Frit Cast Experiment

During the year, there are times when you have more time to experiment on new work. For me, this typically happens at the beginning and end of the year when there are no shows. You may recall my post at the beginning of this year about making frit.

Well, one of the projects that I hoped to make was frit cast bowl. I had taken a class and made a 4.5" frit cast tile using only two colors of glass.

So, I hoped to use the technique to make a 12" bowl. I weighed the frit and fired the kiln. Unfortunately, this did not turn out as expected. This is because I measured the frit based on having 2 layers of glass, whereas my tile was based on a more than 2 layers. The technique was based on mounding the frit and having it spread out. Thus, I didn't have enough frit to nicely melt to the edges and the glass was at least 1" shorter than the intended 12" circle and of course, not uniform in thickness (thinner at the edges, thicker in the middle).

But not to waste anything, I've cut up the glass and incorporated it into the center of a plate.

I like the detail that you get from from the frit and could see doing more of these but adding more colors and making the frit more random (e.g. think of various colors of frit shaken up).

And, I'll still try to make that frit cast bowl. But, next time, I'll be more intentional at laying out the frit so it completely covers the base rather than mounding it and adding more frit overall. Once I get that done, I'll post it but most likely not until the end of this year or beginning of next, when I'm back to experimenting :)

How To Make Fused Glass Platters Using Pot Melts

I've made a number of platters using the glass I create from "aperture pours" or "pot melts." I like these because they are one-of-a-kind pieces as the glass used is individually created.

At shows, I am often asked I make these. First, I start by making the pot melts. These are created from putting various colors of sheet glass into a pot with one or more holes at the bottom. The glass is heated to about 1625-1700 degrees until it is molten and starts to flow out of the pot onto the kiln shelf. Because the glass is liquid, I use a stainless steel ring lined with fiber paper to act as a dam to contain the glass, so it doesn't flow off the shelf onto my kiln floor.

Depending upon the height that you place the pot above the shelf, you can create different patterns in how the glass drops. The way you lay out the colors in the pot also effects the design.

As I wanted to have 3 different centers, I created a third pot melt similar to the one above, then refired all three to thin them out as the dam resulted in glass that was a little too thick. Next, I sandblast the back to get rid of any kilnwash (what keeps the glass from sticking to the shelf) that may be on the back before I cut them up into 3" squares for the center.

Then I cut up sheet glass to add a border.

I fuse this face or design side down so that the lines are tighter around the border. After it comes out of the kiln, I coldwork or grind the edges so they are smooth and refire with the design side facing up. The result is the platter shown at the beginning of the post. And, the remaining glass from the pot melts is also cut up and used for other platters.

While it's difficult to tell from the photos, the pot melt glass contains raised ripples that were created as the glass dripped - I love this! What do you think? And, if you'd like to see some additional platters I've made, click here.

New Work: More Fused Glass Plates with Cut-Ups

Earlier I posted about various ways I make different types of glass that I cut up to create my fused glass plates. Here's a couple of the newer creations.

The first set are plates using a high temperature shelf melt:

Next, are some small and medium plates using a shelf melt that's sliced and laid on its side.

These styles are fairly new for me and I'm learning a lot about what I like and what others do as well. My favorite is the purple plate which looks really nice up close as you can all the different purple variations of the glass in the center. If you have a favorite or a style you like, let me know as I'd be interested in your thoughts.

New for Spring II: Fused Glass Window Pendants

I typically try to make new glass designs about twice a year, once before I begin my show schedule in Spring and the second before the holidays. Here's what I am calling "window" pendants because the solid glass creates a frame of the window that allows you to see the glass design. I have two styles, one where you see a glimpse and the other that reminds me of an open window with a roman shade.

To make these, I first make the patterned glass. This can be made from glass threads, chards, frit and bits.

After it's fused together, I cut it up with my tile saw and grind the edges to smooth them out so that they will fuse nicely in the next step.

And, I add the solid colored glass as the frame. This goes back into the kiln to be fused together.

Once again, I use my tile saw to cut the glass, this time into pendants. Next I grind the edges to make each pendant even. And then, these pendants go back into the kiln to be "fire polished."

Fire polishing gives the pendants a nice sheen as seen in the first photo above. This is my second batch of pendants. Here's a photo of the first batch just before going into the kiln to be fire polished.

I'm happy with how they turned out. In fact, the second batch is to restock some colors after my first show as well as expand into a few new designs. Let me know what you think.

New for Spring: Millefiori Fused Glass Pendants

The first fused glass pieces I purchased were years ago on my vacation to Venice. Of course, the dishes contained millefiori (which means a thousand flowers), something that one might associate with Murano glass. So, when I think of millefiori, I have fond memories of Venice (one of my favorite places) and wanted to capture that in my fused glass.

Millefiori isn't typically used much in glass fusing. First, it has a different COE or coefficient of expansion. This means that it cannot be combined with the typical fusing glasses (90 or 96 COE) as glass with different COEs expand at different rates when heated and is more likely to break. Recently manufacturers have made millefiori that works with the standard fusing glass but the color and design selection is rather limited. So, because I wanted the variety I decided to try making millefiori jewelry all with the glass coming from Italy.

When making the pendants, I decided to fuse the glass as a small panel that I would later cut up with my tile saw. I contained or dammed the panel using 2 sheets of fiber paper so that I would be less likely to lose the edges as the glass spreads out. Placing the millefiori into the panel was a little time consuming as each piece is placed individually.

But, the time and effort were worth it. I was very happy with how panel turned out. Next, I trimmed off the edges and refired. While I meant to fire polish the pendants because of the different COE, the pendants ended up fired more like a full fuse rather than a fire polish. This is because I used the temperature that I normally would without considering that these pendants were made from a different COE. After grinding all the edges, sandblasting and two tests later, I finally got the right temperature. And, here's how they turned out (before I attached the bails).

Lessons Learned:

• When working with a different COE, testing is important unless you want to spend time coldworking the glass. To be honest, while I though the 2 layers of fiber paper would work, I didn't know that it would. I probably should have started with one panel and tested it. And, I should have tested one pendant with the fire polish rather than fire a whole shelf loaded with pendants.
• Colors of the glass can change with firing, especially with the glass rods I used. The back side looks a little different than the front. Fortunately, a clear cap kept the rod colors in tack.
• More consistent, smaller patterns work, especially when the glass is cut up as you don't see as much of the larger, entire pattern. Also, I found that I prefer at least 4 different millefiori patterns to make the design interesting.
• Tiny millefiori expand with each firing, especially when taken to a full fuse.

I'm excited about these new pendants and am in the process of making the next batch in blues and greens keeping the above lessons in mind. Let me know what you think of these.