kaliha | __kali__'s Adventures in Glass Fusing

Yesterday I went on my glass fusing course and it as completely brilliant. My tutor for the day, Anne, runs a little workshop in the middle of the depths of Wales so I was treated to a gorgeous journey down twisty roads, narrow valleys and along the base of real, actual mountains.

The workshop was really light and airy with a massive kiln which looked like the cross between an industrial ironing press and the world's hottest sunbed. A Paragon kiln like the one I'd eventually like to buy and a diddly little Quickfire she uses for test pieces.

There was loads of workspace.

First off she showed me how to use her (very expensive) glass cutters (which are so much better than mine - I'm going to have to invest in some) and she showed me to different ways to cut glass and then let me spend half an hour or so cutting and breaking scrap glass so I could get used to handling the cutters and find a cutting style that suited me.

Then she gave me some bits of glass and let me have a go at making two simple slider pendants so I could get used to stacking, cutting the ceramic fibre and cutting fiddly bits of glass.

Then she fired them in the diddy kiln, showing me the different firing stages and venting a kiln. When it as up to temperature she opened the lid off the kiln so I could see the molten glass and she showed me the difference between tack and full fusing. And then how to cool them down. (which takes literal hours).

So here are the first two I made:

I know, the picture is appalling.

The one on the left is dark blue glass with inlays of oily glass and the one on the right is teal green with rippled glass up the left hand side.

Looking at the no I can see lots of little flaws, like where I didn't cut the glass big enough so it's not fused together properly. white spots where I have used too much glue, and because the glass wasn't really really clean there's also spots of devitrification where all the muck has gathered up. However for a first go I'm quite pleased with them.

Then I was left to my own devices to make my own little bits and pieces.

Here’s a picture of some of what I maded yesterday before it were fused. But this is only about half of it as I forgot to take more pictures. The white bits are ceramic fibre to make the threading holes.
1) Oily coloured base with a thick clear irridecent ripple and clear glass on the top
2) Clear circle-pattern dichroic with a clear top.
3) Dark green base with red dicroic squares and copper wire ‘circles’ with clear glass on top
4) Dark blue with artfully placed copper wire and a clear glass top
5) Red base with red/orange dichroic glass and a clear top
6) Turquoise base with clear rippled dichroic squares and a clear top
7) Dichroic base with a clear top to make a simple Cab for PMC/Wire wrapping
8) Clear triangular base with a thick blue ripple of dichroic glass and some bits of clear glass at the top to make a hanger
9) My favourite, clear base and clear top with squares of green dichroic running up it.

I think I did about 20 pendants all together.

I learnt that I need to practice cutting glass the same size as it does look a little bit tatty where the top glass doesn’t quite over the bottom glass. But that shouldn’t be a problem is I can build a sliding guide thing out of a bit of wood and a set square. I need to have proper glass cutters and not the rubbish I bought already and I need some decent plastic glass breakers because they were awesome. And maybe one day a glass grinder (or a drill with a grinding bit).

Apparently most people may make five or six pendants in a day class, I did something like 22. But it was going to be the only time I'd get a chance to try out different things so every single pendant was quite different.

The first batch of 15 or so were being fired when I left and the second batch were going to be done today. She said that she'd try to send them out to me at some point over the next week. So I'll be able to show you the others.

Anne was absolutely brilliant and if you're thinking of doing something along the lines of the glass I did then give me a shout and I'll give you her details.

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11nine73.livejournal.com

OMG they are sooooooo pretty!

And I am so jealous! I'd love to do that. I bought a book and everything, but our house is a bit too small. And also a house and therefore prone to burning down.

But when I pass my test (and I have my provisional license again yay!) I shall take PeJay out and about and do things like that.