Cardinal Christmas tree ornament

This fused glass project was inspired by Roy Kapp's version (he used Delphi's holiday fusible pre-cuts featured in the fall 2021 catalogue).  It is 4" in diameter and consists of a single layer of whispy glass plus the hand-cut cardinal, several colors of medium frit and stringers.  The red berries are frit balls that were pre-made in the kiln at an earlier time (the tiny black eye too).  Fusing wire was used to create the hanger.

The round base was cut with a circle cutter.  I have very little experience cutting rounds this way, and while breaking it out I managed to break the disc.  No panic, I simply altered the design slightly to camouflage the cut with frit and stringers, and once fused the old break was not noticeable...phew! 

As I wanted to retain some textural detail, the target temp for this firing was 1300F, with a 10-minute hold.