Blog / Category_Fusing

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.

Q: When I fuse my projects, sometimes I get medium to small bubbles. What causes them and how can I prevent them? A: Bubbles can be caused by many different things. First, uneven stacking of glass can result in air trapped between layers. To prevent this from occurring, check the placement of all the glass pieces and insure they are sitting properly on the base. Since the edges of the glass fuse before the center of the glass, cut your base glass 1/8” larger than the top layer to allow air to escape. Second, check the glass prior to fusing. Some glass may already have contained bubbles inside the glass, which may or may not affect the outcome. Q: After I fuse my pendants, I get uneven areas around the edges. What’s happening with the glass? A: You did not fire it long enough or to a high enough temperature for a full fuse. Try firing for a little longer time. Q: Sometimes my glass pieces look like a porcupine with spiky edges. What causes the glass to spike? A: Spiky edges can be caused by over-firing your piece. The spiked edges are caused by the glass grabbing as it is trying to shrink. Q: What caused my layered glass pieces to flatten? A: If the glass piece has flattened out too much, you have over fired the piece. To prevent this from happening, reduce your power and shorten your time. After your first firing, open the microwave and using Fireworks Hot Mitts™; carefully lift the lid to inspect the fuse piece. If the desired results have not been achieved, continue firing in 30 seconds intervals. Q: I tried to make a 1 inch pendant with embellishments, however after I finished fusing, the glass shrunk. How can I prevent this from happening the next time? A: Glass naturally wants to be ¼ inch thick when heated. Your glass will shrink or expand to obtain this depth. A good tip to remember is that if your piece is less than ¼ inch when you start, it will shrink up to reach this depth. If your piece is larger than ¼ inch when you start, it will want to flatten out to reach this depth. Q: What causes two pieces of dichroic or iridized glass to blow apart in the kiln? A: Repelling glass will occur with dichroic and iridized coatings. The coatings can’t be placed together for fusing purposes, because they repel each other. The only way to avoid this is to encase the coated glass with a non-coated glass, such as clear. This will cause the coated glass to be encased and sealed. Q: Yuck, this film appeared on my fused glass. What is it and how can I prevent this from happening? A: This dull white crystalline substance on the surface of your glass is known as devitrification. This is one of the most talked about glass fusing problems around. It can occur when your glass remains in a temperature range 1000ºF-1300ºF too long. You need to minimize the time spent in this temperature range. Gray or Scummy Edges - Gray or scummy edges can occur on pieces that have been fired once and then cold worked before refiring. Cold working involves using either a grinder or glass saw on a piece of glass. These can be avoided by thoroughly cleaning the glass before refiring the piece. Keep a bowl of clean water near your work area and soak the glass right after doing the cold work procedure. This will keep the edges damp and allow the piece to be cleaned easier. Scrub completely and let dry before proceeding with the refiring process. Q: My glass cracked! What happened? A: Cracking glass either during or after firing can be caused by a several things: thermal shock, heating up the glass too fast and compatibility. Thermal shock occurs either by taking the piece out of the kiln too soon, or by opening the kiln and exposing the hot glass to cool air. If the glass cracked in the kiln and it has an “S” shaped crack, the piece has heated too quickly. Slow down! Finally, if the crack occurs along the line where the two pieces of glass meet, then the two touching pieces are not compatible. Make sure the glass you are using have the same COE (coefficient of expansion). Q: How can I prevent my glass from shattering? A: Glass Shattering in pieces over 1” with more than 1 layer may sometimes shatter. To prevent this from occurring, reduce the power. This will allow the glass to heat slower and will be less likely to shatter. Next, make sure your glass is clean and dry before firing. Q: My fusing instructions say to clean my glass before firing, can I use a glass cleaning spray or detergent? A: We don’t recommend it. Detergents, dish soaps, multi-purpose cleaners, some window cleaners, ammonia and even denatured alcohol should NOT be used to clean glass. These can actually promote devitrification. We suggest diluted white vinegar or rinsing your glass with distilled water. Q: Every time I put my fuse glass project together, the pieces roll off before I can get it to the microwave. What can I do to prevent this from happening? A: To hold your fusing project together, mix one drop of glue. Apply a very thin amount on the back of the glass using a brush and allow the glue to dry thoroughly before firing.

This was fun! A customer came in with a stainless bowl that she had slump a thick piece of glass over. It stuck! She broke the ruined bowl off, but a very thin layer of glass remained on the mold. That prompted a discussion on how to get the rest of the glass off the mold and why it stuck anyway. First to get it off. She was first going to try fusing it off and if that did not work, she was going to sandblast the stainless. One or the other should work. Then she said she posted a picture of it on a facebook fusing group and prompted a discussion about prep of the stainless. Here is the surprise! Some people do not prep it AT ALL! I went to Facebooks Fusing 101: Any and Everything you Wanted to Know But Where Afraid to Ask. I said “Recently I heard that some people do not kiln wash stainless molds. I would be interested to hear what people think of this.” There were some differences of opinion to be sure..

• Cover with fiber paper or ZYP
• Spray with Boron Nitride (ZYP)
• If you use ZYP you rarely have to do it again
• I don’t use anything on stainless steel. As long as the glass is NOT an opal glass in contact with stainless steel and it is good quality, it is fine. You get a real shiny finish on the surface in contact with the stainless steel.
• It is minimal work to use a barrier. I would rather be sure instead of concerned.

My own fusing teacher was emphatic about using something. She suggested Slide because it is cheaper than most boron nitride products and it is easier than kiln washing. https://www.stainedglassexpress.com/boron-nitride-hi-temp-spray-coating.html?category_id=571 More inexpensive, but more labor, is to use kiln wash. The problem is that it slides off the mold easily. Here is the trick. Wash the mold with alcohol and then heat it in your kiln to 1200 degrees F for about ½ hour. Cool it. Then heat again to just under 500 degrees F and brush or spray on the wash in thin even coats. Allow the coating to dry completely between each application. Coat it until covered. After the first time this is done (and it does last a long time) we will just coat it put it on top of a hot kiln. Seems to work fine.

I have written many times about COE (coefficient of expansion) and how never to mix COEs. But what about art glass.. Can you fuse that? Yes you can! It is not like tested glass where everything that is 96 COE can be fused together. You cannot fuse one piece of art glass to another piece of art glass. Well, what the heck can you do with it? You can take two pieces of art glass from the same sheet and fuse them together! I saw a project where a person took baroque glass.. Two pieces. Stacked them on top of one another in different directions and made plates. They were beautiful! I don’t have a picture of the plates.. but imagine two pieces of this blue baroque full fused and then slumped! You could also make a slumped vase, or a bowl. Another idea is to smash it up and use it in casting molds. This picture is from Elegant Fused Glass by Karen. The difficulty is you will have to figure out your firing schedule. You may have to coat it with Spray A to reduce devit.

Paint pours are one of the most fun, exciting things to come along in our industry in a while. It is easy, and the results are amazing. Many people are doing this on canvas with acrylic paints, but in this industry we are going it on glass with enamel paints that can be fired. To do one of these projects you need: paints, layering mix, little cups, stir sticks, butane torch (optional), tray for catching the paint. https://www.stainedglassexpress.com/glass-paint-layering-mix-8-oz-.html https://www.stainedglassexpress.com/painting-markers/colors-for-earth-glass-enamels/ Some of the terminology you will hear are as follows: Dirty Pour. You pour/layer your paint in a cup and then set the glass on top of the cup and flip it over. Let the colors slide down and then lift the cup. So many variations. You can slide the cup around before picking it up or tilt it. After the cup is off you can blow with a straw or blow with the butane, drag something through it. You can also just kind of sling/dump the paint from the cup. Use more than one cup. Straight pour: Paint is poured/drizzled/dropped on the surface one at a time. Then you can use the variations above. Once the color is all over the surface you can wait a bit and then gently skin over the wet surface using an old credit card, palette, knife, fan brush etc. You can use the butane to bring up bubbles or pop air bubbles. Other fun things are to use a colander for pouring, or a sifter to sift dry powdered color on a wet base, a slotted spoon to create patterns, funnel to create pours. Let your imagination run wild!

I totally learned something this week. We always think that we know compatible glass by its COE. I really thought that when Bullseye started saying Bullseye compatible they were really trying to brand themselves and set themselves apart. Now Oceanside is doing the same. I read a very interesting article that was written by Daniel W. Schwoerer from Bullseye Glass. It is Bullseye Technotes #3. If you would like to read the entire article, click here: https://www.bullseyeglass.com/images/stories/bullseye/PDF/TechNotes/technotes_03.pdf To summarize, the article says that you really must take more than coe into consideration when deciding if glass is compatible. Mr. Schwoerer says you should also consider viscosity. COE would be how much the glass expands when being heated and how much it contracts when cooling. The viscosity would be the thickness. A high viscosity glass when melting would flow slower. The article does say how to test. I guess if you were doing a large piece and mixing glass (manufacturers) it may be important to do it. So the question is can you put 90 dichroic with Bullseye glass? It is small generally, probably not a lot of expansion and contraction and not a lot of viscosity flow. It is safe to put Wissmach with Youghiogheny or Uroboros or Spectrum. Goodness knows we have and we have done it successfully. However, now and then we hear “my piece cracked for no reason”. Well maybe now we know the reason?

If you have a difficult time adapting to change---LOOK OUT! There will be so many changes in the upcoming months, it will make your head spin! Oceanside made several announcements in July, 2018. We have been passing this news directly on to you through our eblast which go out a few times during the week. If you are not signed up for these and would like to be, click here: https://www.stainedglassexpress.com/newsletters.html. One announcement made was what would be retired July 1, 2018. For that list, click here. https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/3066318/art%20glass/96%20Transition/July%201st%202018%20Retired%20Products.pdf?t=1533154518844. To help you understand this list a bit and not to get too upset. A-100G does not mean clear granite is going away. It means clear granite in large sizes is going away. That is what the" A" in the front means. Architectural. The "I" in front of the next list means Iridized! Yep—that is a long list of iridized. Gone! Spectrum was outsourcing coated glass and Oceanside is having logistical problems doing that because it means crossing borders and dealing with NAFTA. Not easy. So they are hoping that in 2019 they will buy the equipment and start production again. The spoa number are the very beautiful opal arts. These: Nautica, Godiva, Sour Apple The next batch of numbers are Spirit glass numbers. Again just beautiful Art Glass. Rio, Valhalla, Sedona, Seattle. (and they even had cool names!!)

Some Info from The Frog Blog Dichroic glass is so beautiful and there are so many uses, it is just delightful. However, there are a few problems that knowledge can help deal with. One is that it is impossible to tell 96 from 90 COE if you get them mixed up. The answer to this one is—DON’T mix them up. Keep them labeled. If you keep scrap, keep it in a well-marked box. It is often important to know which side the dichroic coated side is to get the look you are going for. If it has a dark base, no problem—you can see it. However, on a transparent base, it can look the same on both sides! Reasons you may want to know this? Cutting. Always cut on the non-coated side of the glass. It will help prevent chipping, especially on textured glass. It also saves your cutter. Coated Side Down. When using the coated side down or capped with clear glass, the dichroic glass will have a smooth glossy surface and sparkle like glitter. It will also change colors between the transmitted color and a completely different reflective color, depending of the angle of view. Coated Side Up. If you use the dichroic glass with the coated side up or uncapped, the dichroic surface will have a highly metallic sheen. The piece may additional be rough and textured depending on the type of dichroic glass you are using. This is what to do. Place the glass over a dark background. Look at the glass at an angle so that you are seeing the reflection of the dichroic. Touch the surface with a paperclip (don’t scratch it). The paperclip will reflect. To know your answer. Does the reflection meet the paper clip, or there a gap between the clip and its reflection?

MICA ILLUSION TRANSFERS

Illusions transfers are 3x3 transfers than come in Silver, Champagne and Gold. They are new to the market and we will be introducing them at Stained Glass Express in April. (2018) Will work on any coe. Not for food bearing surfaces. The white parts of the stencils is where your glass will show. The color part is actual mica backed with enamel, so it adheres to the glass. Fires at lowest possible. If you fire too high the mica will adhere too much to the glass in the negative areas because the glass is softening. You don’t have to use dichroic glass for these because the mica is so awesome. You could do it on anything. Clear, dichroic or anything! Experiment. These samples are on black glass. They are hi fire decals. 1250F to 1300F. Glass MUST BE pre fused. Then add the mica transfer. Remove the wax carrier Soak the transfer in distilled water take off the backing and apply to your fired cabochon. Smooth out air bubbles with paper towel. Let dry. 3 hours might be enough, but you probably should do over night

DICHROIC GLASS

MOST INFO FROM HOWARD SANDBERG OF COATINGS BY SANDBERG

Dichroic glass is one of the most beautiful things SGE carries and it has been one of the most challenging. It was kind of nice to see on CBS page “the history of dichroic glass” that Howard says, “When you look at the history of an artist using Dichroic coated glass, it appears that the artist has been under the major handicap of not having any information on what he or she was working with. These artists were exposed to a piece of glass that had interesting color effects but came from a very complex and scientific industry not easily understood. These ‘high-tech’ coatings were capable of reflecting a narrow band of light (or one color) and at the same time, transmitting the remaining part of light.” So at least it was not just us facing challenges. I could go on about how the development of this metal film was done by our military and aerospace industries. The text would make your head hurt! It was 30 years (mid 70s) ago when CBS started production for art applications. When SGE first brought in some dichroic glass it was a big deal. We made a special display rack for it. We were displaying 1 piece that was about 2x4 inches of each one. We outgrew that fast! Then we would get questions about what it was going to do. We had some idea but not much. To complicate things, we didn’t even always know what we were getting. A customer would buy a piece that was rainbow or mixed and one part of the glass would behave one way and another part another way. Then our suppliers started to drill down and offer a standard stock and good descriptions. We changed our sku system and our descriptions to help our customers know what they were buying and to help us have them organized in a way that the customer could find what they wanted, and we would have a way to see gaps in our inventory and keep our stock consistent. About five years into stocking this glass we bought a shrink wrap machine. We bring in the glass, cut it, shrink wrap it and label it. No more ruined pieces from scratches and no more fighting to get the glue from the label off the glass. We stock CBS (Coatings by Sandberg), Profusion, and Austin Thin Films. We stock both 90 and 96. Just recently we have started to look into stocking some 104 and 33 coe for out bead workers and glass blowers.

BUYING A KILN It is a big decision. It is a lot of money. It is a big piece of equipment that will take up space. There really is a lot to consider.

• How much space do you have
• Do you want to go to the expense of 220 line or get by with what you already have?
• Size of the kiln
• Programming

We sell Olympic Kilns at Stained Glass Express. www.greatkilns.com. We love their support and we love the kilns. Basically, you have a box made of firebrick that is attached to a controller. So the support piece is BIG. For your workspace you should be prepared to make it a fire proof space. Easily done. Flame resistant sheetrock or metal set away from the wall. Put it on something that won’t burn. Common sense kind of stuff. Don’t burn your house down. The big difference between having a 110 line and a 220 is the depth of the kiln. When there are two elements in the kiln you can run it on a 110 line. You just have to change the outlet to accommodate the commercial plug. Consider what you want to make. Jewelry and little dishes. You are good with a little kiln. If you think BIG, you will need a bigger kiln. Maybe one with a clamshell feature so that it opens from the top and the bottom. You can get one that bottom slides out. Features to consider when thinking about putting things in the kiln and getting them back out. If you want to do tall things like a drape lamp shade or vase you should consider bringing in that 220 line. The 220 allows the kiln to have three elements and therefore it can be deeper. Everyone I know, recommends upgrading to a digital controller. One where you can save multiple programs. We sell the RTC-1000 with great results. We can store 6 programs which pretty much covers everything. What you definitely do not want is one that you have to babysit and make sure it gets turned off. You run around with a timer around your neck (seriously) and I have heard terrible results of kilns burning through when someone went to bed and forgot. One more thing to put into your brain. If you think you ever might get into glass blowing or bead making you might consider a kiln with a punty door that you can use to anneal your beads. To see what Stained Glass Express offers https://www.stainedglassexpress.com/fusing_supplies/kilns-and-accessories/

Application 1. Clean glass is a must! Use ammonia or alcohol if needed. Avoid touching glass surface with your hands. 2. Remove the wax paper barrier before soaking. 3. With a good pair of small scissors trim about 1/16 inch away from the decal card 4. Curved-tip tweezers are very handy. 5. Wet the surface of the glass when applying the decal, it allows the decal to easily move into position. 6. To apply the decal, slide it slightly off of the paper and hold the paper edge with the tweezers. Position decal and hold exposed edge with finger, or a second pair of tweezers, on the glass while pulling paper from underneath. When the decal is in place hold with finder and blot excess water. Continue to gently blot, using an inside out rolling motion, until all the water and bubbles are out from underneath the decal, a small squeegee (credit card) is useful. Continue until the entire decal, including the edges, are firmly affixed to the clean glass surface. 7. Allow to dry completely before firing. The smallest amount of moisture can stream aprt the decal from the glass. Firing Conditions 1. Over-firing is disappointment. Decal are temperature sensitive, some colors more than others. The best results are achieved with the lower temperatures and slightly longer soak times. 2. Good ventilation in the kiln during the burn off phase, (500-900f), is important for all decals and critical for hi-ire and low-fire ) accents) metallic decals. Leave the lid vented till the kiln reaches 1100f. Info from Profusion Studio.