding Designs

Color Change

2011-07-01T15:24:00.000-05:00

Jewelry made with dichroic glass have the ability to 'adapt' to what we are wearing. This is in part due to the fact that light is already reflecting back at you due to metal layers in the glass. This reflective property seems to intensify the colors that are near it, making them appear to 'pop' out in the piece. I did a series of photos using the same pendant in hopes of demonstrating what we see in real life. I believe the effect is somewhat muted, however you be the judge and see if you notice a difference as you scroll down to each photograph. Take note of what you notice first when you look at each picture. What parts of the pendant are your eyes drawn to?

Woo Hoo!

2010-10-15T12:14:00.002-05:00

Well, my fall show season is in full swing and what does that usually mean? It usually means that I tend to let my website go and not update things as others are sold. I promised myself I wouldn't do that again this year. Happily, I found the time to take photographs this past weekend. With the help of my dear friend, Gail Rossi (who was kind enough to step in and write the great descriptions), I was able to get new inventory online. Woo Hoo!

Polka-dotted Daisy Chain

Some new items on the site are more of my daisy chain necklaces. Little did I know when I started doing these that I was attempting the most difficult thing a silversmith can do... attach a large item to a smaller one without melting the smaller one. Well, after a few attempts and some serious left hooks down the hall (because I threw them!), I finally figured out the trick to it! I'm quite proud of the results.

Double Dragonfly (Seasons)

I'm also really excited about the new starbursts. They are bigger than the older style, which fits right in with the current fashion trends. This show season looks to be very busy here in San Antonio!

Matte Plays Well with Others

2010-07-22T10:52:00.000-05:00

No, we're not talking about kids on the playground and I didn't misspell a child's name. I'm referring to matte, as in...Not Shiny. I picked up some stones at a recent show that I thought might be interesting paired up with some dichroic glass. Those silly stones drove me nuts. For those of you who know me, sometimes I get ideas that just won't let me sleep. Using these stones was one of those ideas I just couldn't let go.

Ideas, ideas, ideas! I had ideas of how I wanted to use them rattling around in my head for 3 days! I had a number of other projects already planned that had priority and really didn't think I had time to work on them yet. In order the quiet the muse, I even wrote them down in my design sketch book, hoping they would leave me alone, but to no avail. Ah well, when the muse speaks I guess we should listen.

Photo to the right is titled Pendulum Play, because the glass below the onyx appears to be a pendulum. Hmmmm...wonder if I can make one that actually swings... Now I've got to add that idea to my sketch book!

The pendant pictured here on the left is the second design I worked on, Heart of Glass.

On the whole, I'm pretty happy with the results. The juxtaposition of matte and glossy really appeal to me and I think it adds interest and interesting texture. In addition to using the matte onyx, I incorporated a new design element I've been wanting to try for some time but never had the right project...soldering silver wire accents to the bezel and base itself. I have to say, adding the wire element was way more nerve-wracking than I expected. I melted a few wires before I got the hang of it.

I guess the designs worked out, because I slept like a baby after they were done! Don't get me wrong, I love the muse...but I was really glad she finally shut up for a little while so I could sleep!

Love Letters

2010-01-16T20:15:00.000-06:00

Wow! I can't believe it is already 2010! I had a very busy show season this fall and had so much fun! I have been perfecting my silversmithing skills and started a new line of jewelry I call "Love Letters". They are intertwined monograms made of sterling silver. This is one I created for my friend LeeAnne and her husband Aeneas, hence the L and A.

Neckwires

2009-10-30T21:16:00.000-05:00

I've been working on these for about a month now. They started out having the swirls in the back, but the weight of them kept bringing them forward. To solve this issue I just made the connection part of the focal in the front. At a show I did in Fort Worth I sold two off my neck and one off of my mothers'!

I made this one for my mom for her birthday.

Sneak Peek New Military Button Bracelets

2009-10-26T13:31:00.000-05:00

I just finished these and haven't had a chance to take their photos properly, but thought folks might want to see what's coming up...

and here's a close up of the wings

New drawer pulls and knobs

2009-10-25T19:00:00.000-05:00

We recently purchased an antique buffet that had knobs that were obviously replaced (read: UGLY) from the original ones. So, I thought I'd replace them with some of my dichroic glass knobs. I love this glass! These were made with corkscrew ripple glass in warm colors.

This dresser is one that was painted completely white that I stripped and refinished. A few months ago I also replaced the knobs on it, as well. These were my trial run after doing a lot of research on types of epoxy glues. These even made the move attached to the dresser (much to my horror - the movers were supposed to remove them!) and 3 months of storage in 98-100F+ degree weather in San Antonio, while we waiting to get into our house.

Here is a close up of the knobs on the dresser. I think they came out really nice.

Now I'm thinking of all the other places I might be able to put them!

Just Horsing Around

2009-10-22T07:52:00.000-05:00

I recently was doing some pot melt work and had a very happy surprise come out of the kiln. If you aren't familiar with potmelts, I create them like this: I turn a small terra cotta pot upside down in the kiln and place an even smaller one right side up on top of the first, matching holes. Then I place small pieces of glass in the top one, weighing it carefully so that I get exactly the finished size I want. (That's about all the control I get out of the whole process - the rest, as they say, are up to the 'kiln gods'.) Once the kiln is going the glass melts in the top pot and dribbles down onto the kiln shelf and spreads out, sort of like the ripples on a pond. I plan to take some photos of the process and post them sometime soon.

This finished potmelt was so unexpected and cool that I just had to share!

Glue

2009-10-14T10:25:00.000-05:00

I've had a number of other artists ask me at a couple of recent shows about how I glue pieces together and it just came up again on one of my groups, so I thought I'd share here as well...

After much research, I discovered that many industrial adhesives have to be heat
cured at approx. 160-175F in order to adhere properly and create a stable bond.

So… I figured what the heck - nothing else I was using was working well (& I tried
ALOT of different adhesives). After some experimenting, here's what I came up
with:

I apply the E6000 to both pieces using a very thin layer on each;
Let them get a little tacky then stick'em together.
Put the finished piece on a cookie sheet lined w/ aluminum foil and place in a COLD kitchen oven.
Turn the oven on to 170F, heat for 25 min, turn off the oven
Let it cool to room temperature on its own.

I don't clamp anything together and it works like a charm every time. It is
also murder trying to get the stuff apart again once it comes out of the oven.

What I like best about this technique is not having to wait 2 days for
everything to set. I have also used this technique to adhere glass to drawer pulls and knobs
and have never had one come off.

Bangles and Bows

2009-10-02T11:00:00.000-05:00

I've been working on some new bracelets this past week to get ready for the annual River Art Show in San Antonio this weekend. I really like the extra squiggles in the wire going through the beads. Feels like it gives the piece alot more movement, ya know?

Iris Jewelry

2009-09-08T11:43:00.001-05:00

For the past couple of years, I've had a booth at the National Iris Convention. I enjoy them so much that I am always trying to find new ways to showcase the flowers. These are the start of pendants I'm working on for next year's convention...

New Starbursts

2009-09-08T11:14:00.000-05:00

Fun, fun, fun!

The piece on the bottom is called 'Spellbound' and to the top is 'Razzle Dazzle'. Razzle Dazzle was a challenge with 5 layers of glass stacked on top of each other and fused at the same time. I banned the cats from the studio while I was working on it... All it took was one bump of the table and down came my house of cards, so to speak. I think it was worth all the effort though.

A few more...

2009-09-08T11:04:00.001-05:00

Here are a couple of other newbies... This cross is called "Joy Bubbles Up". I'm finding myself drawn more and more to the clear dichroic pieces. Here it is without the black behind it. It's the same cross -no photo editing, just a different background.

Sneak Peek @ New Items for Fall

2009-09-08T10:56:00.000-05:00

We have finally moved into our house in San Antonio and most of the boxes are unpacked. I finally found my photo studio equipment and took some photos of new designs I've been working on all summer.

This is one of my dragonflies. These have been a challenge because glass wants to shink up to be 1/4" when it is molten and the wings on many of my earlier pieces shrank right off their wee bodies. For a while I was only getting about a 25% success rate, but I've been able to work out *most* of the kinks. I'm really happy with these little guys. I especially like the silver swirls at the ends of the wings.

What is Dichroic Glass?

2009-02-22T06:18:00.000-06:00

I've heard it called all kinds of things.... Dichronic, dichromic, or even dichromatic glass. So just what is this glass that folks just can't seem to remember the name?

The word dichroic literally means 'many colors'. Of these many colors artists are mostly concerned with two main types. These can be classified as both transmitted color and reflective color. Transmitted color is the color you see when you look through a piece of glass. Reflected colors are the colors that bounce back to you looking at the piece directly. (If you are looking at a piece of black backed dichroic glass that has already been fused, what you are seeing are the reflected colors.)

These colors come about as a result of multiple micro-layers of metal oxides that have been deposited onto the glass. NASA developed dichroic glass for use in deep space exploration, satellite mirrors and space suit visors. It has since moved on to be used various other applications, including art. Multiple ultra-thin layers of different metals (gold, silver, titanium, chromium, aluminum, zirconium, magnesium, silicon) are vaporized at extremely high heat in a vacuum chamber along with quartz crystal. These vapors adhere onto the surface of the glass and bind together on a molecular level. The brilliant colors are determined by the type of metal used in the vaporization process.

It's hard to believe that these thin layers of oxides have a total thickness of only 3-5 millionths of an inch! Certain wavelengths of light will either pass through the layers or be reflected, causing an varying array of color to be visible.

After fusing, the color will shift towards the left on the visible color spectrum from its pre-fused state, and depending on the thickness of the dichroic coating, the amount of time and temperature under which it was fired, the number of firings, and the type of base glass used will determine the color that you actually see.

Ok - so that's dichroic glass in tech speak... While I personally find the process facinating, I have to admit that when I first saw the stuff I really just reacted to it on a viseral level. You know, something along the lines of, "Oooo, pretty! Look how shiny...I want it!" I guess if I'm really honest with myself, I must admit that I still react that way even after years of working with it!