Using stained glass offcuts

[Ness]

My Mum has given me lots of smallish pieces of glass that she had left over from stained glass projects. I'm clueless as to how to use them though... help...please 

[Trudi]

do you know what the coe is - you could melt them into beads! Or perhaps fuse with them?

[Zeldazog]

Just be careful with combining - stained glass, because it doesn't have to be, is often not compatible with other colours - even same design (such as a streaky) might not be - of course, it depends what she bought...

But I have done single colour pendants from stained glass scraps, which I did with a "slider" hole (cos its translucent glass and I didn't want to see a bail through), and I also cut into strips and made 6 pointed stars - and a Xmas Tree (it was that time of year!)

You could try combining them, and would recommend, if you're fusing, starting with a Bullseye schedule. I know I tried it at float, it was too hot.

[Ness]

It is spectrum glass and I was wanting to melt them into beads. 

What I was wondering was if I should try to wind the melting scrap or whether it's best to try to pull it into a thin rod.. I suppose it would be the same technique as using bottle glass .. if anyone who has made them can tell me how they did it, I'd be grateful. Cheers 

[Sulis (Hazel)]

Hi Ness,

I've used bottle glass before, so if you're wanting to use the same method, this is what I found.
I experimented with pulling stringers from smashed up bits and also using smaller pieces as they are.

On the whole, I think it depends on the size and shape of the bead you're aiming for. Smaller beads were much easier with thick stringers, however for the majority of the beads I was making I just used chunks of the broken glass which I'd preheated in the kiln and picked up with the long handled tweezers.

I've not used Spectrum offcuts for beads before - only fusing COE tested glass, so can't offer you any suggestions on that side of things.

Have fun! 

xx Hazel

[Ness]

Thanks Hazel - I hadn't thought of preheating them in the kiln - will do that and have a go.

[♥♥Tan♥♥]

I started off with stained glass scraps so might be able to help a leetle beet.

If they are in strips then you can just use the strip as it is, I found if I heated the end until it kind of caved in on itself into a pointy bit, then used that as my starter windy bit. Then....I kind of aim the flame at the underside of the strip and flip it over and back so that it is evenly heated and use a pully windy motion.

The only problem I found with strips was that I got impatient and tried to wind the whole strip, it was too much glass pulling on the bead release and often broke it. The other downside was although I thought I had evenly heated the strip it often  lay down unevenly.

Don't mix your glasses, use each piece to make a bead and the beads decorations.

Beware of cracky flying off bits. For some reason I found flat glass to be more shocky than the later rods so as said before either preheat or do lots of wafty wafty in the flame.

Have a little play with stringers and mixing and matching your glasses. If we can get away with using reichenback on effetre I'm pretty sure you could have a fairly safe play with laying different stringers onto different bases.

If you do play be careful when cleaning because if there are any incopatability issues they usually crack apart then so mind your fingers.

AND...... you may be disappointed, sometimes those lovely flat glasses turn into absolute cack in the flame, I have no idea where all the lovely wispy bits and pattterns go but they just poof into thin air

[Pat from Canvey]

Most of the Spectrum glass seems to be 96 COE and is compatible with itself, especially the waterglasses. Some of the beads I post are made with Spectrum strips and I find them just as easy to use as rods. The other alternative is to smash up the bits into frit and use with clear spectrum waterglass. After all, Val Cox frits are all 96 COE. The large red flower picture I posted is all Spectrum glass. I just anneal with my effetre.

[Josephine]

I have done a class with Kate Drew Wilkinson who uses scrap Spectrum. She cuts small pieces, holds them together in a clamp and then attaches them to a rod of clear, heats the scraps together and then winds off the glass, making sure not to get any of the clear rod in although if you had a couple of the rods of clear that Jaq sells along with the Val cox frits that wouldnt be a problem. Kate uses a few colours at a time which  means you get them swirling around together. If you go to You Tube and type in her name there are some videos showing the technique. Some of the colours don't like the flame, one green i had always got a lot of red coppery reduction on it.

[Jay9]

I've used some of my spectrum wispy glass to make beads before, some I cut into strips and others I pulled into stringers or made frit from. I generally used just one colour so that I didn't have compatibility problems.  I hadn't thought of mixing it with clear waterglass though....

Seeing as I've got boxes of the stuff as 'scrap' from the stained glass classes I teach I ought to get round to using some of it up. Hubby is fed up with kicking big boxes of glass in the garage 

[Pat from Canvey]

Try some of your transparent waterglass scraps with Armstrong opaque opal beige as a base or encase in the waterglass, I love the effects you can get. Some of the opaques go great with the waterglasses too. Have fun. Experiment.
Forgot to add, you can use up your bits of cathedral too making beads but keep them away from the Spectrum. It's a much stiffer glass so needs more heat.