Three Christmas Trees - almost finished.

I had to stop on my Christmas Trees - and put them aside until I got home from Illinois. It was hard to have to do that.

I have attached glass beads in different colors and added the stars at the tops. My next steps are finishing up the branches up to the tops of the trees, making three glass Christmas boxes which will go under each tree and then threading multi-colored Christmas Tree lights up, inside and through.

Okay - Little Trees - just stand there and glisten in the sun, until I come home!!!

Christmas Tree from last season...

I will never forget this Christmas Tree. The customer wanted all the bells and whistles and I gave it to her. What a colorful tree. It was fun to make all the different glass Christmas boxes that were placed around the bottom. This tree had multi-colored lights threaded up from within the glass design.

Makings of a Christmas Tree

I try to post photos that show a little bit of the process behind that glass art I create. In this case I am making three Christmas Trees as a private commission for three friends who live in Colorado. They sent me their wine bottles and I went shopping at some of the vintage antique stores for unusual additional pieces of green glass.

This was the shape I was hoping for when I broke these wine bottles. I just needed the stems as the stems serve for the top part of the Christmas Tree.

The glass in this photo is traditional flat glass cut in a diamond shapes and in different shades of greens. Deep forest green, Kelly green, teal, jade, and pastel light green. These glass pieces will fill in the branches of the tree. No two branches are alike on any tree and some have different colors if you really look close.

I foiled, fluxed and soldered every piece of glass that was broke or cut. In these two photos, it shows the beginnings of the three trees. The base of each tree came from two broken antique tea glasses and the other an antique plant vase that was the shape of a tree trunk.

From the top view, looking down into the trees. I constantly had to look at the trees from all angles as I built it up, I didn't want to have a lop-sided tree!

Makings of a Christmas Tree (cont.)

Getting ready to go back to work. You can see the three bases of the trees on the left. The piles of smaller glass must also be soldered, including the tops of the wine bottles to the right. So that is what I did. It takes a long time!

The trees are taking shape now. More detail needs to be added which will soften the shape of the tree. I covered the solder with black patina. The dark lines are striking when light shines from behind. Each tree stands at 12 inches each. This photo was with a flash.

This photo was without a flash. Eventually small Christmas Tree lights will be threaded up through to the top of the tree. These lights could be clear, red, or green.

This is my next step. I will be foiling each glass gem and putting some on the tree to fill in the branches, giving it a triangle shape. Once this is complete, a star will be put at the top of the tree. I am thinking it might be a small star cut in a metallic gold or red color.