How hot is it in Texas?

It’s so hot that I think my dad is feeling sorry for the poor little birds that can’t find any water to cool off in.

A few weeks ago my dad stopped by my workshop and asked if I could make him a bird bath. I think he said, “You can use any old glass.” In fact, he first talked about melting wine bottles together in a circle. Honestly, I just wasn’t feeling the whole wine bottle thing. So my next thought was to use float glass. Float glass is basically plain old window glass. Very inexpensive when compared to the glass I normally use for fusing. Of course, I didn’t want it to be just a plain clear glass bowl. I experimented and ended up using a fiber paper to do bas relief leaves on a circle with a soft sandblasted finish.

I didn’t have an appropriate mold for this project, but was all too happy to have an excuse to buy one. I splurged on a round stainless steel bowl mold. It’s a shallow mold so it’s perfect for a birdbath.

The finished birdbath is 16.5 inches in diameter and 2 inches high. Now it’s up to my dad to make a stand for it. There are about to be some happy little birds in this neck of the woods.

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