Project 47: Finished glass and lessons learned

Here it is! See how the edge is clear and the frit made little brown speckles everywhere? I think this dish would look great with my homemade soap in it. What do you think?

I would like to thank Melsie Glass for hosting me and giving me so much information about fusing glass. It was great fun!

Lessons learned:
– On the one hand, making fused glass seems pretty simple. You cut glass pieces, lay them out, and fire them.
– On the other hand there is a lot of science behind doing it well, I think. There are chemical reactions between glass colors, firing temperatures and lengths of time, and more that I probably don’t even know about.
– But wow, look at the finished pieces you can make! Talk about impressive.

If you are interested in learning to fuse glass in the Triangle area you can take classes at these places:

Carolina Stained Glass in Durham
Pullen Arts Center in Raleigh

If you’re not local check a glass store or an arts center near you. Enjoy!

Project 47: In the kiln

When we last left our dish it was designed and ready for its long nap in the kiln. It takes half a day to fuse glass in the kiln, and then longer to shape  and finish the piece. For the purposes of this blog entry we will be demonstrating using pieces that had already been finished.

Here is the piece in the kiln. It is sitting on special kiln paper to protect the kiln floor. The kiln needs to heat the glass to 1500 degrees F for a full fuse, which is what we’re looking for. At that temperature the glass fully liquifies and becomes one piece.

For technical details about fusing glass visit WarmGlass.com.

After the piece has fully fused and cooled enough to handle, it can then be shaped in a process called slumping. For this step you need a ceramic mold to give the glass its final shape. The kiln is heated again but not as hot — just until the glass becomes soft enough to take the shape of the mold.

We chose to make a soap dish, so here it is in the soap dish mold:

Check back tomorrow for a photo of our finished piece and my lessons learned.

Project 47: Cutting the glass

Just before Christmas I was invited to the studio of Melsie Glass to learn how she makes beautiful fused glass pieces like the one above. You can see more of her work at her Etsy store (or will be able to when she returns from her Christmas vacation).

Before fusing glass one needs to buy some glass. Melsie Glass is made from a brand called Bullseye Glass. If you would like to try this yourself you can find it online or at a local glass shop. In the Triangle area of NC you can find it at Carolina Stained Glass in Durham. It is important to use the same kinds of glass when fusing to guarantee that they will expand and contract at similar rates to each other. The other supplies you need are glass cutting tools and access to a kiln.

Then it’s just a matter of cutting and designing your piece. We chose to make a simple dish using a piece of clear glass on the bottom and brown glass on the top. Here we are cutting the clear glass:

We then placed the brown piece on top:

Notice how the clear is still visible around the edges? That will create a neat effect once the piece is fused.

For decoration we used small glass chips called frit. These were sprinkled over the top of the brown portion of the glass:

Then our dish was ready to go into the kiln.

Project 47: Glass

Do you see how close I’m getting to the end? I have one week left to at least start the last 4 projects and I think I’m going to make it!

I can’t even tell you how excited I am to share this project with you this week. Since the beginning of my blog I have wanted to feature a glass project but I had no luck finding someone to teach me. Then, a couple of weekends ago, I was at a pre-Christmas craft show and there was a local person there with some beautiful fused glass pieces. I took a chance and asked if she would be willing to show me how to do it, and she agreed!

So join me over the next couple of days as I show you how to make things out of fused glass. I’m very excited!

Photo by tylluan on Flickr