Catherine "Kater" Cheek is a writer and artist.
Catherine Cheek
Author's posts
Jul 18
Fish Tray
I made this using the porcelain that Bridget Harper formulated for us. One thing that I discovered about this clay is that it does not like to be thick. I made a set of twelve small trays like this (only smaller) using the same technique (slab rolled, then formed inside a styrofoam meat tray). All …
Jul 15
Latticework Tray
Here’s another thing that people do when they make fused glass pieces; they make slumped bowls and trays. I had less enthusiasm for this, because I’m a potter, and pottery makes functional, sturdy, dishwasher-safe pieces that don’t cost $60 in raw materials. There’s a flaw in one of the bands because I tried to cut …
Jul 12
Dichroic Keychains
This is what most people do with dichroic glass; they cut pieces and assemble them onto a plain background, then cap them to make pretty doohickeys. I’ve seen a lot of jewelry like this. In fact, almost all glass jewelry looks something like this. I admit, it’s amazingly pretty, but it’s so easy that …
Jul 09
Last Beetles
Here’s what I found about the iridescent glass. When you put dichro on top of it and fuse it, it doesn’t fuse completely because of the iridescence. This worked in that I was able to put masking tape over it and feel where the outline of the body and thorax were so that I could …
Jul 06
Next-To Last Beetles
So now I figured out that you have to fuse the dichro to the background glass before you cap it. Here’s what I also found–when you have iridescent glass in the background, the dichro doesn’t fuse completely flat. That means that even when you fuse it before capping it, you get blisters of air trapped …