Welcome to DesignsByDiane.us
Thank you for visiting. My name is Diane Miller.
DesignsbyDiane is a family business consisting of myself and my mom, Patricia Miller. We live in beautiful Albuquerque, NM.
We make and design Fused Glass (which is warm or kiln-formed glass). On this site, you’ll see jewelry sets, bowls and a cross. There are descriptions of the glass pieces that will help you understand how they’re made. I’m in the process of creating more, so check back soon!  I hope that you enjoy browsing.

There is a new trend called Glass Fusing.  Fused glass is warm or kiln-formed glass that bakes in a kiln and can reach temperatures up to 1600 degrees.  It is very different from Glass Blowing and Stained Glass.  Even the glass you purchase for fusing is different from stained glass.

To design a piece takes a relatively short amount of time.  First, cut the glass to the shape you desire using glass cutters and wearing gloves and goggles, of course.  You don’t want glass in your eyes or cuts on your hands!  Then, you use a special type of glue to put the decoration on top.  For this set, I used black dichroic strips as the topping.  It generally bakes in the kiln for about 2 hours, so you can do something else.  You just can’t leave the house, unless of course, you’ll be right back!  When it’s done and the temperature is about 1500 degrees, shut the kiln off.  It has to cool about 8-12 hours, which is usually overnight in my case.

Dichroic glass dates back to the 4th century AD and NASA developed the modern-day dichroic.  The Lycurgus Cup is the earliest know example of dichroic glass, which is a Roman glass cage cup.  It is permanently housed at the British Museum, London.  This cup and other dichroic pieces show a different color depending on whether or not light is passing through the piece.  For example, looking at the Lycurgus Cup on Wikipedia, you can see that it’s mostly varieties of red, whereas the other picture shows the cup as green.

Many of my jewelry sets have dichroic as a decoration.  Some of the dichroic patterns that I use show different colors when it’s finished.  Many colors are opaque or translucent.

Thanks for stopping by!
Have a wonderful day!