Donkey Silhouette Art Glass Panel – Orange & Blue on Grey Background

This is part of our Horses Collection of equestrian art glass decor.

Believe it or not, the background glass for this piece started out solid blue. This glass is called “steel blue”, and it’s named for an unusual characteristic: when exposed directly to the kiln’s heat without a layer of clear glass on top, the color changes from shiny blue to matte grey. Initially considered a mistake by the glass manufacturer, artists were delighted by its creative possibilities and it is now one of the company’s most popular colors. The original color shows in the blue dots of the margin because little pieces of clear glass lay on top of the steel blue when it was fused in the kiln. It shows in the donkey’s body, too, where powdered clear glass covered the donkey’s body before being overlaid with a thicker layer of bright orange. We hope you like this whimsical and cheerful panel, and enjoy it even more knowing a bit of its backstory.

Creating it was a 3-step process.
Glass Selection: First, two squares of glass were cut to the size of the finished piece, one steel blue and the other clear.
Creating the Design: The donkey was created by sifting finely ground orange glass onto the blue glass using a stencil made on a Glowforge laser cutter. After carefully lifting the stencil, stray orange powder was removed. Then a bit of frit was lightly scattered on the steel blue background. Some of it was clear frit, with resulted in raised blue dots,and some was clear dichroic glass, which left glowing remnants behind after firing. Most of the background was left bare, so the matte grey finish characteristic of steel blue glass is on full display.
Fusing in the Kiln: The piece was carefully placed on top of the clear glass and the two layers went into the kiln where they were heated to 1425 degrees, the temperature at which glass begins to melt and the layers fuse together. After a couple of minutes at this temperature, cooling began. The brief hold time was intentional, as we wanted some of the original texture to remain.