The Delphi Blog

The Crafts Report Magazine is currently sponsoring a Cover Contest for its October edition. Through the end of May, contestants can post photos of their best work on to The Crafts Report Facebook page wall for a chance to win. Read the complete contest details for more information. Crafts Report staff will choose the preliminary finalists, but Facebook fans will ultimately choose the winner by voting for their favorites.

Delphi associates are raving about the new Bend It Molds from Creative Paradise . The clever design makes it easy to fuse projects that stand up on their own, and the mold comes in three different sizes, Large, Medium and Small (or Baby Bend It .) The picture frame for mom (top left) was made by glass artist Denise Christmas-Gibson using the Medium Bend It Mold . The Father's Day golf project (at right) was also created by Denise using the Large Bend It Mold . What would you make with this mold?

Katalin Szabo completed a 9,000 piece jigsaw puzzle about a year ago , and found herself bored by completion. The puzzle lacked the creativity Szabo was seeking. Her husband suggested she learn the art of stained glass and now she's hooked! This was her first stained glass lampshade (we were impressed to say the least). Szabo says she made all the mistakes possible in the process of making her lamp, but learned a lot in the process! What did you learn in the process of making your first lamp? Tell us in the comments section below, and on Friday, May 11, we'll pick one person to receive Making Stained Glass Lamps book , complete with full-sized patterns!

1. Blogs Sites like blogger.com and wordpress.com make setting up a blog free and easy. Its a great way for students to create online portfolios of their work and document the creative process. Teachers can also use blogging sites to create free mini-websites for their classrooms to post assignments and encourage student interaction. 2. Flickr Flickr is an online image gallery, where teachers can share images of their students work. You can adjust the privacy settings to keep your gallery private, public to some groups, or completely public. Visit Delphis Flickr site for inspiration. Flickrs Creative Commons section is also an excellent resource for royalty-free images that you can use in PowerPoint presentations and projects. 3. YouTube YouTube is a great resource for free videos on almost any topic. More than 200,000 videos are uploaded per day, and chances are, your favorite business probably has its own channel. The Delphi Glass channe l has more than 130 instructional videos for learning new techniques in art glass. YouTube for Schools provides schools access to hundreds of thousands of free educational videos from YouTube EDU. These vi

1. Blogs Sites like blogger.com and wordpress.com make setting up a blog free and easy. Its a great way for studios to create online portfolios of their work and document the creative process. Use a blogging site as a free mini-website for your business. 2. Facebook Facebook is a social networking service that makes it easy to keep in touch with friends and family. With 1 in 7 people on the planet on Facebook, its also a great platform for promoting your business and finding new customers. Find out how to set up a Facebook page for your business. Here are a few good examples of art glass businesses on Facebook: Momma Mosaics (photo top left) Stained Glass Creations and Beyond Steider Studios 3. Flickr Flickr is an online image gallery, where studios can share images from store events, classes, students work, etc. You can adjust the privacy settings to keep your gallery private, public to some groups, or completely public. Visit Delphis Flickr site for inspiration. 4. YouTube YouTube is a great resource for free videos on almost any topic. More than 200,000 videos are uploaded per day, and chances are, your favorite business probably

I know I'll never get up the nerve to open my kiln to rake . Instead, I was wondering, can I fake...I mean, rake it? I was recently in Monterey, CA visiting a shop on Cannery Row, where glass artist David Alcala is usually busy at work. The day I visited, he was out (at the Glass Art Bead Expo) promoting his new book and Flexi-Glass . His lovely wife was holding down the fort and I marveled at his landscapes made with fine glass frit. I knew I had a lot of Uroboros frit and powder at home, and it inspired me to try and fake a kiln rake with frit. I laid out a sheet of newspaper, and donned my goggles and face mask . I cut out a 10-inch transparent glass circle, so I would have a double-sided plate. Next, I sprinkled a bunch of purple powder, then white, and purple again, gently patting down the mounds with my fingers. I then added a squiggley line of bejeweled frit. From there, I included Uroboros fine frit in white, purple, then sprinkled on some more bejeweled frit. I used a paint brush to gently move the frit across the plate, blending one color into another. Next came the big move. How was I going to get this thing into the kiln

This past weekend, Delphi celebrated its 21st Annual Art Glass Festival at the Lansing Creativity Center. We had a fantastic turn out for the artist's reception! At our catered breakfast, artists had the opportunity to meet and mingle with one another and winners were recognized and awarded prizes. Delphi also awarded each entrant an exhibitor pack. This year was a bit different, because artists were able to create their own goodie bags at the exhibitor pack station. We also awarded more than 15 door prizes. View more pictures from the event.

Before I was fortunate enough to own a kiln, I used to experiment with all kinds of polymer clay using recipes for faux gemstones. It was fun and inexpensive. While giving a fused glass lesson the other day, I said, "Hey, lets try to make some faux opals." So, we crushed up some green and orange, clear backed dichroic glass (from the Uroboros Magic Box ), and mixed in a tiny bit of crushed opaque white glass. We cut two transparent ovals, covered them with Bullseye Glastac Firing Glue , and sprinkled on the frit. We added another layer of glue and piled up some more frit. The beauty of this glue is that you can use as much as you want. I love it for holding the frit on the edges of bowls and glass. The fired pieces looked like opal cabochons! To make the cabochons more opaque, I used my Dremel tool, and ground the back sides of the glass. I did find, however, that gluing the pieces to a ring or pin blank, kind of takes the effect away. This would be an excellent tool if you were using the cabochon in a bezel, like I saw in one of the "how to" lessons, that inspired me. Adding an oval of dark green, like a doublet, behind the cabochon, might create an Australian

Boyce Lundstrom has been a well-respected name in fusing since the late 1960s . In 1974, he founded the Bullseye Glass Company. Since then, he's published several books that have become essential guides for fusing artists. His latest release, "The Best Bottle Book Ever" showcases whimsical art made from discarded bottles. He outlines technical aspects of cutting, breaking and fusing bottles, and addresses compatibility issues and firing schedules. We're giving away the book! Along with the new G2 Bottle Cutter and a popular Bottle Sagger mold - an $85 value. It's our best bottle art giveaway ever! Enter our sweepstakes through Facebook April 21-23 to win the prize pack. (If you'd rather not enter through Facebook, you can enter here.) The winner will be chosen randomly on April 24. Our apologies for the technical difficulties with the Bottle Art Contest....the link should be fixed now. If you are still having trouble, please call our customer service dept. at 800.248.2048 (open 4.23.12 until 6 pm EST) and one of our reps will manually enter you into the contest .

I am always trying to save my scraps, even if they are metal. I grind my glass, pin backs and bails with my dremel tool (I've found that they stay glued together much better that way), and I started saving all of the grinding scraps. I save the sterling silver grindings in one bottle, and my gold plate with mixed metals, in another. One day, I was looking at some old green sea glass lying on the beach. I thought about folks sending notes out in a bottle, and it being found miles away, full of sand on a beach. I wondered if I could capture that idea in a pendant. When I got home I put those ground metals to use. First, I cut one square of transparent glass, then a smaller square of aqua-green transparent glass, and a tiny square of transparent glass. I sprinkled some of the mixed metal grindings on top of the clear glass, then placed the aqua glass on top of that. On top of the aqua glass, I sprinkled the sterling silver grindings, and capped it with the smallest square of clear glass. Once fused, the mixed metals turned a nice dark color like sand, while the sterling silver grindings stayed nice and bright, just like clear sand. The set did remind me of the s

Jo Kinnaly is a glass artist living in Northern Virginia . Happily retired from her government job, she spends much of her time playing with glass. She has been creating glass art for a little over eight years, and finds that the more she learns, the more there is to learn. Over the years, her work has evolved into animal portraits which she creates from photos, but she tries to find time for a wide variety of projects. Kinnaly says she usually doesn't spend more than a few weeks on a project, but this lamp took her several months. She made the grapes herself in her kiln. The shade is roughly 12 tall and 18 in diameter. You can see more of Kinnaly's work on Etsy.