Bending Glass Stringers
How glass stringers can be bent and used in the glass fusing process.
Glass stringers are used quite often in glass fusing to add design elements to a piece of kiln fused glass.
Stringers are usually sold in tubes and are either 1 mm or 2mm diameter about 17.5 inches long.
Plain colored stringers are sold in tubes of about 145 of 1mm stringers; 2mm stringers are also sold in tubes of about 45 pieces.
Stringers can be purchased in a range of transparent or opalescent colors.
Depending on how you wish to use your stringers, it is sometimes advisable to test fire pieces of stringer on a base glass to test how quickly they fuse and spread across the glass.
In the above photo it can be seen that the white, yellow, blue and gray stringers have pretty much retained their shape under a full fuse. The other colors have spread out; the speed at which certain colors fuse will affect the final result.
Many artists like to use stringers between pieces of glass or use them to separate different frit colors or glass pieces. They can be bent and used as an embellishment on a piece of fusing glass.
The following YouTube video shows how holding them over a candle flame can bend stringers. The glass may be held in pliers if you like.
The following black art glass pendant has a white stringer contoured fused to it.
The stringer was bent using a butane torch. Be careful with a torch, the flame is very hot and can give you a nasty burn if it is exposed to your skin.
Please keep all flammable material away from the torch whilst it is in use.
Stringers may be bent in a glass kiln using different methods.
They can be laid across a glass slumping mold, draped over a kiln washed round stainless steel mold or ceramic tube.
The glass fusing kiln is gently heated until the stringers bend to the desired shape.
Do not over heat as the stringers may melt or be out of shape.
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