Well, technically I bought my kiln to anneal beads, BUT.... while I am deciding on a torch for my lampworking adventures, I happened across a sale of float frits..about 40 tubs in all...SO I have just fired the kiln up and am awaiting the end of my very first fusing effort....lol
Will keep you all posted on the outcome, not expecting much, but miracles do happen eh?
Hope you are all having a sooper dooper day!
Mandyx
Oooo I don't know what float frits are but I am excited for you!
Well,
Neither did I know what they were, but I went ahead and bought them anyway cos they seemed cheap and I know frit is glass and I am addicted to glass!!!! lol
So basically float glass is window glass..plain glass, and the frit is 82 coe, its iris arc, all different colours,
I just went ahead and loaded some in a glass sandwich, put it in the kiln, programmed the kiln..eeeek
We shall see ;)
Mandyxx
Now I am intrigued!
Is that how fused stuff is made? In between clear? I have no clue! I am going on a warm glass adventure day in July though so that should be v.exciting!
I'm looking forward to seeing the outcome of this, Mandy ;D
Quote from: GlassOcean on March 25, 2009, 07:35:33 PM
Now I am intrigued!
Is that how fused stuff is made? In between clear?
It can be! You can fuse two layers of clear with "something" inbetween - that could be organic stuff such as leaves that burn out and leave a trace, or copper foil or wire, which does wonderful things. Or frit of course ;) - and lots and lots of other stuff too.
Or clear over a colour, stacked layers of colour, different colours butted together, oh and then there's kiln carving, oh, and now I want to go play myself!
You'll have great fun on your warm glass adventure I am sure!
okey dokey, I have opened my kiln this morning....AND...there is a piece of completely fused glass lying there.....oooooh the excitement.
Its like baking a cake, only hotter and better ;D
I will add a piccie in a bit, bear in mind its not meant to be gorgeous or anything, I am just chuffed it stuck together :)
See you all later,
Mandyx
This is exciting Mandy, looking forward to seeing you first bit of fusing
Jo x
OOOh it sound very exciting, would love to see photo's. I'm about to start out on a new glassy adventure too lol. If I can work out how to programme my kiln to do it. I'm a techno phobic don't you know.
Its a clay oven too!! And the programmer is only a 2 ramp/1 soak thingymajig.....but I babysat it after its initial 2 ramps/ 1 soak and somehow manually reset it...I literally cannot believe it worked as well as it did..right going to take a piccie....brb...lol
Mandyx
Here goes nothing.... took some piccies...I quite pleased, happy to share programme info with anyone who wants it, tho it is a little double dutchish ;D
The bubbles ain't meant to be there I don't think, but I don't actually hate them...lol
This was 2 10mmx15mm 2mm thick pieces of picture frame glass...i just bundled some blue confetti (82 +- 3) coe, sprinkled some powdered frit in the sandwich, then a bit on top for the hell of it...this is the result...My first ever firing/use of a kiln!!!!
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3609/3386456293_7dd1cd881a.jpg)
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3641/3386456211_24b38e7751.jpg)
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3564/3386456151_41b22c1821.jpg)
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3423/3386456339_94b4c8b714.jpg)
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3601/3386456361_696a420876.jpg)
fingers crossed this works!
Mandyx
Hmm, I think there's a square bracket missing towards the end, Mandy.....cannot see the pic :)
Can't see anything Mandy - what suspense!!!!!
Lorraine
Looks lovely :O)
oooh I have peeps waiting to see....hope I can upload the piccies now....rofl....now don't laugh ladies and gents... ;)
I am sure some senior fusing peep will put me right re: the bubbles...but all a learning curve eh?
M x
The piccies were worth the suspense - they look lovely
Lorraine
Aw thanks Lorraine, I am a bit of a technophobe when it comes to the dreaded insert piccies thing!!!! lol, took me a while but I got there in the end ;D
Might have another little go with the kiln today, yesterday it took 9 hours tho!!!! seems a long time for one teeny bit of glass, but will just keep on messin about till I get it right.
M x
I like it, bubbles and all! In fact, I think it looks more interesting with the bubbles!
I think you can get around bubbles by the way things are laid down so it melts in away that doesn't trap it - but I've never fused so have no idea how that works either! I did read somewhere about deliberately trapping them to make patterns, but again I'm really not sure how that works either!?!
I love it! Now I have to try! Can you use old picture fram glass from the charity shop? With COE104 frit? I NEED TO TRY THIS!!!!!!
Well done you, it's fantastic!
Can you put a bit of metal in as a hanger loop before it is fired?
I love your piece, bubbles and all, in fact I like bubbles, the more the merrier. :) It's so much fun isn't it!?! I've recently done my first bits of fusing in my bead kiln, with Bullseye glass - will probably show and tell when I'm not feeling so lazy. And I did some float glass stuff at a local college - you can shove all sorts of things in between the layers of glass!!! Hessian, dried leaves, stringer...Great fun. ;D
Marg x
Lovely piece - well done on your first kiln firing - and may there be many more ! ;D
Thanks for all the positive comments folks!!
My limited knowledge of this is that float glass cannot be succesfully fused with 104coe frit...it has to be 82-85 frit I think! Ask an expert though cos I am the furthest thing from it ;D
I have spent many hours though researching fusing and beadmaking whilst I frantically saved money to begin my endevours, SO I have picked up snippets of useful info here and there. I think all float glass ie: window, piccie frame etc is 82 coe.
Happy to share what little bit I am picking up though, just put another more complex piece in the kiln, it's meant to be a rockpool!!! which incidentally is the name I have always used to make my jewellery...Rockpooljewels! Until I forgot to renew my domain at Xmas, and some git from america bought it and now wants $1800 for it!!!! jeez..i am gutted!
Ah well off on a strange tangent here ( nothing new there for me lol)
So anything else I can help with I am happy to including my fusing schedule for my old clay kiln!
Mandyx
Yay, that's lovely Mandy, well done!! I really like it, bubbles an all, although, as others have said, if you make a way for air to get out (maybe putting a few little chunks of frit round the edge), you can minimize bubbles, although, tbh, there's usually some little ones, all part of the glass, and so long as they're not so big that they make the glass unstable I think bubbles are great! And I love the colours (bit of a blue freak, me ;D)
Another way to minimize bubbles is to stack 2 x 2/3mm glass, then place all your elements (frit, other bits of glass) on TOP, that way you're not trapping any air inside!! Gets a different effect too, more "floaty" (dead technical, me ;))
And Kerensa - I think you can get flat Effetre 104 sheet glass, so that would be fine for fusing with your 104 frit!! Just need COE to be the same, it's more important in bigger pieces of glass that the COE is as close as possible. xx
HEY!
I think it's fab, it looks totally handmade and unique, I'm not a fan of perfectly looking machine made stuff cause you can get that anywhere!
Well done, now I want a go!!!
Bev
XX
Martin stocks 104 COE clear sheet or he did a year or so ago. If you want to use float glass, 2 x 2 ft sheets of "agricultural glass" such as is used for greenhouses will do and it's very cheap. To stop bubbles forming under the glass, use a few glass props, say 1/2 inch around the perimeter. This keeps the outer edge of the glass propped up for longer so allowing air to be released and not get trapped. If money is a problem, experiment with bottle glass. When the kids were small, I used to get them to raid bottle banks, shush don't tell anyone. With all the recycling now, you could just pinch a few bottles from household refuse.
Next step is to put a stencil on the base glass and put frit on top. Fuse and you have a picture