Last week I started some glass fusion workshop sessions, at The WASP studios in Glasgow, with the talented Catherine Lowe. I had never done anything like this before, so I was completely out of my comfort zone. As usual I was full of great ideas but did not have the technical knowhow to execute them.

I started with an ambitious twostep process which involved using powdered glass to create the background for my glass picture. This would be fired in the kiln in preparation for next week's class, during which I will be adding the detail.

I should explain that the image in my head is a wood of silhouetted trees surrounded by a carpet of bluebells. The problem is that I had to learn (the hard way!) that powdered glass may look one colour when dry and completely change colour when heated to the very high temperatures achieved in the kiln. It all feels a little bit of a lottery.

Then there is the delicate business of cutting the desired shapes out of sheets of coloured glass, to create the tree trunks. We practiced scoring clear glass and using implements to break it along the scored line.

It was all progressing very well until I moved on to the coloured glass! It didn't seem to want to play ball when I attempted the fairly thin shards of glass required for tree trunks. Let's just pretend these are fairly mature trees with a wider trunk then.

Next, I will be adding small pieces of glass called frits to represent leaves and bluebells. These should fuse to my prepared background, to create the desired effect, once subjected to the kiln again.

From what I can gather, the real skill is learning how to use the kiln properly, at what temperature and for how long.

It is important not to mix glass types either...apparently, we are using bullseye glass. Fortunately, we have Catherine on hand to deal with all of that.

It has been nice to take a challenge and get out of my comfort zone.