Getting Started with Fused Glass

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If you want to begin fusing glass on your own, the most important purchase you need to make is a kiln. I personally use the Paragon Caldera Kiln which is completely programmable. At around $600, I thought it was a huge investment at the time I purchased it, almost 3 years ago. It was one of the best investments I have ever made. It works like a charm and I have made literally thousands of beautiful glass and metal clay pieces in it. I teach a lot of classes, so I have used it often to fire students work as well as my own. It is dependable and efficient, using less than 50 cents worth of electricity per firing. I totally recommend it as a great kiln for jewelry making and small draped and drop ring items. If you want to fuse larger pieces, you need to get a larger kiln than the Caldera. This tutorial is for getting started and I will be focusing on creating jewelry size cabochons, so the Caldera is perfect for that. I am a distributor for Paragon kilns and sell the Caldera as well as their other fine kilns so you can contact me if you ever need help in deciding which kiln is best for your needs and if you'd like to purchase one.

I have two kilns that I highly recommend. The Caldera and the Firefly. Both are available at my Etsy shop. heartofthefire.etsy.com

Lets talk glass first. There are lots of different types of glass that you can fuse with. The thing you need to watch out for is compatability. Different types of glass expand and contract at different rates. This is called the Coefficient of Expansion, or COE. It is really important that all the glass you fuse together is of the same COE. I understand there are other compatability issues with glass, but I have only found COE to be an issue in my work. Most people who sell glass for fusing will list the COE of the glass. I personally use COE 90 glass.

Glass comes Clear, Transparent, Opaque, Iridized, and Dichroic. There are different thicknesses of glass as well. Here are some things to think about.

1. The thicker the glass, the more rounded your finished pieces will be. Thin glass will tend to contract as it fuses as glass wants to be 1/4 inch thick. If you use thick glass, the cab will expand a little.
2. For round cabs, start with square shaped pieces of glass, for ovals, start with rectangles,
for tear drops start with triangles.
3. If you use transparent glass, it is like blending colors. If you are using opaque glass, you will get graphic results with each piece of glass retaining the full vibrancy of its original color.
4. Dichroic glass is a special coating on black or clear glass. It can be textured or smooth. It is more expensive than regular glass and really adds sparkle and shimmer to fused glass pieces.

I recommend picking one type of COE and sticking with it. I sell a beginning fused glass kit which is all COE 90. It is precut clear, black, transparent & opaque colored glass with a great selection of dichroic. The beauty of the kit is that you don't need to do any glass cutting. You get a whole rainbow of colors and can make dozens of cabs with it. It's all COE 90 and has been tested for compatibility. It's a full 1/2 pound of glass and is only $25 plus shipping. Here is a link to my etsy listing for this kit. heartofthefire.etsy.com

In addition to glass, you need regular rubbing alcohol to clean the glass and a simple glue
to adhere your glass pieces for loading into the kiln. I use a clear gel tacky glue, but other types of glue work well. Some people also use cheap hair spray, but I have found the glue to be fine.

If you are not using precut glass, you will also need a glass cutter and breaking pliers. You can get glass supplies easily online. I sell some great dichroic and colored glass scrap as well as smaller sheets of glass. I don't deal in large sheets of glass as they are expensive to ship, but for jewelry size pieces you don't need large sheets of glass. You can see my glass scrap at heartofthefire.etsy.com. If you want specific colors of glass, contact me at lisel33@sbcglobal.net and I can tell you what I have in stock with the prices.

It is also important to have either kiln wash or thin fibre paper for lining your kiln shelf.

Basically, you are creating a glass sandwich. The base layer can be black or colored glass. The center or filling of the sandwich is where I recommend the dichroic. You can layer a couple of different kinds of dichroic in different shapes. The black backed dichroic will completely cover any glass it's put on top of. The clear blacked dichroic will merge with the glass underneath.

This piece is a layer of colored transparent glass with a layer of dichroic on black and then a jump ring and ball of fine silver on top. This is how it looks prior to fusing.

If you just put layers of dichroic with no clear on top, your piece will be less rounded, retaining more of its angles, and the dichroic surface will look almost metallic. This is how my the above piece looks after fusing. As you can see, the colors change during fusing.

The last, optional layer is clear glass. If you top the piece with clear, your finished cabochon will have depth and the dichroic sparkle will look like it's underwater. When putting a top layer of clear, you can select a piece that completely covers the other glass, or only partially covers it. Each way gives different effects.
Both effects are quite nice. I do 45% of my glass with clear on top and the rest without. I do not recommend using colored glass on top as it dulls the dichroic. I do recommend experimenting to discover what you like best.

You can also layer colored glass without dichroic for interesting effects. Just remember if you are using transparent glass, it is like blending colors. If you are using opaque glass, you will get graphic results with each piece of glass retaining the full vibrancy of its original color.

Once you have decided on your designs, you need to clean each piece with alcohol. Once you have cleaned the glass, try not touch the tops of the glass as the oils of your fingers can dull the finished pieces. Once the glass is cleaned, use a tiny dab of clear gel glue to adhere the layers. Most of the glue will burn away during fusing, but it can leave an ash residue if you use too much. The glue is to hold your piece together for loading into the kiln. I usually do not use glue for the top layer of clear as I don't want any ash residue to blur the clarity of the finished cabochon.

Here is an image of my kiln, with several pieces in it ready to fire.

Here is the same kiln after fusing.

Before you load your kiln, make sure you have either kiln washed the shelf or put down fiber paper. Fiber paper is a wonderful product and is so easy to use. You just cut it to fit your shelf, and lay your glass pieces on top. It keeps the glass from sticking to the shelf.

When you load the kiln, make sure there is about 1/8 inch between all pieces. When glass is fusing, it melts and flows, and if the pieces are too close, they can flow together. This can make some interesting and weird shapes, but isn't desireable when you are trying to make cabochons.

I like to full fuse to about 1525 degrees farenheit and hold for 10 minutes. Because the cabs are small, I ramp at full speed. Every kiln is different, so you can follow the directions for your kiln for firing schedules.

Glass needs to cool slowly to avoid thermal shock. I like to flash cool to 1,000 degrees by opening the lid, and then I close the lid and let it cool slowly. I open the kiln completely once it's below 200 degrees.