MT-headed Designs

What is a Mag?

Mag - short for Magless. These pieces were created for exchange with other glass artists. Some of the exchanges were as few as 25 participants while others were as many as 125. A mag is a piece small enough to be a refrigerator magnet but since you can not ship items with magnets through air mail they are sent without the actual magnets on the back. This is how they got the name Magless.

Sorry for the bad photography, I'm still working on that.

Warm Glass Exchange - 2010

This year I created a glass cab, sort of like a half marble, and tack fused it to my base piece. The design element on the base was sandblasted and then painted with an oil base paint. After applying paint to the recessed area I then wiped most of it out to give it a kind of washed out / old look. I like the different textures of this piece with the globe dome of the cab and the carved out area of the design element. Had to make 75 of these for the exchange.

Warm Glass Exchange - 2009

While I think my lampwork turned out well I have to admit, I am a bit disappointed in my mag this year. I normally put as much effort into the base as I do the lampwork (as evident in previous years) but I fell short on this one. I had a new technique in mind to try on these bases but it didn't work out. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to come up with something else before I had to ship these. That being said, I am happy with the dogwood flower, this was my first attempt at this flower. I also think the branch cane turned out nicely.

Click on the pic to enlarge, the detail shows nicer in the larger pic.

Larger version of the Dogwood mag.

Click on photo to enlarge.

This was the first batch to come out of the kiln. The first batch is always the scariest on a new design since you are not quite sure of the perfect schedule at this point. I thought these looked pretty all grouped together so I wanted to take a pic. :)

Click on the pic to enlarge.

SF Holiday Exchange 2007

This was a Christmas Cookie exchange. Mine is supposed to represent a sugar cookie complete with white icing.

This flower's components are easy to make but the assembly takes quite a bit of time. Much more labor intensive than most of my flowers.

SF Holiday Exchange 2006

Louisiana Frosty

WG Exchange 2005

I missed the deadline on this exchange but I still sent out over 80 of them. :( Be sure to pick on the picture to enlarge.

What you can't tell from this picture is that the flower sits on a platform that is tacked into a kilncarved area. Hubby didn't think I should post the pic since it shows no depth but what the heck, told him my friends wouldn't mind.

Base is kilncarved, sandcarved and enameled using Ferro white with just a touch of FM yellow to cut the brightness. I have absolutely no idea why the bottom bases took almost 2 weeks to complete!!! They look so plain. You can't see the depth of the various layer in the picture. The kiln carved area is really much more distinctive and the small oval that sits inside of this area has a layer of clear under the black layer so it really catches the light.

Large base is 2-1/2" x 2-1/4".

Decided to add a side view.

Click on the pic.

The platform is tack fused in the final firing along with the flower. Leaves a little bit of a "wet" spot where it actually fuses together but you don't normally look at it from this angle.