Glass fusion

[Mabel Figworthy]

earlier this month a friend organised a glass fusion workshop at her house, and as I'd never tried anything like this I thought I'd have a go! You put the thing (or things) together on the night, then the tutor takes them away and bakes them (or whatever you call it) in a kiln, and then you get them back. We could choose whether we wanted the finish smooth or chunky, and flat or shaped. I did a coaster, for which I chose flat and smooth, and a pen tray (chunky and shaped).

It's remarkable how different some aspects of the finished article look from the pre-kiln one! One of my sails (triangular pieces of patterned glass) disappeared almost entirely (it might have looked better if the finish had been chunky, but then I couldn't have used it as a coaster), and the sun was nicely rounded out. The coaster is definitely a trial piece, but I'm really happy with the pen tray! Rummaging around the available bits of glass, some of them suggested a landscape with the remains of a henge to me, so that's what I made

Here are the two pieces, first pre-bake and then finished.

[poppy]

Never heard of glass fusion before... I like it

[wendywombat]

So! Mabel now does Double Glazing!!

Another string to your bow! I am amazed just how different the before and after are!
Simple, effective and also Useful! Well done!

[Garnet]

Oh these are beautiful.

I've not heard of glass fusion eiher, but having seen it, I like it.

The colours you chose Mabel are so pretty, and I can imagine that coaster in use in your craft room.

[Squirrel]

Is there nothing you would give a try to do Mabel? Good on you for going for it and what an amazing difference in colour and texture everything looks after being in the kiln.

Thanks for sharing your latest craft venture:) it's awesome

[rcperryls]

what an interesting art form! I've not heard of it before. The difference of before and after photos is really significant. I especially love your pen holder. It reminds me of some kind of folk art I've seen but I can't remember exactly what.

Carole

[Serinde]

Nice! My EG branch had a workshop on glass fusion and I made a Mondriaan-like pin. Great fun!

[richardandtracy]

My wife does a fair bit, mostly using frit, moulding the glass at the same time as sintering silver precious metal clay jewellery.

The problem I have with it is the predictability (totally absent) and colour changes on firing. The engineer in me wants to be able to predict - and get - the same thing time after time. The greens seem less stable on firing, but my wife has had scarlet frit turn transparent on firing. It's not something I'm happy doing. The results are too unpredictable, and I hate it.

The results can be spectacular, though. Just wish it happened regularly.

Regards

Richard.

[sina28]

Wow that looks so interesting!
My boyfriend's grandmother does something like that, it's not the same as she fuses together pieces of glass with lead? (I think it's lead) and these pieces are also very beautiful.
But what I like about yours is that the shapes look so simple, also how much some of the pieces of glass changed after burning.

[mauveme]

Never hear of that before but would love to try it. Yours is brilliant. Well done Mabel

[fccs]

I've never heard of it, either, but wow, those are fabulous! Is there anything you CAN'T do?

[Serinde]

Our Mabel is too modest to reply, but I suspect the answer is 'no'.

[Mabel Figworthy]

I'm not sure I do modesty very well, Serinde - Our Mabel has been away for ten days to visit her home country, that's all !

Richard, the unpredictability was one of the things which I found a bit annoying, pleased as I was with how the pen tray turned out. I had found two lovely triangular bits of patterned glass which I put on the coaster as sails, and one of them almost completely disappeared in the firing, leaving the stripes but the rest going transparent! Like you, I prefer knowing how something is going to turn out. I know that even with embroidery you can never tell exactly, but it's a lot more predicatble than this!

I did like the fact that it forced me to "think chunky"; I'm sure you can do very detailed work with this, but not as a beginner, so i had to think in bold shapes and not try to put in too much detail, which was rather fun for a change. But by nature I'm more of a "lots of detail in a small space" sort of girl, so I doubt this will become a regular thing. Great fun to try though