Celebrating a Wedding Anniversary
Created by Julie Mistaria.
Click on the images to zoom.
Their daughter arranged to have this champagne bottle delivered to their hotel room for celebrating their wedding anniversary in London. This particular label is not available in the US. The bottle returned with them to California and for this year's anniversary, it traveled to our studio and returns reborn. The main bottle body is a gorgeous, shiny serving dish. The top and bottom were removed via bandsaw to fuse into a sun catcher / garden charm.
The champagne bottle on the bandsaw table. Top and bottom removed.
Close up of bottom and top to show the thickness of the glass wall. Bottoms of champagne bottles are one of the more challenging styles to cut well.
Kiln shelf ready for firing! The champagne bottle is on textured paper with extra 'guides' to guard against rolling into other glass bits. (This didn't happen on this firing - but it has happened before!)
The bottle top. Pre-fused and post firing.
Bottle bottom before fusing and after!
Some bottle glass completes the first fusing phase with devitrification. This means the glass is cloudy and not shiny. We can fix that! The top and bottom of the bottle fired ideally. The body we want a bit more shine.
The sun catcher featuring the champagne bottle bottom as the main 'body' of this piece and the donut in the dangles. I chose 'Faith', 'Family' and 'Journey' as word charms.
Faith - for having faith that we would safeguard and transform the special bottle and return it reborn to their home.
Family - for their daughter arranging to have this bottle delivered to celebrate a prior anniversary.
Journey - because this bottle has traveled! And life is a journey best traveled with the company of your family.
Detail shot of the top part of the sun catcher.
Close up shot of the beaded dangles. The center bead is a stone - faceted snow quartz.
The body of the bottle fused flat, fire polished to a beautiful shine! Photographed on a stand so that the light could come up through the body to show the lovely way the green transmits the light.
