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Make Art Glassware with Ease
Many people would like to be able to design beautiful art glass pieces but they are intimidated by the thought of cutting glass. With this project it is easy and fun to make these enchanting art glassware bowls using frit, pre-cut 8” circles and an earthenware slump mold. The pre-cut circles, frit and slump mold can easily be found at most glass and many ceramic distribution centers. All of the glass materials used in this project are have been tested to have the same coefficient of expansion (COE), meaning that they will shrink and expand at the same rate. The COE of this glass is 96.
Clean the pre-cut 8” circle of clear glass with
soapy water or acet
Allow the black frit pattern to dry. This can take several hours. You can hurry the process with a blow dryer. After the frit pattern is dry, select the colors that you want to fill the pattern in with.
For the funky checkered bowl pictured: the blue squares were filled with TG 003 Blue Bonnet medium grain frit and the green squares were filled with TG 006 Meadow medium grain frit. Some of the blue spilled into the green areas and visa versa, but it did not harm the overall effect because the two colors used are fairly close in value. On the vine bowl pictured, 2 oz of TG 003 Blue Bonnet, 2 oz of TG 006 Meadow and 1 oz of TG 010 Sunflower were mixed together in a container and then spread evenly over circle and the vine pattern. The transparent colors can be mixed over the opaque black used in the pattern with no effect to the black. Cut two nine inch squares of kiln shelf paper. This is a great product that acts as a barrier between the glass and a kiln shelf. A kiln washed kiln shelf can work, but you have to be sure that every section under your glass has a good coat of kiln wash and that the kiln wash is nice and smooth. It is easier to use the kiln shelf paper. The kiln shelf paper will leave a nice smooth finish on the back of the glass. Place the 9” square of shelf paper on the kiln shelf and carefully place the decorated glass circle onto the 9” square of shelf paper on the shelf. Some of the frit on the edge of the glass may fall off of the circle. You will have to reapply frit to these areas. With a soft brush gently move any of the fallen frit from the edge of the glass on the shelf paper. Fire the circles at a rate of 600 degrees Fahrenheit per hour until the kiln gets to 1480 degrees Fahrenheit. Allow the kiln to stay at 1480 degrees for 20 minutes. After the glass is fused at 1480 degrees, it is important to let the temperature drop to about 950 degrees and hold at that temperature about 1 hours. This is the “annealing” stage of the process. The temperature should gradually be dropped to room temperature after the annealing stage. Most glass kilns run this firing program without having to be monitored. It is possible however, to fuse this project in a ceramic kiln as well, however, it is important to monitor and control temperature changes in the kiln. After the kiln returns to room temperature remove
the glass from the kiln shelf. Wash the glass to remove the kiln
paper. According to the manufacturers written instructions, apply glass
separator to the
GM 04 - 8” round glass slump mold. Heat the slump
mold to 300 degrees to assure that the glass separator is dry. Allow
the molds to cool and place the fused glass circles directly on top of
the slump molds and place the molds and the glass into the kiln. Fire
the kiln at a rate of 500 degrees per hour to 1220 degrees (notice that
glass slumps at a much lower temperature then it fuses at). Soak the
glass at 1220 degrees for 10 minutes. Allow the temperature to drop to
950 degrees and hold it at 950 degrees for one hour. Gradually drop the
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