The blog of a fused glass artisan
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I tried a new product from Rio Grande called imbedables (new to me) and really like it, so thought I would share. These are fusible bails! This was a test, so they are not perfect, but now I know what to do differently the next time around.
1 – I made cabochons in a mold, making them a bit on the thick side. (Some of them I used some old “pebbles” in the mold and added dichro). After taking out of the mold, I cleaned them up by grinding as needed and cleaning really well.
2 – using my ring saw I sliced into the tip of the glass, just deep enough for the full length of the bail. The square pieces I drilled with a dremel, but didn’t like the effort it took and the outcome – maybe a drill press would make it easier.
3 – Insert the bail using a dab of glue taking care to center and straighten the bail. Don’t do as I did and forget these are SILVER – which requires a dedicated shelf (oops).
4 – Fuse to close up the slice (or drilled hole) and fire polish. Next time I will go a few degrees hotter and hold a couple minutes longer as these didn’t quite fully close (close enough for a test). Maybe even add a few bits of frit on the sides of the cut.
5 – They will come out ugly, looking like a galvanized nail, but that is easily dealt with by 24 hours in a rock tumbler.
We have moved to a new hosting company (HostWinds from JustHost) with effect from December 22nd 2017. The blog will be expanded as will the website.
Creative Paradise Glass has some really nice texture molds. I tend to have a love-hate relationship with them. The first one I ever tried was a disaster, times five! Others have been a wonderful success. Recently I did have another disaster with the koi in a pond mold (DT29), though I will give that one another go, with a modified schedule.
Today I am writing about DT30 Sq.-Butterfly – the large butterfly. On the CPI Facebook page you will see posts from several frustrated artists that have issues with this mold. I went into it knowing that there could be problems, but I was optimistic. It may well be that because I completely documented my entire process that I am thrilled to report I have had no real issues with this mold. You can find their tutorial on the CPI website, but for some reason they have it labeled as DT26 Butterfly Tutorial (instead of DT30).
So, here’s what I did.
Bullseye Glass colors used – Black Opal, Powder, Deep Red Opal, Fine, Aventurine Blue, Powder. I used a powder vibe to fill in the veins and used an earwax vacuum and a small paint brush to clean up bits that went astray. Both tools are highly recommended.
Black in the body, blue in the veins and deep red in the wing spots.
Next. home made medium/fine clear irid frit was added on top of the black body.
Red (1122), Fine was used around the wing edges. Luna was keeping an eye on me to be sure I put the lid back on the frit when I was done with it. 😉
Then for the wings – Tangerine Orange Opal, Fine was used on the outer edges and Marigold Yellow Opal, Fine was used in the center. In the CPI tutorial, an other photos of this butterfly, you see people just cutting the butterfly in thirds with the colors. I choose to follow the outlines of the butterfly. In my opinion, this looks better, since it doesn’t give the impression you were in a hurry and just threw on thee colors.
Next, the leaves. Aventurine Green, Powder was used in the veins of the leaves. Just lightly sprinkle it on, then use your fingertip to lightly brush it off the top of the leaves and into the crevices. Then clean up with a small paintbrush to further move the powder where it belongs. The leaves themselves then were sprinkled with Kelly Green, Fine and then over the top of everything went Emerald Green, Fine. Again, use the ear wax vacuum to remove frit that is not where it belongs.
When complete with the frit, the entire thing was capped with one 3mm piece of Tekta, which was cut to 10″x10″.
Then, into the kiln it goes. The mold is placed on a couple of kiln posts so that it will have plenty of air circulation around it. Only the top and bottom edge are on about 1/4″ of the 6″-long post.
The firing schedule I used had to be modified from the tutorial, since all of CPI tutorials are for system 96 glass.
1 – 275 degrees per hour to 1215 and hold for 45 minutes
2 – 50 degrees per hour to 1250 and hold for 30 minutes
3 – 300 degrees per hour to 1425 and hold for 10 minutes
4 – as fast as possible (9999) to 900 and hold for 90 minutes
5 – 100 degrees per hour to 700 with no hold – off or end of program.
Let the kiln cool naturally. I let mine cool until its about 200 degrees, then I prop the lid about two inches. I will then open the lid and let it further cool once it reaches about 125 degrees. From I then leave everything on the shelf until it’s ambient temperature. Today, that was 89 degrees. Since the kiln shelf holds heat, as does the glass, I really don’t want to take it out and put it on a cold surface. If the glass is warm when I take it out of the kiln I will cool it on a towel for a few hours.
This photo shows how the top sheet of glass shrunk to give a natural edge to the glass. I think next time I will fill in those red wing areas where it really pulled in with more frit. I am not bothered the way it is now, but I’d like to see if it won’t pull in quite so much with extra frit in those areas.
The piece was then carefully removed from the mold. I used pot holders to flip it and set the glass on the shelf to further cool.
At this point, it is still in the kiln and needs to be cleaned up (ZYP reside removed). I did a bit of rubbing of the white powder and it came off easily, so I don’t think I will have any trouble. I am contemplating adding some gold to the circles on the wings and wondering what to do with the antennae. But, those will have to wait until tomorrow.
The Fall Sale for Rainpebbles Glass will take place at Rainpebbles HQ on 14th and 15th of November from 1pm to 7pm both days. All of our inventory of unique pieces will be on sale, with some special offers for multiple purchases. For the duration of this sale, all inventory will be offline in Etsy. Any unsold items will be available on Etsy immediately after this sale concludes.
Q&A follows.
1. So…is Rainpebbles Glass going out of business?
A. No, Hell No.
2. So, why are you selling everything?
A. We have decided to focus on 4 areas in 2016:
– Art pieces
– Decorative desk lamps
– Custom vitrigraph production and sales
– Education
So…we are selling any finished pieces that do not fit into the above categories
3. So…are you simply packaging up all of the crap that hasn’t sold so far?
A. Nope. Some of these pieces are stunningly unique. They were designed to be used in a house, but many prospective buyers (we believe) are unsure of how to use them, or whether to even use them. One thing we know is that when people see, touch and feel many of the pieces, they fall in love with them. At this sale, touching and feeling will be positively encouraged.
4. So what will people find when they attend the Rainpebbles Sale?
A. The glass will be on sale in highly congenial surroundings, with soft furnishings, fine music, lots of decorative cats to pet, finger nibbles, and the occasional glass of fine wine or other liquid refreshment. You can even go sit by the pool and drink in the rustic island atmosphere, then go home and tell your friends you visited Kitty Key.
5. How do we find out where this mythical Kitty Key really is?
A. We will post a flyer for the sale at the beginning of November.
After 4 years of operation, we are changing the focus of Rainpebbles Glass in 2015.
In the future, we will be focussing on art and display objects, and moving away from purely functional pieces. The reasons for this are mainly that Mary finds the creation of art and display objects to be more challenging, now that she has expanded her skills.
We will be holding a Sale of existing functional fused glass objects on Etsy over the next 3 months. Watch the Etsy Site for news of that sale.
New pieces will still appear on the Etsy site as they are created, if they are not sold at creation. Currently, some of our pieces are not even making it to Etsy, since they are being sold almost out of the kiln.
Not sure what to call this – when it’s in a pot, it’s a pot melt. This is on sticks, so lets go with stick melt.
We’ve got white, blue, yellow and orange. We all know yellow and blue make green; I wonder how much mixing will happen here and how much green we’ll get. Tomorrow will tell. It may come out as a brown mess, but keep your fingers crossed we get something pretty.
We will be continuing our Glass Classes into the Winter and Spring of 2015. Anybody who wishes to attend Glass Class should email us or contact Mary via the website.
Classes are $60 for a 3 hour session (which sometimes extends to longer if people need to complete their initial design), plus the cost of any special glass.
With immediate effect, Rainpebbles Glass is now uniquely marking our finished glass objects. We are doing this via the application of a hand-written signature which is unobtrusive (it is only visible when the piece is viewed at an angle, it is essentially invisible when the object is viewed via direct light). The signature is sandwiched within the glass layers of the piece, so it cannot be removed or modified without severely vandalizing the piece.
Each piece is uniquely numbered via a year/month/number ID.
We are doing this to assure clients that every piece is indeed unique (we have no production line round the back stamping these things out) and to document this within the finished piece.
Oh – right… It’s because there is no fast way to design with millions and millions of pieces of crushed glass. Each one took about 4 hours, though that did include a bit of cleaning before & after – and a break for some pizza.
Trees at the River is a first – I am bravely using Unique Glass Colors. I’ve used them in a class and watched several online videos, but this is the first full size piece. Fingers crossed.
People just love my Trees. And, I just love making them. I just can’t seem to ever get two the same – but I think that is a good thing. Same theme, same glass, but no two will ever be the same. That’s a good thing.
Unless Santa brings me a vitrigraph kiln, or I get one for my birthday, my funky tree trunks will come to an end. I have stretched my selection of tree trunks about as far as I can. I still have lots of vitrigraph, but none suitable for trees. I guess that means I need to get more funky and use the vitrigraph that I already have for something else. =D
UPDATE – Both of these pieces are already SOLD! But it is not too late to order new Fall Trees pieces from us!