Making Fused Glass Pattern Bar Pendants & What I Learned

Since I'm making functional art glass (e.g. plates, bowls and platters) using pattern bars, I thought I would see try my hand at using pattern bars as pendants.  I decided to pursue two styles, the bookend pattern bar (where there's a mirror image) and the Roman pattern bar (which has a series of columns).  I also wanted to play around with shapes so that the design could be accentuated.  

For the bookend pattern bar, I decided on a fat triangle or fan shape as I liked seeing a wider portion of the glass to reflect the mirror image.  To help decide on the shape, I have a number of plastic templates like the kind you would use in drawing architecture plans. However, if you didn't have these, you could also cut shapes out of paper.  This gives you an idea of what the pendant will look like once it's cut.  For the Roman pattern bar, I decided on a trapezoid shape. I was a little limited on the width as it's only one bar (whereas the bookend is two).

The next consideration was what type of bail to use.  I had planned on cutting a donut hole on the trapezoid shape but once I received the drill bit, I realized it wouldn't work on my Dremel.  Note: I guess a new drill is on the "to buy" list sometime in the future.  Also, since each of the pendants have transparency built in, I didn't want to use a standard bail.  So, I decided to try using pinch bails.  To use a pinch bail, you need to drill a hole in the glass and then "pinch" the bail closed through the holes.

Lessons learned:

• Buy a lot of drill bits.  One bit can drill one pendant or it can drill several.  On my first round, I went through a pack of 6 in no time and had more left to drill. Next time, I ordered a pack of 25.
• Don't try to stretch the drill bits - as soon as it looks like the diamond coating is worn off, toss it.  Otherwise, you will end up cracking the glass. You'll know the diamond coating is gone when you see the hole is black or the drilled run-off is black or the bit doesn't seem to make a much of an impression.
• Drill from both sides rather than trying to make it through on one.  This gives a cleaner hole and you're less likely to have a larger puncture mark.  To help identify where to drill on the back side if you're drilling through opaque glass, I put a pin in one side and view from the side, so I can determine where to mark on the back side to line up the hole.
• Buy large bails.  Since I knew the glass would be 6mm or so, I needed to get a wide bail.  However, in addition to being wide, having long bails also helps as you need the length plus width to help get the bail closed around thick piece of glass.  I originally purchased a shorter bail for the above pendant but it wouldn't close.  Note: with larger bails, you may need to cut the prong length.
• Use jewelry pliers, if you have them, to close the bails - I have chain nose pliers that helped pinch the bails shut.

It certainly was a learning experience making these but I'm glad that I tried it.  I like the look much better than the standard bails, although one of these days, I still need to try making donut pendants.

What's New: Fused Glass Leather Bracelet

Typically at the beginning of the year before my show schedule starts, I like to experiment with new designs.  In fact, this is my favorite part of making glass (in addition to learning new techniques).  I've been toying around with incorporating fused glass into a leather bracelet since last year and decided now was the time.  However, I didn't really know how I would go about this as I've never worked with leather before.  So, I did a search online and found a leather company, Tandy Leather Factory, in the area and stopped in.

There, I found a kindred spirit, Jim, who also likes to jump into projects.  He was quite helpful and gave me a few ideas of how I could attach the glass to the leather, most of them involving riveting.  So, I left the store with some leather pieces, a rivet set, mallet, and hole punch and went home to figure out how I might design the bracelet with the glass attaching to the leather.

I sketched out a few design options and settled on the method straight away.  I would fused wire onto the sides of a fused glass strip that would be the center of the bracelet and attach the leather through the wire loops.  So, I fused a prototype, cut the strips of leather with a razor blade and practiced my riveting.  Note: the success of the riveting is more of a function of having the right sized rivet more than anything else, although being able to set the rivet straight (i.e. pound straight) does help.  From the prototype, I could see that the design would work, so I fused a number of glass centers and gave them a gentle slump using a bracelet mold.

Last week, I went back to see Jim and we figured out how the rest of the bracelet would come together.  I also needed Jim to give me a lesson on setting snaps. Now, I have a leather strip cutter, snap/rivet setter, leather scissors, an end punch, leather dye, applicator, and everything else I need to make a set of bracelets.

The bracelet was relatively easy to make, especially when you have someone who's willing to help you. I'm very happy with how it turned out and look forward to making more in the near future.  Let me know what you think of it.

Fused Glass Pattern Bar Bowl: Lessons Learned

In my last post, I wrote about how I was able to save some of the glass that failed and showed a picture of the blank before it was slumped.  Well here's the final product:

I am thrilled with the result and it's been sitting on my kitchen table since I finished it.  This is also my first bowl as I was space constrained in my old kiln and in general I hate the idea of creating excess glass from cutting out circles (all circles are made from squares).  Although now, I'm planning to make more and have my sights on another larger bowl mold.

In the process of making this, I learned a couple of things that I thought I would pass along:

• As the rim shows, you can no longer have a layer of clear and a layer of color, which is the normal fusing process.  The deeper the slump, the more the rim will show.  In the future, I might reverse the color (e.g. white on one side, black on the other) or have two layers of the same color.
• I incorporated the pattern bars right into the fused blank and ended up using my tile saw to cut off the excess and grinder to neaten up the edges.  This process worked pretty well and saved me from a lot of grinding!  To determine where to cut, I used a protractor and drew a circle with a white DecoColor pen (this is what many manufacturers use to mark glass as it doesn't come off easily).
• I needed to use a level to make sure the mold and glass was sitting evenly before I slumped it.  The mold I used is a ball shaped mold but when you put it on posts, it can shift depending upon where you have the posts.  Fortunately, it didn't look right in the kiln so I was able to adjust it before I slumped it.

As I live in the Bay Area, we just got a Bullseye Resource Center here.  One of the benefits of the Resource Center is that Bullseye has all of their molds on display with a sample of what the slumped glass looks like.  This is so helpful as the slumped glass looks differently in person than it does on their website (this is because you have the scale and depth that you don't have in photographs).  Based on looking at the bowls, I've returned two unused bowl molds and am purchasing another one that I most likely would not have purchased based on what I saw online.

Looking forward to making more of these!

Fused Glass Trial and Error

"Trial and error" and "test and learn" are used a lot in business and imply that one is optimizing or improving upon a process or product.  I've used these terms in product marketing and research, especially.  However, when they apply to fused glass, it's a different story.

Most people who see my work don't see behind the scenes.  When I venture into a new area, there's always a learning process.  Most of the time, it means failure.  Repeated failure until I get the firing schedule right.  And here, failure means cracked glass and lost time.

Part of the problem in the past has been my kiln, which I corrected by getting a new kiln.  Part of the problem is that the new work I'm doing is more complex, using multiple colors at higher temperatures with longer hold times (which can change the property of the glass).  And, part of the problem is that I'm firing multiple times and working on larger pieces.  My new work with pattern bars is particularly susceptible to breakage, typically along the seam where two bars are joined. Even though I have learned to fire very conservatively that doesn't always guarantee success.

Fortunately, glass can be repurposed so not all is lost.  I try to retain the design elements to use in new work.  Having a tile saw can be a real asset to cut up the glass and use it again.  Here's a picture of a piece that will be used to make a bowl.

Although glass failures are not ideal, there are still some lessons that I can pass on, so hopefully you won't have the same issues.

• Check your kiln elements relative to the size of the piece.  I was having problems in my old kiln as I was pushing the size limit with 12" squares (kiln interior was 14.5") and elements that were circular, making it difficult to heat the corners (notice the crack line in earlier photo above).
• Fix any sagging elements.  My "new" kiln was used and had one sagging element (hanging down about 2" from one end of the kiln to the other) which created uneven heating, especially on large pieces.
• Keep good records of your firing schedules so that you can make adjustments on future firings.  When in doubt, slower is better.  You'll want to make sure to have a long enough annealing hold based on the size and thickness of your glass piece.  And, if you notice that the glass is cracking on the way up, you'll want to increase your annealing and/or ramp up slower to 480-600 degrees.   The more important the piece, the slower I go.
• Don't coldwork the piece until the glass is cool.  This can add to its stress.
• Test your kiln to see how the heat is being distributed. Bullseye Glass has a good tutorial on this here
• Consider making a "test" piece first.  I typically don't do this but recently I've had a problem slumping a piece in my new kiln.  Before I make another attempt on a real project, I am going to make a test blank to make sure I have the right set-up and schedule.  After going through 3 firings and coldworking, I don't want to lose all that work on the last firing.
• Consider varying thicknesses of glass and anneal for the thickest part, especially if you are tack fusing or have varying layers and are not full fusing.  This hasn't been an issue for me as I don't tend to create work that is tack fused but I thought I would pass it along.

Fused Glass Success! Persistence with Live Jury Pays Off

In a previous post, I mentioned that I participated in a live jury (without success) to become an exhibiting member of the Association of Clay and Glass Artists (ACGA).  Well, a few months ago, I juried for the second time and got in!  I'm thrilled - partially because it is not easy to jury in and partially because of the quality of the other exhibiting members.

Much of my exhibit remained the same as before but I also added in a few new pieces (below), substituting for smaller pieces.

I've been a little kiln challenged making larger pieces and I'm in the process of addressing this - step 1: buy larger kiln - done!  Step 2: adjust firing schedule - still working on this part but I think I'm there :)

I have a few more pattern bar projects in process and will hopefully post photos once they're done.  In the meantime, persistence is a good thing when venturing into new glass work although I am beginning to dislike the term "trial and error".