"Vegan" Wine Glass

I have wanted to do this project for some time. At one point, it was a lofty idea to create these glasses with etchings for some kind of event, but then time wore on and I just never got around to it.
(That and the fact that I realized that hand painting enough wine glasses for EVERYONE  for a special event would probably cause that event to leave a bad taste in my mouth later for all the work and heartache I'd associate with it!) And my prior etching creation met with a short life.

I wanted to do this for a friend of mine who was part of my inspiration to do this vegan-thing, and is the only person in my life that "gets" the crazy lifestyle we have embraced! This is part of her birthday gift to be presented in a week. I had sketched out months ago the idea of the word vegan written by vines with a hummingbird and sunflower incorporated into it. These are the symbols of out sorority and worked well with the overall design. (Originally I had used a hummingbird and hibiscus which might be a flower a hummingbird would actually drink from, but then used the sunflower for meaning. I allowed myself to use artistic license here!)

Because I didn't trust myself to do this freehand, I sketched everything out once again and taped it to the inside of the glass. Then, with the steadiest hand, I used permanent inks for glass and went to town. The "trunk" on the bottom that winds to the word, I did freehand.

I let the glass rest overnight and followed the directions for baking to set the inks. Rather than leaving the glass in for the required 30 minutes, I left it in there after I turned off the oven and let it cool there for about 6 hours.

Overall, I like the results. For my first attempt, I am pleased. I hope she is too.

Still feeling some inspiration, I decided to make another glass with circles. I've been obsessed with doodling them lately and they are soooooo easy to make. The end product looks awesome and you truly can't mess the concept up. Draw big circle, draw small circle, make sure there is no spacing as you continue to draw them, and repeat till the look is what you want.

I think the swirling pattern is pretty cool too. It is a bit of the bubbly on the outside of the glass!

Now I just have to do one for myself....