After a month of hearts, I decided to go with something a little less holiday specific. We have a lot of hummingbirds in Utah during the spring and summer, so we’ll work on a flock of those for the month of February.
Materials needed:
razor knife
cut proof surface
pins
fiber paper
vintage plate (or other glass of your choice)
glass drill/dremel tool
monofiliment
Step 1:
The first thing you should do is download the free kiln carving pattern from the online shop. No credit card is necessary, just fill out your details and proceed to checkout. After checkout you’ll be directed to the download link, and, we’ll e-mail the link to you just in case you need it. Don’t forget though, kiln carving patterns aren’t available forever, so please download and save it on your computer.
Print and cut out kiln carving pattern. I highly recommend using cardstock for your pattern, we’ll be doing a number of projects with this particular pattern, and it is certainly much easier to not have to cut it out again every time! I use a snap blade razor knife and cut on a piece of cardboard to save my work top. On this pattern, you’ll remove the gray areas.
Cut out gray areas
Hummingbird stencil finished
Step 2:
Use the stencil to cut fiber paper for a kiln carving. I happen to have a lot of 1/32″ thick fiber paper from Delphi Glass in my studio so that’s what I’m using. A thicker paper will result in more contrast between the carved areas.
I like to pin the stencil on the fiber paper on a piece of cardboard to keep things from moving around.
Hummingbird stencil with fiber
Cut the fiber paper using the stencil. The other advantage of using a stencil rather than cutting both layers at once is cleaner cut edges on the fiber paper.
Once the fiber is completely cut, set the sheet part aside for a different project.
Fiber paper hummingbird
Step 3:
We will be using the bird shapes for today’s project. We need a piece of glass large enough to cover the pattern. I’ve selected a blue vintage glass plate. A quick check with the stencil to see if it’s the right size. Don’t forget you can vary the size of the kiln carving pattern by changing the print size.
Checking the vintage plate for size
Once you have your plate selected, put the cut fiber paper hummingbird on a prepared kiln shelf and lay the plate over the top. Fire to a full fuse using the full fuse for 1/4″ thick glass schedule.
Plate and fiber hummingbird ready to fire.
Step 4:
Once your firing is complete, drill 2 holes for the monofiliment. Once your holes are drilled, thread the monofiliment through the holes and tie securely, leaving enough slack to hang the plate.
Fused hummingbird pattern