Annie Dotzauer

From Lemons to Lemonade - Annie Dotzauer

On June 7 there was a bubble load in the kiln at club. My two layer 12” x 12” piece had a large bubble in it. My issue was what to do with that piece. After brainstorming a bit I decided I would make a scene to surround the hole. I drew out a bird house and began to construct it over the hole. I wanted to put it at an angle since the hole was not centered. I added some CFE black paint on to the roof of the side of the house . I then melted brown strips of glass and made

some branches for a tree. (Full Fuse)The next step was to make some small leaves to attach to the branches. I used vitro graph for the middle vein and extended it down to be connected to the main branch.

� Birdhouse by Annie Dotzauer1

Annie Dotzauer

Here are the post-firing results of the leaves and branches. Branches are a full fused. Leaves are a contour firingWhile the leaves and branches were firing I started on the birds. I

decided I would put in yellow finches. I cut out the shapes of several yellow finches and then cut out matching wings of the the yellow finches. I painted them with Colors for Earth

enamel paints. I will fire the finches with the wing on top for added dimension. Here is the finished bird. I have a CFE firing schedule.

� Birdhouse by Annie Dotzauer2

Annie Dotzauer

Now to compose for the final firing. I added pieces of small vitro graph to the bottom of the bubble hole. This will serve as part of the nest.

Then I simply laid the branches in the desired location along with the leaves. When placing the leaves I was very careful to note where the small holders in my stand were located. I did not want the leaves that went off the edge to interfere with the edges of the stand. I tacked with glue so that when I position the birds things would not move around. Note: the gray on the top of the birdhouse will turn black.

Lastly I placed the birds into position. Next I put in one of the finches into the hole to give the illusion of the bird looking out of the hole. I added a bit of clear glass scraps under the birds so that I would not loose the dimensional quality of the piece. I wanted to make sure there was some overlapping of the leaves and extending over the base piece. I lightly tacked down the pieces with Elmers clear school glue so that things would not shift when taking it to the kiln. Contour firing

� Birdhouse by Annie Dotzauer3

Annie Dotzauer

Here is a close up of the fired finches and the final piece before it went into the kiln.

Schedules for firing on the next page.

� Birdhouse by Annie Dotzauer4

Annie Dotzauer

� Birdhouse by Annie Dotzauer5