Lisa Vogt Art Adventure Blog: Making Merry

Find this FREE pattern and other seasonal favorites on my website.

At this busy time of year our minds are whirling with thoughts of family, friends and festivities. A great way to slow down and put the joy back in your holiday season is to indulge yourself in a little creative studio time. It’s easy to justify the peaceful solitude you’ll enjoy while making these elegant, stress-free dishes. They’re perfect gifts for spreading holiday cheer to co-workers, neighbors, or those unexpected last minute guests.

Simple Elegance

Simple elegant and classic designed dishes are always in style. The larger, 6 ¼ in x 6 ¼ in plate is made with three layers of glass. The base layer is a 6 in x 6 in square of white glass. For the second layer, cut an assortment of ¼ in wide, 6 ¼ in long strips of colored glass of your choice. I used opal green, transparent green and iridized cherry red. Cut several strips of clear glass ¼ in wide, 6 in long.

Assemble the color glass strips on the white base so they overlap the base by 1/8 in on each end. Alternate a few strips of clear glass in-between the colors, so the white base shows through. (Note: the clear strips do not overlap the base.) Use stringers to add an accent color if you’d like. I used opal, yellow stingers in my dish.

Dish detail

Assemble the third layer. Stack your color and clear strips on top and perpendicular to the layer below. Add stringers if you’d like.

The overlapping ends of colored glass curl in during fusing which gives this dish its decorative, scalloped edge.

To make the smaller dish cut white glass for the base to 3 ½ in x 3 ½ in. Cut several ¼ in wide strips out of opal green, transparent green and iridized cherry red transparent glasses. Cut several ¼ in x ¼ in pieces of clear glass. Cut a few red and green strips to 1 in long. Assemble the plaid pattern starting in the middle and working your way out towards the edges. Trim the lengths of the strips as needed as you go. A tiny bit of glue on the backside of the glass strips will made your assembly a lot easier.