Use Fused Glass Mistakes To
Create New Designs
Ideas for fixing fused glass mistakes by altering the design and re-firing in a glass fusing kiln.
Fused glass mistakes shouldn't be thrown away, but reclaimed and used again to make new and different fused glass art designs.
Sometimes, when mistakes occur it is possible to either re-fire or use the fused glass in a different way.
Re-firing at lower or higher temperature with varying hold times can sometimes result in a different art glass item.
If the problem is incompatible glass then it should not be re-used. Some stressed broken pieces may also be too risky to use.
Where the fusing glass moves or fires in an unexpected way then reclamation may be the best course of action.
Cutting, shaping and re-firing the glass in the glass kiln can produce some great kiln formed glass art.
The picture below is of a glass powder painted coaster that was forgotten and over fired in an infinite control tabletop glass fusing kiln.
As can be seen the sides have pulled in and it is badly distorted and completely unusable as a coaster. One solution to this was to keep the best of the painted area and turn it into a pendant.
To do this the following items were used:
- Commercial template.
- DecoColor pen.
- Tile saw.
- Glass grinder.
- Prepared kiln shelf.
- Glass fusing kiln.
The following steps were then undertaken:
Step 1. Using a template the circle was drawn using a DecoColor pen (waterproof pen).
Step 2. The glass was then cut on a tile saw, leaving a square of glass. The corners were then trimmed away until a lot of excess glass was removed.
Step 3. Using a 170-grit bit the piece was then ground on a tabletop glass grinder. The piece was finally finished with a 220-grit grinding bit. The photo below shows the cut and ground piece.
Step 4. The glass was then cleaned and scrubbed with a brush to remove any grinding residue. It was then left in water until it was to be fire polished.
Step 5. Using a tabletop glass kiln the glass was slowly heated until fire polishing was completed.
The kiln was then switched off and the fused glass pendant was allowed to cool to room temperature.
The completed fused glass jewelry pendant can be seen in the first photo.
It is not always possible to reclaim everything, but it is worthwhile
keeping re-usable glass as it can be broken up and used in other fusing
projects or for pot melts and pattern bars.
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