Adventures in Fandom!Glass Fusing
January 2nd, 2009 06:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kalihaI've tried to make Christmas presents with a bit of a difference this year, and decided to make a Who-themed pendant for one of my flistees.
Because I'm still learning how to do this glass fusing malarky I decided to keep it nice and simple.
I started with a TARDIS template I found on![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
crafty_tardis which I resized down to about 30mm high.
I placed a piece of fusible glass on the top of it and traced (I know, what an awful cheat) the TARDIS onto the glass with special enamel paint. When it dried I did another coat and once that dried I went over all the lines with a pin to scratch off any blobs of enamel and neaten up all the lines.
I then tack fused another piece of clear glass onto the top of it (Tack fusing is when the glass is heated to about 800*C in a kiln; it starts to liquefy and the two pieces join together to form one piece of glass.)
I let that cool down and a couple of days later refused the pieces again onto some green-blue dichroic glass (Dichroic glass is fusible glass with a special coating on it with comes in a variety of colours/patterns)
And here it is fresh out of the kiln (apologies for the rubbish photo)
I drilled a hole in the top and smoothed off any rough edges with a grinder. (There's a piece of ceramic fibre paper in the hole so that the glass doesn't close up when it's refused.)
In the kiln being fire polished. (This is where the glass is heated just enough for the edges of the glass to go molten and smooth up.)
And the finished pendant. (Again, apologies for the rubbish photo)
By all accounts, as a present it went down rather well. I'm fairly pleased with how it turned out, but being the perfectionist I am was a bit annoyed that some bubbles crept in. I also think that if I did anything like this again I'd do it on much lighter dichroic glass so that you could see the design better.
In other Who-related news, in about 24 hours we will know who the Eleventh Doctor will be. The new-Outpost Gallifrey has already battened down the hatches and I wonder if LJ will survive the inevitable implosion about 7.05pm when the announcement is made.
Last minute poll:
[Poll #1324227]
(re: the last option - a friend pointed out today that it would be hill-hairy-arse if the Eleventh Doctor regenerated into the Tenth Doctor again, thus preventing the loss of the fangirl demographic)
Because I'm still learning how to do this glass fusing malarky I decided to keep it nice and simple.
I started with a TARDIS template I found on
crafty_tardis which I resized down to about 30mm high.I placed a piece of fusible glass on the top of it and traced (I know, what an awful cheat) the TARDIS onto the glass with special enamel paint. When it dried I did another coat and once that dried I went over all the lines with a pin to scratch off any blobs of enamel and neaten up all the lines.
I then tack fused another piece of clear glass onto the top of it (Tack fusing is when the glass is heated to about 800*C in a kiln; it starts to liquefy and the two pieces join together to form one piece of glass.)
I let that cool down and a couple of days later refused the pieces again onto some green-blue dichroic glass (Dichroic glass is fusible glass with a special coating on it with comes in a variety of colours/patterns)
And here it is fresh out of the kiln (apologies for the rubbish photo)
I drilled a hole in the top and smoothed off any rough edges with a grinder. (There's a piece of ceramic fibre paper in the hole so that the glass doesn't close up when it's refused.)
In the kiln being fire polished. (This is where the glass is heated just enough for the edges of the glass to go molten and smooth up.)
And the finished pendant. (Again, apologies for the rubbish photo)
By all accounts, as a present it went down rather well. I'm fairly pleased with how it turned out, but being the perfectionist I am was a bit annoyed that some bubbles crept in. I also think that if I did anything like this again I'd do it on much lighter dichroic glass so that you could see the design better.
In other Who-related news, in about 24 hours we will know who the Eleventh Doctor will be. The new-Outpost Gallifrey has already battened down the hatches and I wonder if LJ will survive the inevitable implosion about 7.05pm when the announcement is made.
Last minute poll:
[Poll #1324227]
(re: the last option - a friend pointed out today that it would be hill-hairy-arse if the Eleventh Doctor regenerated into the Tenth Doctor again, thus preventing the loss of the fangirl demographic)
