Dishing on the Dish

I recently had a little fun crafty excursion with some women I know locally, to a glass-making place, where we all decorated glass pieces: bowls, plates, a cheese board, and in my case and a few others, something they call a swoop dish. This is a plate divided into four quarters, which is first put in the kiln flat to melt everything in, and then kilned again over a mold to make it swoop. Thus, this is what I made:

And the overhead view:

It was great fun picking small pieces and moving them around, considering the effect, moving them again. Because unlike painting, you can change your mind! (At a quick search, I can't find that I wrote about doing a painting session, but I did do that, twice, with friends a few years ago, and while it was interesting, I found it very stressful, trying to keep up with what the instructor was showing us, and not being very good at the actual painting part. I tried the second time to see if I would relax and enjoy it more, but no.)

I started with these four squares, because the colors appealed to me.

Then I picked through the many little bits they had, laying them out.

Moving them around. 

Adding and removing and tweaking.

And finally, I settled on this. (If the layout is working right, that is the pre-firing on the left, and the finished piece on the right.)

It's an interesting learning experience, seeing what works better or not as well. I can see a few things I would do differently, if I do it again, and I'd like to! But I'm very happy with my dish.

Do you see the letter C? What about the outline of Florida? Anything else?