I tell a lot of people about what I do. And I get a lot of different responses. But I almost always get asked how I make all this stuff. There's a ton of technical knowledge behind this. Well, maybe not really. Maybe I just like to say that so I sound smart. Really I've just had a lot of screw ups I've learned from. That said, I'm going to try and explain how I make some of my glass work. I use window glass, or float glass, for the majority of my work. So bear in mind that everything you see started off as plain old clear glass. All the colors come from either enamels (which are pretty much like colored sand and are usually opaque), confetti (very thin glass that comes in a range of colors and looks like the name suggests), stringers (very small glass cane that's around a millimeter, maybe two, in diameter), threads (a really small version of stringers), and frit (very similiar to the enamels, though it's usually transparent). How's that for confusing?

So I'm going to try to illustrate how I make the clocks (in two slightly different ways), and how the vases are shaped. The earrings are made the same way just on a much smaller scale. If anyone has questions, please ask.

Next enamel threads are added.

Tiny dots are added to the blue dots, and presto! It's ready for the kiln.

Here's the other way I work, which is using stencils to get the basic outline onto the glass.

Using the line sifter, I fill in the glasses.

Here's my eleborate set of tools. This is about all that I use. From left to right- ice pick, large sifter, small sifter, line sifter (hands down the most important tool I own), brushes of assorted sizes, tweezers, and a dull pencil. That's all it takes for the magic to happen

This is where I work. In a little shed that's 10 x 20 feet, and is subdivided into four spaces. My kiln room on the left is about 5 x 10. In that space I have the coffin kiln (so called because it looks like a child sized coffin), and my easy bake oven, as I call the little one that I make my earrings in. And on the right you can see my work space where I create all these fun little treats. The jars on the shelf are all of my enamels. I think there are about 30 different colors that I work with.

First off the piece of glass is covered with a base layer of enamel. In this case willow green.

Next the design is laid out using the small sifter.

Outlining is done next using the line sifter, and a really steady hand.

Dots go on next. There's actually two colors in the dots- lime green on the outside and yellow in the middle.

....once the stencil is removed. It doesn't look like much, does it?

A little more touching up with the line sifter to give the cocktails some pop.

Once the top layer is done, I decorate the background on a seperate sheet of glass. All that's left is putting them together and baking it in the kiln to fuse the two pieces.

So here's the quick version of how the vases are made. I decorate the glass, then place it on top of the mold (which looks a lot like a metal milkshake cup), once it heats up it drapes around the mold. Viola! Instant shaping. It really is just that simple. Sorry to ruin the mystery.

Here's my kiln fully loaded and ready to fire. This is always the point where I cross my fingers and hope that nothing breaks.

Fresh out of the kiln! The colors change a bit after they fire, which is something I always have to think about.

All done! Makes you feel like having a drink, how about it? It might be five o'clock somewhere, but time here obviously doesn't matter!