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Bunny Nightlight - Thin white glass on white and salmon streaky opal glass with a clear base - ready and labelled for firing

The lion's share of the time spent on this little nightlight plaque was spent on the shaping of the rectangles to make the body ears, haunches, feet and tail.  I very quickly assembles the shaped pieces so that I could get it fired prior to the next session - I was impatient and did not want to wait a week. 

Bunny Nightlight - Thin white glass on white and salmon streaky opal glass with a clear base - pre-firing

There  are pros and cons to this speedy approach to assembly and this time I was pretty lucky.  If I were to take a great deal more time, I would not have overlapped the pieces, but ground each piece to perfectly align with the piece next to it.  This does not always result in seamless edges, however. In fact when tacking, and not full fusing, the edges between carefully fitted pieces are often accentuated - its like they pull apart.  I took a chance on overlapping, particularly since I selected thin white glass, as opposed to 2mm white glass.  White, for some reason, is particularly difficult to work with, so I opted for the thinnest piece. 

Bunny Nightlight - Thin white glass on white and salmon streaky opal glass with a clear base.

I am looking forward to seeing how much light is able to travel through this translucent glass and if the layers of white work or become a distraction with a light source behind the image.  This "light source" consideration adds an entirely different layer of planning and reflection to the creative process.  What first attracted me to glass was the transparency and intensity of colors.  By layering two transparent colors, a third color is easily created without adding the actual third piece of glass. I am most concerned about the locations where  there are actually 5 layers of glass.

I don't think transparent colors will be particularly appealing in a night light, however, for a couple of reasons.  For one thing, fully transparent glass, even in layers, will allow the light bulb and bulb housing to clearly show through when lit - a big distraction for any image created.  I also prefer a nightlight to defuse and softened light, and not blast light in the night darkness.  I am hopeful that a more translucent, and not transparent glass, will create a softer glow and not a lighthouse beckon blasting out light beams to guide the way!!!  I am also hopeful that the tail of the rabbit (the bottom of the circle being the place where there are 5 glass layers,) does not just appear to be a gray blob.