Strawberry Farm Plank Bowl

Strawberry Farm Plank Bowl, 10 inch x 10 inch

Dish up sweet summer fun with this refreshingly fun wood tone berry bowl.

Breaking free from the ho-hum square is easy when you start thinking beyond the limitations of four straight sides. The fastest and easiest way to jazz up any project is to give it a unique shape. The shape doesn’t have to be super complex to get attention. Just add a little unexpected something to the edge and you’ll have a project that everyone admires.

The bulk of my projects are assembled on a single, solid base layer of clear glass. The second, design layer is usually made up of pieces that create a pattern. The third layer is minimal and made with a few accent pieces. This type of construction is convenient because I can comfortably put the project together on my worktable and then simply carry it to the kiln when it’s ready to be fired. It’s a quick easy way to build strong pieces, but the straightforward perimeter shape can lack originality.

For this project we’re going to break tradition and shake things up with an irregular edge that flatters our sweet strawberries. In this type of construction the base layer and the design layer are both made up of multiple pieces. What makes this project even more unique is that we’ll use the same pattern to make both the base and design layers. We simply cut the base layer out of clear glass and the second layer out of a warm colored streaky glass that mimics aged wood.

Now for the sweet part. The red strawberries and green leaves are cut according to the pattern. They’re ground to improve the rounded shapes. The strawberry’s seeds are detailed by applying black paint with a fine applicator tip. Next, the berries and leaves are arranged on top of the brown glass.

For added color and a nice linear detail I bent yellow stringers in a candle. The stringers represent a wild vine. I bent them and placed them so they would frame the bowl.

Bending stringers is fun and easy. The trick is to hold the stinger in the candle flame and apply a little pressure until the glass bends. Then move the stringer through the flame until you have a shape you like. Keep in mind, the stringer will be hot within an inch of the flame. And, it’s a lot hotter than you think, and a lot longer than you think it should be. I bend a bunch and set them aside so I’m not tempted to pick the bent stringers up before they’re cool to the touch.

The bent stringers are sized by snapping them by hand. The pieces are then arranged decoratively around the berries. The assembled glass is full fused and then slumped in a square mold.

Fuse and slump the project using the firing guides on my website.

Firing Guides

Watch the video here!

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Happy Fusing!

Lisa

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