Video showing how to make simple fused glass pendants with Dichroic glass

If you are new to fusing glass and want to see how to create some great yet very simple Dichroic Glass pendants or earrings, click on the link below.  The video was made by Chewysmum and found on YouTube.

Click here to view video: Fused Dichroic Glass Pendant Video

Pot melt project with flower pots

This is a FUN scrap glass pot melt idea that I saw posted on Lampworketc.com by 28676bhe.  

Go to Michael's and buy two of the small clay flowerpots - maybe 1 1/4 inches at the top. Ream out the hole in the bottom to make it a bit larger. Then stack them with the holes touching - one pot upside down on the kiln washed shelf, one pot upright.

Put some Bullseye glass in little pieces in the top pot - maybe just 2 colors and then one color of frit. Don't fill it up! A bit over half full is fine.

Take this up to 1600 DF and hold for 25 minutes, anneal @ 900 for 35 minutes.

You will have one fabulous circle pendant that is a swirl of the colors you chose!

Painting a design on a fused glass pendant, video

Here's a great idea for those glass artists that want to paint and fire glass art glass pieces that aren't huge and detailed.  It's also a great way to learn how to start glass painting.  This video shows Michelely (her name on YouTube) painting a fused glass pendant.  The video doesn't have volume but she does show the type of paint she used, Pebeo Porcelaine 150.  

To cure Pebeo Porcelaine 150 it can be fired in a home oven to 300 degrees.  So it's probably not as permanent as kiln fired paints and stains.  Just imagine what beautiful pendants you can create with kiln fired paints and stains!

Click here to view this video!

Fused glass pendant using decals, tutorial

We discovered this great blog, Fused Glass Decals and wanted to share it with our readers.  It is loaded with excellent information and tips on creating glass art using their glass fusing decals.  Below is a sample of what you will find on their blog.

Pelican Beach Fused Glass Decal Pendant Tutorial

www.aaeglass.com presents:

Pelican Beach Pendant

Welcome to our first monthly fused glass jewelry tutorial! Each
month, I will share a new design using our fusible glass decals.
I love to teach and share my designs with fellow glass enthusiasts. This is why
I came up with all these snazzy, glass fusing decals for your pieces!
I spend a lot of time actually designing individual pieces, rather than making
slabs and producing large batches. I have a sketch book with hundreds
of designs and with the constant new development of fusing products
I find that almost any scene can come to life using glass. This Pelican Beach
pendant was created using very little dichroic glass. Try making some
pieces without the glitzy dichroic glass, and see what your mind comes up with.
You will be surprised! Please let me know if you need any assistance
with this project! info@aaeglass.com.

Materials Needed:

Tropical Scenes Fusing Decal Sheet (DL-120)
White Fusible Glass
Blue (your choice of shade) Fusible Glass
Dichroic aqua glass
Glass Line White Paint
Frit Blend
Glue
Dremel
Paint Brush or Paint Stick
Glass cutter & breaker

Step 1: Cut your glass blanks. I used a 2"H x 1"W white opal glass blank.
For your second layer, cut a white piece of glass that is 1" x 1" for the bottom
(the beach) and a 1" x 1" blue/turquoise for the top (ocean.) Glue these pieces
to your white base piece.

Step 2: To create the beach area, I use my own frit blend. I have lots of these
made up, and this will take some planning on your part, but I love making
these blends. In this case I used "beach sand" colors of frit, put them in a
large jar and simply stirred the frit colors with a Popsicle stick to get a nice
blend. Put your blend in a container and mark the blend. This blend
is simply called "beach blend" for me and I used tan, amber, shell & black.
Take your WHITE GLASSLINE paints and spread the paint over the bottom
portion of your piece. While the paint is still wet, add your frit blend to the bottom.

Step 3: Take your Dremel (etching creme will also work if you do not
own a Dremel) equipped with your diamond tip, and literally "draw"
wavy lines in your blue dichroic glass. The dichoric side must be facing
up in order for your design to be etched into the glass! Glue the dichroic
piece to the blue part of the glass. Your underlying blue will show through
the dichoric glass you just etched revealing your wavy lines simulating
the ocean.

Step 4: Go back to your glass line white paint and use a small paint brush
or the tip of the bottle to add accents to the ocean water indicating
the surf. Do this sparingly!

Step 5: Fire your piece to a full fuse face down on a kiln washed or thin fire paper
shelf. YOU MUST WAIT FOR THE GLASS LINE PAINT TO DRY FIRST.

Step 6: Once the piece has cooled, add your clear cap and full fuse again.

Step 7: Cold work your piece with a grinder or tile saw (or both.) Fire polish
your creation.

Step 8: Apply your low - fire fused glass pelican decal from your
tropical scenes sheet. (See website www.aaeglass.com for full decal
applying instructions.) LET DRY OVERNIGHT! Do NOT cap clear!
Your decal will go on your finished, fire polished piece.

* Why not add a blazing orange sun decal from our sun and moon pack? :)

Step 9: Fire your LOW FIRE fusing decal to the low fire schedule provided.
These schedules, along with full instructions, can also be found on our
website at www.aaeglass.com. Add a bail of your choice. Viola! Masterpiece!

Cutting glass for fused glass pendants

Here's a simple tip for anyone new to fusing glass pendants that will have a clear or transparent glass cap (layer).

When you cut glass pieces when making a pendant with two pieces of glass fused together, make the top piece of glass a fraction of an inch larger than the bottom piece.  Do this so that the top piece will melt completely over the bottom piece.  That way the bottom piece of glass is totally encased by the top layer. For this "look", you do not want to have any of the bottom piece of glass sticking out from under the top piece of glass unless your design was meant to look that way!

If you accidentally cut the top piece too small and the bottom layer is not covered by the top layer of glass, it is possible to use a glass grinder to remove that area.  Once completed you'll have to refire that piece of glass to fire polish the edges again.

As you can see in the photo below, the top clear cap glass is slightly wider than the bottom black piece of glass.

Sample image from http://www.craftstylish.com/item/5522/a-beginners-perspective-on-fused-glass-jewelry/page/all

Making fused glass jewelry by Aanraku Glass Studios

Today we decided to share a link to an older thirteen page tutorial written by Aanraku Glass Studios in 2004.  It teaches glass artists how to make fused glass pieces for jewelry, such as pendants or earrings in a kiln.  The page is full of great information for anyone new to fusing, and even for artists that are experienced, but looking for a different fusing technique.

We noticed that Aanraku used a large piece of dichroic glass for this tutorial.  We advise newbies to use a MUCH SMALLER piece to practice with!  As we all know, dichroic glass is quite expensive.

Click here to read the tutorial, Aanraku Stained Glass Fusing Tutorial 

Glass fusing in a microwave oven!

by Glass Fusing Made Easy
http://www.glass-fusing-made-easy.com




After doing some research about the subject of glass fusing in microwave, this is all the information that I have gleaned. There is not much information on the internet about these kilns, but they seem to be gaining in popularity lately.

These are very small kilns; actually a small ceramic piece that you can just put in your microwave oven and the concentrated heat inside will melt the glass.

They can be seen for sale on eBay for about $100. Sounds like a nice inexpensive way to get into fusing, but it has very limited space, and you will still need to anneal the glass in a kiln. Besides the limited space, the glass can heat unevenly and be hard to control. For the amount of money you are spending on this tiny kiln, you could purchase a used kiln. I would recommend putting your money towards a small tabletop kiln. These glass fusing in microwave kilns can give you only a tiny taste of what it is like to fuse glass in a kiln. 

The suppliers for these kilns are in Switzerland and Japan. The microwave kilns are about 4” in Diameter. These kilns are designed for making small jewelry pieces. The internal temperature goes up to 850 C degrees. So you can melt glass or fuse it. It has been suggested that if you preheat the small kiln with the glass inside on defrost for about five minutes before you do a full fuse, you will enable you to have more control.

Simply line the small chamber with some thin fire paper to prevent sticking. Cut tiny pieces of glass and place them in the kiln. You will need to play around with the surface tension and the size of the piece to get the shape you desire. It takes about 3-4 minutes to melt the glass. Glass Fusing in microwave takes a lot of attention, as you don’t have control and the glass could melt into a glob in no time at all. Allow to cool completely before opening the chamber.

Some people feel that it is not wise to fire dichroic or iridescent glass in this kiln, while others say that that is just a myth. If you purchase a Microwave kiln, please be sure to read all the instructions and ask questions.