Sunday, July 01, 2012

Fusing Glass Jewelry Components: New Experiments

I've been away from blogging for a bit. Working full time doesn't allow alot of spare time to be creative and then blog about it. I'd prefer to be creative than to blog!  I've got a few extra minutes today so I thought I'd catch you up on what I'm up to.

A sampling of my latest experiments

I'm playing around with fusing frit. I've created a few different custom made frit blends and used some Val Cox Frit.   If you use frit alot, you know that a little goes along way, it is intensely colored. So intense that it will look black if you don't "thin it out" with clear glass. That's one of the difficulties I'm having with fusing it.

Deep royal purple looks black in this fused donut








As you can see in the above picture, the royal purple looks black. It's difficult to "thin out" the bits of purple with clear, the bits still look black. I tried to "thin out" the color in the donut below:

By holding the donut up to sunlight, you can see the royal purple
I've come to the conclusion that  I need to stick to pastels or primarily light transparent when fusing.

Another accident happened when I was fusing the donuts. I got these "furry" or "sugar" pink hearts due to the spacing and the uneven heating it created in my kiln.

"Fur" or "Sugar" pink hearts


The hearts have brown spots because I left them at fusing temperature too long. I wanted them to melt smooth but it just wasn't going to happen with the way I'd set up the kiln.

They're kind of cool looking and there are no sharp edges so my dilemma is should I leave them this way or put them back in the kiln to fully fuse? What do you think?

Using these molds has been quite a learning experience. I'll share my thoughts on the molds in another blogpost. In the meantime, I'd like you to weigh in on what I should do with the sugar hearts - leave as is or full fuse to smooth finish?


10 comments:

DVArtist said...

The deep royal purple is awesome. Love that. Nice to see you back.
Nicole/Beadwrigh

Cindy Gimbrone said...

Thanks, Nicole! How do you feel about the Sugar Hearts? Should I leave as is or should I fuse to smooth?

Gin said...

The Sugar Hearts almost look fluffy, like a chenille fabric. Are the brown spots very noticeable? I vote for leaving as is.

adlinah said...

I love the look of the Sugar Hearts. I'd leave them as is. They look scrumptious!

Jenni said...

Love the experiments. The partially unfused ones look like coconut ice.. A treat we used to cook when I was a kid. They look great like that...are they rough/sharp at all...then fuse. Perhaps do some again and some left and see what happens?
Jenni

Cheryl K Roe said...

I love the sugar hearts, so different. I would leave them.

CalibyCreations said...

Leave as is. These are so fun

Catherine Sorensen said...

Hi Cindy!

It's nice to have you back.

The hearts are lovely as they are, I vote to keep them that way!

Isn't it neat when mistakes & mess-ups turn out to be more interesting that what you had planned?!

Shee Sews said...

Yes I love the hearts as is, I agree with the comment about reminding me of Coconut oh scrummy, is it possible to touch up the brown marks so they weren't noticeable. I would buy them then.

Jessica said...

Hi, Cindy! I'm a fellow glass worker-- well, since I moved to Brooklyn a year ago (Nov '11) I haven't been able to set up my torch. I'm looking for a fellow crafty lady who might be interested in a studio share with me. I have a great torch and really miss making beads, but no place to work. I'm hoping to find someone who has a work space that could double up and share costs. Let me know if this sounds even remotely interesting to you, or if you know of anyone I should contact! jessicaleekaufman at gmail.