Stained Glass Express - The Blog – Tagged "project ideas"

Making Fused Glass Snowflakes

two delicate glass snowflakes with blue and clear

Picture by The Avenue Stained Glass

To make these amazing snowflakes, you will need:

A snowflake mold

Primer brush

Small measuring spoons

Digital Scale

Zyp primer

Assorted fine and medium frits (96 or 90 COE)

Dichroic frit flakes

You can watch a Youtube video here: Making Snowflakes with Colour de Verre Molds - Bing video

Colour de Verre snowflakes are amazing. They are great as an ornament or gift, or you can use them as embellishments on other projects.

Colour de Verre introduced the first snowflake mold in 2012. Both the 2012 and 2013 molds are being retired soon. If you have one, lucky you! They are so scarce, we can’t find any.

The 2017 snowflakes are the largest at 5.5 inches. There are two separate molds, one released in January and one in December.

The 2016 is also large and you get two designs.

Colour De Verre 2015 Snowflake Mold (stainedglassexpress.com)

Colour De Verre 2014 Snowflake Mold (stainedglassexpress.com)

Colour de Verre recommends that all of their molds be prepped with Zyp spray.

Posted on October 16, 2023

Janet Parkhurst

Tagged: Beginners, Fusing, product information, project ideas, tips and tricks

Get Reactive

Glass is made from sand, limestone and sodium carbonate. To get stained (colored) glass, other minerals are added.

Glass Pigments

Compounds	Colors
iron oxides	greens, browns
manganese oxides	deep amber, amethyst, decolorizer
cobalt oxide	deep blue
gold chloride	ruby red
selenium compounds	reds
carbon oxides	amber/brown
a mix of manganese, cobalt, iron	black
antimony oxides	white
uranium oxides	yellow-green (glows!)
sulfur compounds	amber/brown
copper compounds	light blue, red
tin compounds	white
lead with antimony	yellow

Because these minerals are in the glass, they can react with one another when they come in contact. Some products have been developed for just that purpose. Oceanside has frit and glass called Red Reactive transparent and Red Reactive opal. It will react with any glass that has copper in it. It will give a deep reddish color where the reactive frit and copper-bearing glass intersect.

Oceanside Red Reactive Opal Stringer 96 COE (stainedglassexpress.com)

Oceanside Red Reactive Transparent Noodles 96 COE (stainedglassexpress.com)

Oceanside Red Reactive Transparent Stringer 96 COE (stainedglassexpress.com) Sulfur-bearing products will also react with copper bearing products. The link below will bring you to Oceanside’s Reactive charts. Reactive Guide – Oceanside Art Glass (oceansidecompatible.com) Vanilla Cream is a high sulfur content glass that is also reactive, it even changes from within. After full fusing the inside of the glass stays its pre-fused off-white color while the outside brightens to a vivid warm white. Oceanside Vanilla Cream Opal Glass (stainedglassexpress.com) Bullseye also has reactive products.

Bullseye Reactive Cloud Opal Frit- Medium 90 COE (stainedglassexpress.com) Bullseye Reactive Cloud Opal Frit- Powder 90 COE (stainedglassexpress.com) This is a link to the Reactive Potential of Bullseye Glass. It is truly amazing and very fun to play with these combinations. Reactive Glass Chart.pdf (amazonaws.com)

Posted on May 12, 2023

Janet Parkhurst

Tagged: design, Fusing, product information, project ideas

Modeling Glass

MODELING GLASS

Ever wish you could get more detail on a project? Modeling Clay is the answer. It was developed by Glass Bird Studios. It is a two-part kit that has a powdered binder and liquid medium. It is mixed with water and your own powdered glass or frit. Once it is mixed, it is the consistency of clay and you can work it like clay. It is food safe and non-toxic. You can pretty much do everything with it that you do with clay. Roll it, cut out shapes, put in silicone molds. You can then fire to a tack and get amazing detail.

Glass Bird Modeling Glass Starter Kit (stainedglassexpress.c om) Lois Manno, the owner and developer of Glass Bird Modeling Glass, is a talented, experienced artist. Her love of nature shows in her artwork. She is most known for her feathers made from Modeling Glass.

This incredible image is made by Bob Leatherbarrow, who is one of our industry’s amazing artist and teacher. He created the lines with Modeling Glass.

See more of this work at www.leatherbarrowglass.com

Posted on April 14, 2023

Janet Parkhurst

Tagged: Fusing, product information, project ideas, tips and tricks

Bottle Club

FUSING GLASS BOTTLES OR “HIDING THE EVIDENCE” Don’t you just hate to throw out those wine and liquor bottles? They are quite nice with the graceful shapes and the beautiful colors. Make them into fused art! First (and most important) step is to clean them. The labels and any glue must be completely removed to be sure that no residue is fused onto the glass. Use very hot water with ½ cup baking soda and 1 tablespoon of dish soap. Submerge them in the water and let them soak for 10 minutes then add 2 cups of white wine vinegar. Roll your bottles around so the vinegar mixes in. Let them soak until you can get the labels off. Once the bottles are clean you have some options. You can just lay it in the kiln and full fuse it. This one just has a little decorative wiring and some etching. You could add a decorative knife and have a nice little gift.

Another option is to use a bottle mold. There are all types available. See the full collection here.

There are textured molds. The one above has a lovely Tree of Life motif.

Drop molds, such as the one above, make an interesting shape. You also can use a textured flat mold, such as the one below, and then slump it into a bottle mold.

You may get devitrification with some bottles. To prevent it, spay with a divit spray like Spray A.

Posted on May 10, 2019

Janet Parkhurst

Tagged: Beginners, equipment & tools, Fusing, gift ideas, product information, project ideas

Stained Glass Express - The Blog / project ideas

Making Fused Glass Snowflakes

Get Reactive

Modeling Glass

Bottle Club