Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Glass Fusing class

Last week was a last day of my glass fusing class. I took it out of curiosity and because it matched my kids class schedule. They were in class learning about arctic animals and tsunamis and I was in class cutting glass two doors down - it was perfect!

Over the course of 8 classes I made over 30 pieces of full fused and tack fused glass, most of which I must define as unsuccessful. There are a lot of things to consider when you fuse glass and it is not as easy as one might think. There is the design - cutting is hard!!!:), there is color of the glass which might change in a kiln, there is the thickness of your glass. In full fusing your piece will always end up quoter inch thick, so when you lay 2 or 3 pieces on the top of each other consider the expansion because if the stack is thicker then quoter inch you might end up with a coaster instead of a pendant. There is a temperature control in a kiln which was in the instructor hands. She did a great job, but some pieces still had bubbles or scummed surface. Also I made a mistake of not buying my own glass and I didn't have many choices using the instructor bought glass. She invested in a lot of beautiful dichroic pieces but left out the solid colored ones.

Here are posted the pieces I am happy with, some of them will make pendants. Full fuse. Tack fuse. My first wire wrapping work. I have never done it before and did it in class on the piece that I don't like. This pendant is an experiment and is not considered wearable. I just want to post a picture for a record:)

2 comments:

  1. Glass fusing is sooo cool :) I can't wait to get my own kiln so I can start with that! and those pieces that you made are so beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you! I was more excited about glass fusing before the class. Now I know for sure I am not buying a kiln:) I might be happier with lampwork, I think...

    ReplyDelete