Fusing sea glass

[Blue Box Studio]

One of the things my friend and I want to try in my SC2 is fusing sea glass for coasters. 

Has anyone tried it?  Is it possible?  Is it unwise/disasterous?  Any pointers would be wonderful, before we blow ourselves up or something. 

I'm sure I can find a fusing schedule on here so just worrying about the success  and/or dangers of trying to fuse glass of an unknown composition.

Thanks.  Sue

[♥♥Tan♥♥]

NO WAY!!!! It is too many different COE's and will just crack apart as it cools

[Isabelle]

And of course, once it melts, it's just bottle glass and not sea glass any more.

[Blue Box Studio]

Oh well, thanks anyway. I didn't think it'd be as easy as she thought.

If she still wanted to try, would it harm the kiln in any way, aside from falling apart?  Don't really want to bloow it up if I can help it!

[Sorry, probably a stupid question but I've never tried or watched fusing, although she has].

[★★Terri★★]

My only thought would be to throughly wash the glass.  Salt is a powerful flux and you don't need a lot - it may make the glass melt faster than expected, and fumes could damage the inside of your kiln. 


I used to do a lot of salt fired ceramics which, for those of you that unfamiliar with the process, where salt is used to 'melt' the surface of the pottery and make a glaze of the clay body, rather than putting a glaze on.  The kiln may not get hot enough to create the reaction - but it would pay to be careful.

[Zeldazog]

I hadn't even thought about the salt, Terri, that's a good point.  I have heard of more than one kiln being wrecked from a salt-glaze firing - not sure what temperatures they go to though, and what quantity of salt would be on sea glass in comparison - not much I would have thought.

Like Tan said, though, it's likely to fall apart (if it even fuses together in the first place, and as Isabelle says, it's soon as it melts, it will fire polish and won't look like sea glass anyway.

[♥♥Tan♥♥]

Have you thought about a sea glass effect? I'm not sure how but perhaps fusing large chunks of frit so its a kind of open weave coaster and then etching the whole thing?

[Blue Box Studio]

I think she wanted to use sea glass because I have buckets of the stuff in my studio.  There are only so many sea glass stained glass mirrors you can make and sell!  I'm fast going off the idea.  I know XH once did a salt glaze firing in his kiln and it made a mess of things (probably because he didn't know what he was doing either, runs in the family) - she can do dichroic or bullseye, that should be safer.

[Pat from Canvey]

Here's a faux sea glass pendant made from fused bottle glass (clear and green). The fusing was done in a terracotta plant saucer. The resulting chunk was broken up and pieces tumbled with various grits to get the etched look.
If you wash the sea glass well, there's no salt on it. The etched effect is from the action of the sand tumbling the glass naturally with the action of the waves.

[Hotglass28]

I love sea glass. I will pick it up on the beach and it normally stays in my car for years. I'm a right magpie.  (no wonder my petrol bills are high lol)

I love it when it is turned into pendants and bracelets using chunky silver.

Pat I like that pendant 

Failing that, try to sell the stuff? Ive seen some on ebay

[♥♥Tan♥♥]

Pat you never cease to inspire me

[Blue Box Studio]

Failing that, try to sell the stuff? Ive seen some on ebay

I already sell it, drilled and undrilled.  The bucket loads are pieces that are not good enough for jewellery.  But if it's going to break then there's no point wasting time and leccy on trying.  I'm afraid I'm a purist, it has to be the real thing for me.

[Zeldazog]

But if it's going to break then there's no point wasting time and leccy on trying. 

Well, it's not guaranteed to break... could be lucky to find a handful that doesn't have compatibility issues... but, that said, it probably will.

[firedinglass]

I agree the COE will almost definately be different and the result will be cracking at the least!  Easier to etch for the sea glass effect.  COE in fusing  is probably one of ,if not,' the' most important factors for success/failure, toleration of incompatability only seems to work in tiny amounts. Hope that helps.....

[Blue Box Studio]

Thanks.  I'll stick to making some beads from it (single coloured) and see where I go from there.