As our last glass project, some of the Teen and Adult students made these lovely Glass Frit paintings.  I just love these!  Some of them I took to a full fuse, others I did a custom fuse so the frit could retain some of the texture.  I thought they turned out beautifully and look so pretty with the light shining through.  We will be doing more of this for sure!

 

 

After our introduction to glass fusion through the making of frames, students in the Teen and Adult Classes were given the opportunity to continue their experimentation with glass by completing a full fusion glass project.

Design Basics for a Full Fuse

A Full Fuse  results in a finished piece that is smooth on top with rounded edges.

• Design Up (on top of the glass) or Design Down (under the glass).

Design Up: Compose on top of a solid piece of glass.

Lines will be soft and irregular because some glass colors flow sooner than others.

 

 

 

 

 

Design Down: Design with colored pieces on the kiln shelf and cover with a solid layer of clear sheet glass. The cap will hold the seams in the bottom layer together during firing resulting in crisp lines.

 

 

 

Photo from Bullseye Glass.

• 6 mm rule – Fused glass will retain a thickness of 6 mm. To retain the shape use a thickness of 6 mm or two layers of 3 mm.

If thinner, surface tension will cause the glass to pull in towards the 6 mm mark leaving a thick edge.

If thicker, it will flow outward to flatten to 6 mm unless it is constrained by dams.

Adding decorative glass on top of a 6 mm base lets you expand design options but if too much is added or it is too close to the edge, it may flow out and distort the edge of the piece.

To avoid this, keep added material ¾ inch from the perimeter.

• Avoiding Bubbles

Some bubbles are a natural part of glass fusion. Large bubbles can be distracting. Avoid them by always layering the glass smooth side up, work with full layers of glass and allow pathways for air to escape.

Here is a look at some of the tiles created in class:

A few of the students chose to have their tiles slumped into bowls.  Here is a look at a few of the bowls:

The adult and teen class had a great time learning about glass fusion.

We learned how to cut glass and how to layer it to achieve different effects.

Glass Cutting

• Cut on smooth side.
• First cut is a score line – cut from one edge to the next.
• Hold it straight up and down to make contact with glass.
• Use running pliers to break the glass – To adjust the pliers, screw it on then back off a bit. Works best when equal amounts on both sides of the pliers. For multiple lines, start in the middle and break into halves.
• If it doesn’t break, flip over and try on same line from the backside.

Layer glass pieces smooth side up to avoid bubbles.

Glue: Super glue burns off at 400 degrees. Glue on edges not center so it has a way to escape.

Sharpie: Black Sharpie burns off. Colors do not.

Glass Frames

For the first project, we made glass frames/mirrors.  We did this by constructing two layers and tack fusing them together and adding embellishments.

Here is a look at some of the finished projects:

 

 

Send me an email if you still need to come and pick up your glass.

Have a great weekend!