Before spring break, I had a guest artist come in to teach a little about glass fusing. I'm personally slightly obsessed with glass, and I thought it would be a great medium for the students to be exposed to. Glass fusing is an easy process and everyone is successful!
The students were given some background information about the different types of glass that can be used, how they differ from stained glass and what happens to the glass when it gets fired in a kiln. They were also taught how to use specific tools for cutting glass.
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| Glass and materials |
Students were offered the choice of making either a 4" tile, which can be used as a coaster, turned into a nightlight, or simply hung in a frame as wall art:
Or a pendant which could also be used as a keychain:
I absolutely love the variety in each design and the students really enjoyed the project. I already have 5th graders asking if they will be able to make these when they get to 7th grade!
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beautiful! Love them all - Who is the artist? Would she come in NY?
ReplyDeleteI'm actually in NY.. Western New York. She's a local artist, however, with just a little local shop.. so I'm not SURE if she's willing to travel at great lengths.
ReplyDeleteWhat I can suggest, though, is to look for local businesses that do glass fusing. I know we have several here, so I'm assuming most towns/ cities will have at least one somewhere near?
SOOOO cool!! What a great experience for your students -- something they will probably always remember!!
ReplyDeleteThey are all beautiful! I've always wanted to try this, since I make jewelry and I thought it would be fun to make my own pendants. But I don't have any sort of kiln, and you need one, right?
ReplyDeletebeautiful - i will take your advice and look for a local expert because i want to learn this too!
ReplyDeleteThanks, guys! This morning I actually received an email and two phone calls from parents commenting on how much they LOVE the glass pieces! It made me so happy : )
ReplyDeletePhyl, actually... I'm pretty sure they use the same electric kilns that we use for our ceramics. I'm not sure if you were interested in making pieces for your own jewelry or for classes, but yes, you would need a kiln. Every year I have wanted to buy supplies to do this with my students, but unfortunately, it's just not within budget... that's how I came up with the idea (3 year later- duh!) to have someone just come in and they can bring in everything and fire it.
Those are absolutely beautiful! What sort of supplies do you need for glass fusing besides scraps of colored glass and a kiln? I imagine that if you put the glass directly on a kiln shelf, the finished piece would have kiln wash caked on the back of it when you take it out, similar to a glazed ceramic piece if you fire it with glaze on the bottom.
ReplyDeleteHm, well as far as ceramics... I never have kiln wash on the back of our pieces because we use stilts? I'm not sure if you do, but I don't ever come across that problem.
ReplyDeleteAs far as glass, you would need kiln shelf paper. I'm not POSITIVE if you can just use kiln wash itself. Here's a pretty good tutorial on the process, hope it helps! : )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCHd9ZxbtbE&feature=related
Yes, you CAN use just kiln wash. The purpose of each is to keep the glass from adhering to the shelf. You should ALWAYS use kiln wash, even if you are using kiln shelf paper..because if ANY tiny piece of glass gets on your shelf, it is ruined. I only use kiln wash.
Deletewhat awesome work done using waste glasses!!!
ReplyDeleteI hate to be critical, because Glass Work is Loads of fun, but.......although they are very pretty in colors and designs, absolutely every single example is Waaaaay over-fused. When fused correctly, you will have softly rounded corners, as well as gently rounded sides, but the sides will be uniform, and relatively straight. You end up with wavy sides when pieces are held too long at too high of a temp.
ReplyDeleteI agree... I just went to another glass fusing workshop and happened to notice on the wall different glasses fired at what seemed to be different lengths of time. I noticed the over fused ones and had a thought in my head that that's what my students' looked like. I'e never even seen glass fused the other ways.
DeleteUnfortunately, however, I do not fire these myself. I send them back with the visiting artist to have her fire them and I'm assuming she does a large batch and doesn't pay particular attention to the individual pieces.
Ironically, at the glass fusing workshop I just attended, we made some pieces there, too, and they were ALSO over fused a tad! I'm trying to work out my budget so that I can buy the materials myself and try the firing in our own kiln.