I do quite a bit of glass fusing in addition to lampwork glass. So you'd think I'd know what I was doing with it by now, right? And, to some degree, I probably do, and I certainly knew better than this.....

Recently someone gave me some scrap stained glass sheet. The rule of any non compatible line of sheet glass is that...well there are no rules. If the glass is mystery glass (rather than fusible and certified by Bullseye or Spectrum), you never know how it might react. Most often the glass will de-vitrify which can be prevented by certain surface spray methods or sandblasted off after firing. Occasionally the glass will completely change color. I once had a beautiful pink and green glass turn to permanent monotone grey! Sometimes the non fusible glass will develop crazing (little tiny cracks on the surface of the glass). But I figure if the glass is free and I have no other use for it, why not heat it up, right?

I suspect the piece I'm discussing today (a very beautiful multi hued glass) was Kokomo or some other very soft glass that melts at a lower temperature than I'm used to. I thought I'd just fuse and slump a nice disk and hope for the best. Of course I got a little busy and forgot to check on the disk and the next thing I know, bubble city! So now I have this really kewl looking but completely useless and unsellable piece. I like it though so it will hang in my studio work space for a while just cuz it's kind of pretty in a sharp craggy kind of way!



For those of you who do not know what glass fusing is I thought I'd include a quickie definition of sorts and some resources where you can get more information.

Fusing glass is the process of heating glass (usually two or more pieces of sheet glass) in a kiln (most often) to the temperature point where the glass becomes soft (or liquid). At that temperature different glass pieces will "FUSE" together to form one unit. There are various stages of fuse levels that can be achieved. Tack fusing is where the glass gets just hot enough to tack the pieces together but not so hot that either piece loses it's original form and integrity. Full fusing is where all the pieces of glass are completely fused into one new piece and there is no definition bumps between where the old and new come together.

To learn more about glass fusing, slumping and shaping, visit these web resources:

http://www.warmglass.com/

http://jewelrymaking.about.com/library/blgetgl.htm