Wrapping a Glass Base with Zinc Edge Came

Several people have asked how I attach the hangers to my Glass on Glass Mosaic Mandalas.
So, here is a "short" 20 minute video lesson that describes the process. Enjoy!

View more mandalas at calyxann.etsy.com!

Cutting Circles with a Circle Cutter

Cutting Circles Using Mosaic Nippers

Undersea Gardens Plate Using 96 Cane and Sumpy's New Ripple Swoop Mold

Carrie Strope Sohayda ~ "Undersea Gardens" 12" x 6"

Materials:

• 1/4 lb 96 Fusing Canes Alternating 3 Red 2 Aqua Inner Helix
• 1/4 lb 96 Fusing Canes Green 5 Line Inner Helix
• 1/4 lb 96 Fusing Canes Cobalt 5 Line Inner Helix
• Spectrum System 96 Dark Blue Transparent
• Spectrum System 96 Clear
• Spectrum System 96 Cherry Red Transparent
• Spectrum System 96 Medium Green Transparent
• Spectrum System 96 Deep Aqua Transparent
• Slumpy's SM-6130 Ripple Swoop Mold
• HoneyDoo Zuper Glue 

Tools:

• Mosaic Nippers
• Fine Tip Sharpie
• Ruler
• Glass Cutter
• Running Pliers
• Safety Glasses
• Kiln
• Papyros Shelf Paper
• Kilnwashed Kiln Furniture

1. Begin by cutting glass and nipping cane.
•Cut two 2” x 12” and two 1½” x 12” pieces of clear glass.
•Cut two 1½” x 12” pieces of dark blue glass.
•Cut two ⅜” x 12” strips each of dark blue, cherry red, medium green, and deep aqua.
•Mark fusing cane at 2” lengths. Using mosaic nippers, cut fusing canes in each color to 2.”

2. Layout pieces according to pattern.
•For the first layer, lay down smaller piece of clear glass in the middle. On either side, place the
strips of glass on edge, and then lay down the  dark blue pieces of glass to the outside.
•For the second layer, place the two remaining pieces of clear glass on top of the dark blue, and lay the cane out across the clear piece in the middle, securing the outer pieces with a dab of glue.

TIP: If you build on a piece of cardboard, you can easily transport and load the pieces into the kiln.

3. Full fuse & then slump.

Pattern Alterations: •To eliminate strips, add ½” to
the width of the dark blue and clear rectangles.
•To avoid using kiln furniture or fiber paper dams,
cut two ½” x 2” pieces of dark blue & clear to hold
the fusing cane in the middle section.

FIRING TIPS:
•To prevent the fusing cane from shifting off of the base layer of glass while firing, use kiln dams
against the ends. If you don’t have dams or fiber paper, you can alter the pattern using the above
instructions.
•If you want to eliminate bubbles from between the canes, space the canes so that there is a little
wiggle room between the pieces.

Suggested full fuse firing schedule:

200 dph to 1000ºF hold for 45 min
50 dph to 1250ºF hold for 25 min
500 dph to 1450ºF hold for 45 min
full to 1000ºF with no hold
200 dph to 950ºF hold for 60 min
100 dph to 800ºF with no hold
300 dph to 120ºF  with no hold

NOTE: This is a fairly conservative firing schedule, but you may need to make changes based on your kiln.

How to Make Dichroic Purse Hangers

Materials:

Assortment of System 96 dichroic from Slumpy's

Slumpy's new bracelet finding, and Aanraku key fob and purse hanger

No Days Bailbond and a heat gun

Assembling Fused Glass Windchimes

Making a Fused Glass Cocktail Ring...

...over at ChristyNelson.net!

I've been teaching some dichroic jewelry making classes lately, and one of my crafty and technologically savvy students just posted a tutorial on how she finished up her ring using No Days BailBond and her dichroic cabochons from class.

Go check it out, now!


Also, there are a few classes coming up where you can learn how to make your very own dichroic glass cabochons...
The LUX Center for the Arts is offering a 6 week fused glass jewelry class where we'll be making not only this dichro tile for cabochons, but fused glass slide beads, earrings, a bracelet and necklace, as well as learning basic wire wrapping skills.
Mon., Sept. 12-Oct. 17, 6:30-8pm
More information and registration over here.

And every Third Thursday over at Architectural GlassArt, one block south of 48th & Prescott Streets in College View, come make a dichroic glass tile. Call Rod Scott at 402.420.2544 for info.

Jim Flora's "Chance Encounter" in Glass

Thought I'd share the video I finished a week or so ago. I watched it again tonight, and I think it turned out pretty well!


It's a fairly concise description of the whole fused glass process for making a slumped platter with frit. So, if you're curious...check it out!
:)

Chance Encounter (1970)
by James Flora (1914-1998)
www.jimflora.com
used by permission
http://jimflora.blogspot.com/
http://www.etsy.com/shop/jimflora

Pattern Bar In Pictures

Cutting strips of glass on the Morton Portable Glass Shop

Arranging the strips into a pattern

Dams arranged in the kiln to prevent glass from spilling into the interior of the kiln

Four pattern bars with patterns and one random bar at top.

Slicing the pattern bars with a wet tile saw and a special diamond blade from HIS Glassworks

Trixie Kitty helping with the layout of the random pattern bar pieces

Sample pattern bar tiles

"Loom Woven Rug" 2011

Making Fused Glass Globs

Begin by cutting strips of fusible glass:

You can use mosaic nippers to cut some strips into single layer squares for smaller globs.

Stack other squares into two and three layer stacks and place on a prepped kiln shelf.

Fire the glass squares up to 1500 degrees Fahrenheit and hold for 8-10 minutes.
In a small kiln (like my Caldera), I go AFAP (as fast as possible) to 1500 and hold for 10 minutes, then the next segment of the firing schedule is off. The kiln holds enough heat, and they are small enough that I'm not worried about thermal shock. Plus, I'll be firing these again in a larger project. They'll really anneal in that piece.

Attaching Bails with No Days BailBond

Curing BailBond in an Oven

After I finish with a dichroic glass tile project, I end up with a bunch of cabochons that are awaiting bails. However, I HATE using two-part epoxy and adhesives, in general. That is...until I discovered No Days BailBond. It's a heat set adhesive. There's no mixing noxious chemicals and it's easy to clean up. PLUS, if I decide that I need to change out a bail or use the cabochon as a purse hanger instead of a pendant, I can switch the findings just by reheating! (This versatility really appeals to me, as apparently I have a hard time with commitment...it took me 2 years to get married after getting engaged, and another two years to decide that I could change my name!!)
Anyway...when I have a bunch of pieces that need findings, here's what I do:

1) Secure bail to pendant.

Cut a piece of BailBond to fit the size of your bail. For this pendant, I used a piece of BailBond approximately 3/8” long. Sandwich the BailBond between the pendant and the bail, and then
secure in place with painter’s tape. The tape prevents the bail from moving in the oven once the BailBond has melted.

2) Place the pendants in the oven.

I used my toaster oven for this demo, but a regular oven may be used, as well. For ease of transport, you can place several bails on a cookie sheet. Place the cookie sheet and pendants in a room temperature oven and set it for your curing temperature. I had to set my toaster oven much higher (300 degrees F) than the melting temperature of the BailBond (160 degrees F). In a traditional oven the temperature may only have to be set at 200 degrees F. It's recommended to do a test run to figure out what temperature to set your oven to.

3) Let the BailBond fully adhere to the bail and glass.


Once the oven reaches 200 degrees F, leave the pendants for 10 minutes to let the BailBond melt to the bail and the pendant. It’s important that both the bail AND the glass are hot enough for
the BailBond to fully adhere. You can peek in the oven and actually see the BailBond melting
between the bail and pendant.

4) Let the pendant cool and clean up.

After the pendant has cooled, carefully remove the tape. If there is any
residue from tape, it can be scratched off with your fingernail, or rubbed off
with your fingers (a little olive oil helps). If the BailBond has melted out
from under the bail, an exacto blade will help to remove it. (I was able to
scratch off the excess with my fingernail while the piece was still warm.)


Now, your pendants are ready to wear! The only thing that you want to be aware of when using the No Days BailBond is that because it is a heat set adhesive, you don't want to leave it in your car on a hot, sunny day.

How to Make Layered Dichroic Jewelry - Part 2

This post is a continuation of a tutorial on layering dichroic glass to make gorgeous fused glass jewelry. For the first part of the tutorial, check out this post...

So, the layered dichroic tile came out of the kiln and looks wonderful. I usually let it sit for a few weeks so I can enjoy the full effect of all that sparkle :)


After I've got an eyeful, it's time to think about cutting this baby down to size. I want a bunch of pendants, but the cabs you'll create by cutting the tile down work great for rings, purse hangers, mosaics,...you name it!

I've begun to cut my dichro tile down a bit... I just use a regular glass cutter (my preferred cutter is my Toyo pistol grip, no oil necessary). For the first few cuts, you need to remember that:
A) This tile is thick! All the layers fused together have made this tile about 1/4" thick. Thicker glass is tougher to break.
B) When scoring glass, stress can build and fracture the glass at unforeseen points if you're trying to break off too little.
The beginning tile was about 4" x 4." When I attempt to score and break my glass, I don't try to take off less than an inch, initially. Once your pieces start to get smaller, it's easier to cut them down into smaller and smaller pieces, to a point.
When breaking the glass initially, a regular pair of running pliers doesn't really work. IF you can squeeze really hard, the tile MIGHT break. The tools I use to break the tile are:

1) A hammer - you can tap lightly on the underside (opposite side of your score) of the tile all the way along your score. Eventually, the piece should knock off where you asked it to. Sometimes, you will be surprised. This gets harder to do as the pieces get smaller. But, by that point, you can switch to your running pliers.
2) The Morton Glass Works Safety Break M-80 Tool - I was able to use this for the very first time on the thick tiles last Saturday. You have to squeeze fairly hard, but it breaks really well! The Morton website has some really great videos that make cutting glass look like a breeze.
3) Diamond Blade Saw - If you've got access to a wet tile saw with a diamond blade for cutting glass, you can make very accurate and exact cuts. If it's a ring saw, you can even cut custom shapes. This is a costly tool, but you can sometimes have the local stained glass / fusing shop cut the tile for you, or even show you how to cut it for yourself.

If you're not crazy about the raw dichroic on the edges of the tile, you can nip them off with mosaic nippers. These pieces can be piled together when you put them back in the kiln and will form a puddly cabochon with lots of sparkle.

Once you've finished cutting all of the pieces, it's time to put them back in the kiln.

Each kiln is going to fire a bit differently. This is just a recommended firing schedule, and I'm using my "Little Miss" Caldera kiln with a 6" shelf.


For a nice, clean edge that holds the shape of the cut, you'll fire to approximately 1420 degrees F and hold for 5 minutes. Since my studio is really cold right now (we're in the middle of a blizzard), I slowed the ramp up to 500 degrees per hour to 1000; then continued AFAP (as fast as possible, or 9999) to 1420 and held for 5 minutes. Follow this segment with your annealing schedule back down to room temperature.

This schedule will soften the edges without globbing out of shape.


For my scrap bits, I'll throw those in the kiln AFAP all the way to 1480 for 8-10 minutes. I want these pieces to be rounded and full fused. They're all really small pieces, too. So, they won't shock from the heat on the way up.

Look for my last post in this series on attaching the bails with No Days BailBond...

How to Make Layered Dichroic Jewelry - Part 1

Tonight, I'll be giving a quick demonstration of some of the upcoming classes I'll be teaching at Architectural Glass Arts (1 block South of 48th and Prescott) here in Lincoln, Nebraska. In particular, there's been a lot of interest in the Dichroic Tile for Jewelry class. It's a great way to make a bunch of gifts all in one go, because you start by making a 4" x 4" layered dichroic tile and end up with 10-20 pieces for jewelry (depending upon how large or small the pieces are that you decide to cut the tile into).
So, without further ado, here's part one (in the kiln prepping for part 2 as we speak)!


First, you'll need to gather your supplies:
You'll need your cutting tools (glass cutter, running pliers, mosaic nippers), a pair of tweezers come in handy for moving small pieces around, 5" x 5" piece of ThinFire paper (if you're not building directly on the kiln shelf like I did) on a sturdy piece of cardboard, your favorite brand of fusing glue (I'm using No Days Liquid Fusing Adhesive), cleaning supplies (I use Sparkle brand glass cleaner and microfiber cloths), and of course, glass.
You'll need a variety of dichroic bits on black and clear. You can actually purchase sample kits or assortment bags from several dichroic suppliers, and I've found this to be the best way to build up a variety of different dichroics at a good price.
Lastly, you'll need either: 4" x 4" piece of thin black (or whatever color you want to be the base layer) AND 4" x 4" piece of thin clear, OR a 4" x 4" piece of clear. If you're using thins, just follow the steps below verbatim. Otherwise, you'll need to start by laying out your ThinFire on cardboard and drawing a 4" x 4" square on the paper with a pen or pencil. This square is where you'll start layering your pieces.

Now, it's time to assemble the layers:

Begin by placing your thin black on the kiln shelf. (Alternately, you may use ThinFire paper setting atop of a sturdy piece of cardboard. After the glue has dried, it is easy to scoot the paper off of the cardboard and into the kiln. DO NOT FIRE THE CARDBOARD!!!

[Note: If using standard thickness (1/8") glass, then you should not have a base layer. Instead, mark your kiln shelf with a 4" x 4" square (lightly use a pencil to mark the primed shelf), or draw a 4" x 4" square on a piece of ThinFire paper on sturdy cardboard. You will not use a base layer of glass. Your base layer will be your dichroic on black pieces.]

Now it's time to play with dichro!!! First, you'll be laying down bits of opaque dichroic glass. (Dichroic glass comes on black thin glass or on clear thin glass.) Cut the dichroic pieces into random shapes, squares, triangles, strips...whatever you feel! Trust me, as long as you load the dichro up, you'll be pleased with how this turns out.
I included a wavy stick of dichro and some flameworked twisty stringers. The only thing I would not recommend is to use plain old glass. I've tried it once and it overpowered the dichro. It's a mistake I will not try again!
You can see bits of my base glass that are naked. They will likely show up in the final piece, depending upon how well I cover those bits with clear dichroic in the next step.


If you haven't used a base layer of glass, then you need to use more dichroic than I did. You should not be able to see the kiln shelf or ThinFire.
At this point, I also dropped a bit of glue in the seams, especially along the edges of the glass. Even though the glass is placed fairly randomly, it takes some time to do. I don't want my nicely stacked piece to shift around before I get it in the kiln!

Now, you start layering clear dichroic on top of your opaque dichroic. A word of warning! The metal oxides that make that beautiful dichroic coating do not stick to each other when fired. What does this mean? It means that when placing the transparent dichroic glass on top of your opaque dichroic, you need to carefully examine each piece to make sure the dichroic coating is up and not down. I do this by holding my piece of glass to a light and trying to catch the reflection of the light on the dichro coating. If your dichro coating is face up, the light it reflects will run all the way to the edge of the glass. If your dichro coating is down, you will see a slight "shadow," kind of like when you stand really close to the bathroom mirror and look at the edge. (Anyone besides me ever done this?)
Make sure you have plenty of transparent dichroic on top of your base layer, but it's okay with this layer to go a little lighter than you did with the opaque layer. AND, some transparent dichroics will completely obscure the layer underneath them. So, don't get too crazy! (Boom, boom, ain't it great to be crazy?)


As I laid each piece of transparent dichro down, I put a tiny bit of adhesive on the bottom side. Like I said earlier, I use No Days Liquid Fusing Adhesive. It's got a pleasant orange aroma that helps to cover up the garage smell in my studio. It's also really tacky, so when it dries, my pieces are more stable than if I were to use different fusing glues. (Did I tell you how long it takes to put this piece together? Just long enough to make it really frustrating when pieces move before they are in the kiln!)
Tada!!! Made it to the kiln, and now all that's left is to cap it! Dichro is nice and sparkly, but when you put the clear layer of glass on top, it adds a really nice dimensionality to the metal coating. This is where I gently add the 4" x 4" piece of thin, clear glass on top before firing up the kiln. [NOTE: If using standard thickness glass, you didn't have a base layer. However, you definitely want a clear cap. So, this is where you would add a 4" x 4" piece of clear to your lovely stack.

Load the kiln and fire!
The firing schedule will vary from kiln to kiln. But, for my small Paragon Caldera kiln, this is the schedule I used:

500 degrees per hour to 600 degrees and hold for 15 minutes

(I didn't let my glue thoroughly set and dry. The No Days adhesive starts to set within 3 minutes, but can take much longer to dry - even overnight. This step helps to dry and burn off moisture, so make sure the kiln is vented. I simply place 2 stacked squares of 1/8" thick fiber paper in two corners of my kiln and leave it vented the whole time.)

500 - 1000 - 5

The binders in the ThinFire and the glue will burn off completely during this stage. The kiln still needs to be vented...

full - 1250 - 10

This stage heats up to slump temperatures and let the layers fall together, squeezing out air bubbles and beginning to tack.

full- 1480 - 15

All the layers should now fuse together fully.

full - 900 - 20

Annealing temperature. My bitty kiln holds its heat well, and with small pieces like this one, it doesn't need any further annealing.

0000

The end.

Make sure you DO NOT open the kiln even to peek once the kiln is below 1000 degrees! You're just asking for trouble if you do. Don't want to put all that work into making this nice piece and then stress out your glass and make it shatter!!!
No, No, No!

Part Two will cover cutting the tile into smaller pieces, rounding off the sharp edges and attaching a bail.

Oh, Go Felt A Snake!!

I've been trying to find some really cool felted hair thingies, but can't quite find what I'm looking for...What to do? Well, make them myself, I'm sure! So, I've been researching the topic of felting to learn more about it and have found the coolest site with lots of great tutorials.
I thought I'd share it: Woolcrafting... and the portion that I'm most intrigued with, Learning to Make Felted Snakes. It's this technique that I will have to master in order to make my envisioned hair-thingies:)
If I ever get around to actually making them, I will show them off!

Crochet Some Hearts...

Grandma taught me to crochet when I was young, and I caught on but didn't have the attention span to finish anything (just like when mom tried to teach me to quilt - I still have the almost finished piece mounted in a wooden frame). I have been thinking that I'd like to learn to knit and re-learn to crochet with wool, so I can experiment with felting.
I ran across these directions. Maybe I'll find that old needle lying around somewhere:)

Fusing Plastic Bags

I've always thought this was a fascinating technique...I'll have to try it once again, as the last time I tried, I wasn't too successful. Seems like the iron temperature is a spot of contention, or at least question:)

Recycled Bottle Beads...

January is up and coming and the Creative Glass Guild of Etsy (CGGE) has come up with our newest challenge idea: Recycled!!
So to start the creative juices flowing, I present you with a link to this great tutorial for lampworking with recycled glass bottles to make beautiful beads:
http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/cr_jewelry/article/0,2025,DIY_13762_3972067,00.html

Making Your Own Earwires

After spending what I felt was too much on the components for making earrings,

and being frustrated because the components were never quite what I wanted,

I decided that I needed to figure out how I could make my own!

Tools:

• Use 20 gauge (0.8mm) wire, which is sturdier than 22 gauge (0.6mm), and fits most pierced ears. (18 gauge wire tends to be too thick to fit through traditional pierced ear lobes.)
• BIC Softfeel™ Pen with a round shaft and a rubber pad to grip the wire
• flat file, or even better, a cup burr to file the ends of the ear wires and help prevent infections from the scrapes that jagged edges could cause. A cup burr can be inserted into a Dremel™ tool or Flex-Shaft™ drill. Then, you simply put the end of the ear wire into the cup and turn the drill on. The cup burr files the end of the ear wire into a nice dome that fits nicely through pierced ears without scraping and causing infection. A cup burr that is larger than the wire makes it easier to fit the end of the ear wire into the cup.
• round nose pliers
• chain nose pliers
• flush cutters
• bench block and hammer
  

Begin by cutting a 3" piece of wire and pulling it straight. Make a small loop with the tip of your round nose pliers, at one end of the wire. This loop will be the spot where you attach any embellishments. The wire now resembles a head pin.

Now, move the round nose pliers to the other side of the loop. Nestle the pliers against the edge of the loop, and bend the wire over the pliers to almost a 90° angle. Hold the loop of the wire, so that the long piece of wire points at you. Place the pen about 1/2" away from the bend in the wire and roll towards the bend, creating the hook of the ear wire.

Make any minor adjustments, so that the wire looks right and cut off excess wire about 1/4" past the bottom of the small loop. At the very bottom of the straight wire, make a slight bend away from the loop.

File the tip as described above. Hammer the front of the ear wire to add a more elegant feeling.

I learned this technique from the book, "All Wired Up," by Mark Lareau.

I've looked through several different wire working books, and this one is a really great beginner's book. It describes all the different tools you'll need, touching upon basic techniques and delving further into intermediate techniques as well.

A peek into the table of contents:

• Introduction -
• Materials & Tools - The author really stresses that the only things you really need are wire, your hands, pliers, and flush cutters. He thoroughly explains different wires and the important factors to consider when choosing a wire. Then, he goes on to explain the three essentials : Round Nose Pliers, Flush Cutters, and Chain Nose Pliers. Other tools he explains as useful, but non-essential are : Wire Straightening Pliers, Flat Nose Pliers, Bench Block and Hammer, Jewelry Bead Crimp Pliers, Tool Magic® Rubber Coating, and needle files or Cup Burrs.
  
• Getting Started - A short list of "To Do's," including working with clean hands, watching your posture, how to hold your pliers, and straightening your wire.
  
• Basic Wirework Techniques - Making loops of all sorts for headpins, opening and closing loops, wrapped loops, and scrolls (or spirals).
  
• Basic Wirework Projects - Donut pendant wraps, Donut embellishments, and freeform coil earrings.
  
• Findings - Wrapped wire bails for turning beads or crystals into pendants or earrings, and Fancy Headpins (triangle, heart, and star).
  
• Ear Wires - Plain ear wires, Plain ear wires with a bead, Fancy ear wires (incorporating the techniques used in making fancy head pins).
  
• Clasps - "S" Clasps, with and without a bead, Hook and Eye Clasps, and the "Strongest Wire Hook and Eye Clasp in the Universe!"
  
• Cages - Wirewrapping Marbles, Wire Capped Bead, and Wirewrapping Cabochons.
• Gallery of Comtemporary Wirework - Pictures incorporating all of the techniques learned in previous chapters (and more) intended to inspire you to get creative!
  

Using Silver Art Paste...

Just checked my email and found this wonderful Instructable using PMC Paste (Precious Metal Clay) to create a Silver Popcorn Pendant. If you've ever wondered how to use the silver pastes, but have been wary of trying it, you should definitely check out this instructable. It shows several pictures and walks you through step by step. Enjoy!

Etching Glass - A Walk Through

So, the other day I finally got started on the bottle etching project I have been meaning to start. For the student sale that's fast approaching (25-26 August, 2007), I am putting together some bottles with base plates similar to the one I did earlier this year for my friends' wedding gift. A few of them, I envision being olive oil bottles with a dipping plate. But, I also have visions of some super fabulous body oil or massage oil residing in one or two of them as well. I'm still working on the details of the oil part, but I have the glass done...

I worked with Armour Etch cream and both the Rub 'n' Etch and Peel 'n' Etch stencils.
First, I'll show you the idea behind the Rub 'n' Etch variety:

After securing your stencil in place with a little tape, you burnish the design onto the glass. After the stencil transfers from the plastic to the glass, you remove the plastic backing and tape off the area surrounding the stencil. It IS necessary to mask off this area, as the fumes from the reaction will frost the glass, in a very undesirable way!

At this point, you are ready to apply the cream. But before I get to that, I'll show you the Peel 'n' Etch stencil as well, because once you have the stencil in place, the steps are the same.

To the right of the bottle, you can see the baggy that has the stencil in it. The Peel 'n' Etch variety comes with a printed version of what the stencil will look like. You don't use this portion, it is for reference only. Also, I think you may be able to use this stencil more than once. But, I haven't tried to reuse it yet. I did keep it, and it seemed sticky enough to use again. Another bonus, if you wish, you can use the negative of the stencil as well.

After peeling the papery side away from the stencil and placing the stencil on the bottle, you peel away a second gauze-like layer off of the opposite side. This leaves you with a contact paper-esque stencil, which you should mask off. (I haven't in this one, and I did get the frosted outline of the square stencil.)

Apply the Armour Etch cream thickly. With the Rub 'n' Etch stencil (the butterfly above), you let the cream sit for one minute, and then rinse. (Mind the cream resting in the ceramic sink, as it may etch it!) If you let it sit longer, the stencil gets eaten away.
For the Peel 'n' Etch variety of stencil, you can let the cream sit longer. I think I found something that said 5 minutes? You definitely can get more contrast by letting the cream sit longer.

Now all that's left for me to do is to find a source for bottle toppers, and make the plates, of course.