It's Fluxing Success!

YAY! I finally successfully soldered a few of my cabs and added a little bit of wire "filigree." I made the cabs - one is a painted bead that had rough beadholes so I slumped it into a cab. The other cab is a made of glass "shorts" that was fused and ground into a square shape.

I must admit that adding the filigree was the hardest part - I think I need an extra hand to do it again! LOL! I used a bench clamp to hold the piece while I added the filigree.

If you solder jewelry, how do you hold the piece so you can solder on a jump ring or other decoration?

Frit-aytious Beads or it's better with Ocelot Spots

So Lynn asked yesterday if I was sure that she couldn't use frit for glass fusing. Frit is used in fusing all the time so yes, Lynn you can use it to fuse. Usually, frit is applied on larger pieces so if you want to swirl it like I did yesterday, you have to have a piece large enough to swirl when the glass is molten in your kiln. In fact, here's a picture of me doing just that with a large wall piece - I'm "dragging" the glass with a metal tool:


By the way, that was one AWEsome class I took with Dan Fenton one of the early artists in the stained glass/fused glass movement. I've used a couple of frits on fused cabs and I'll make recommendations at the end of post. You'll see why in a moment.

So, today I took out the tried and true frit mix Ocelot Spots



Ocelot Spots is a failsafe mix - it performs well for most beadmakers. I've used a base of transparent blue to highlight the occasional blues you can get from Ocelot Spots. Swirled it looks great and not swirled it looks great too!

If you're going to try fusing with frit, I'd suggest a frit that looks good unswirled. Ocelot Spots is a good choice - it'll give an animal print like look when unswirled. You may not get any of the blues that happen as a result of the flame but the ambers, browns and black will look lovely. I think the Wild Roses mix I used yesterday would look nice unswirled also.

If you've gone to the torch or the kiln because Val's book has inspired you, please share and let me know what you Fritsonality is!

Going Green in the Glass Studio

Going green is becoming widespread in the art community. My studio has always been "green." There are lots of things I do to be eco-friendly. Let's start with glass. I strive to use or re-use all of my glass into beads or some kind of glass piece. Beads that have rough beadholes either are strung into garden art or they are slumped in the kiln to become a cabachon. Left-over bits of the glass rod are fused into texture pendants or beads.

I love it when a glass supplier sends supplies I've ordered in recycle-able materials. Just this week, Double Helix Glass sent an order in corrugated paper - a very eco friendly material, it will go easily into my recycle bin.