Butterfly & Orchid Fusing Decal Glass Pendant Tutorial

This is a really cool tutorial using AAE Glass fusing decals. This weeks featured project uses our Floral decal sheets. There are 2 pendants included in this tutorial and the last pictures are other pendants using this same floral sheet.  Have FUN!

Materials Needed:

Floral Decal Sheet
Craft Puncher of your choice
Utility Knife
Finished Fused Glass Cab
Dichroic mini- dots

Butterfly Pendant:

1. Cut out the square floral background decals from your decal sheet. Take a craft puncher of your choice, and punch out your desired design. I used a 1" butterfly puncher from the scrapbook section of Micheal's. I am able to get 2 butterflies punched out of this one decal square.

2. SAVE YOUR WING CUT OUTS! (See photo.) You will use these on the next pendant project.

3. Once your shape is punched out, arrange your decal accordingly on your glass piece. There are so many paper punchers available on the market, this is so much fun in itself to search for the one you want! The possibilities are endless and this opens up a lot of creative doors.

4. I cut up the orchid decal from the same sheet and used the smaller portions of the decal to create the butterfly's antennas.

5. I am really trying to get everyone to open up their creative side and combine decals. We created these decals to open up thousands of design possibilities. By combining decals, you will set yourself apart from other artists using decals.

ORCHID DECAL PENDANT:

I have a new camera that I am learning to use and the picture does not do this piece justice! The center of the flower is made with a tiny dichro "dot" that is 3-Dimensional and really makes this piece pop! See below to learn how to make and apply these to your designs!

1. To form the petals of the flower, I used the wing cut outs that were left over from the butterfly that I punched out for the previous pendant. I soaked them in water (as with all decals) and used a set of craft tweezers to place them in the shape of a flower on my glass piece.
Remember, you get 2 butterflies out of ONE decal, I am also using the cut outs on another piece. So, I am able to get 3 pendants out of just ONE decal. There are 6 decals total on the floral sheet.

2. I placed the rest of the orchid that I cut up on the first pendant randomly around the floral centerpiece.

3. The center of the large flower is a "dichro dot" that I used. I love making and using these in my projects. They are great on the floral decals as centerpieces. They are small and impossible to create by cold working, so here is how to do so. (Please see pics above!)
Cut random dichroic strips from 2mm (thin) dichroic glass. Use scrap glass or squares, black or clear back, as long as it is the thin dichroic glass, which is easiest to produce consistent results. Cut thin strips about 1/8 or 1/4" thick. Then, cut the strip into tiny squares about 1/8 or 1/4" long. Put your tiny squares in with your fused glass pieces. The glass will shrink up and ball up, leaving you with little dots that are great for so many projects.

4. Glue the tiny dot with E6000 on AFTER your decal firing. The dot will not come off if you apply your dichro dot with the glue and let dry 24 hours. Then, put your piece in your dedicated jewelry toaster oven at 275 degrees F for 30 minutes. Let cool naturally. This bond will be SOLID. We do this with our bails as well, they never fall off!

As always, you can e-mail me at tanya@aaeglass.com with all of your decal questions. To view or purchase the rest of our decal line by AAE Glass, visit our website at www.aaeglass.com

Thanks!

AAE