Glass Tips

Fixing Paint for Transport

2013-05-15T10:46:00.000+01:00

The very cheapest hair spray works well with glass paint, if you need to transfer your painted glass to another place for firing. Complete the painting and then spray with cheap hair spray as you would to fix a charcoal drawing. This will hold the paint firmly during transport and does not affect the paint during firing.

Tracing on Opalescent Glass

2013-05-10T10:41:00.000+01:00

Opalescent and dense glass presents problems as the usual method of tracing the image through the glass is not possible. If you first spray the glass with a cheap hair spray, this gives a “toothed” surface to the glass. Then using carbon paper an image can be transferred. However, the carbon paper leaves a greasy residue, so water based paint will not take, but an oil medium will.

Matting

2013-05-05T10:07:00.000+01:00

Oil, and Water and Gum as Media for Matting by Dick Millard [edited from a discussion] Oil has been used, I believe, since the 16th Century, and certainly up through the 1970's to today. It is used wherever it is determined it should be used, and one is sufficiently informed and facile to use it in a manner of delivering its full and lovely potential. First of all, oil is not

Tracing with a Pen

2013-04-30T10:36:00.000+01:00

Example of a pen nib Using paint mixed with essential oil or turpentine and with a fine mapping pen for small lettering works well, as the oil flows better than water. Although with practice, a water based paint can be used with a pen, but it is a little tedious as the pen has to be loaded frequently with a tracing brush and constantly cleaned as the water dries quickly. Examples of

Radiating Lines

2013-04-25T10:00:00.000+01:00

In designs for leaded and copper foiled glass it is important to avoid lines radiating from a single point. Some of these reasons are: It is important to reduce the number of lines that meet in any design to avoid a big bright solder place in a panel. Example of pattern with radiating lines It makes for large solder blobs, especially on leaded glass panels, and

Aperture Drops Blank Sizes

2013-04-23T14:43:00.000+01:00

As the glass drops through the aperture, it stretches, but the whole substance of the piece is drawn toward the hole. If there is not enough spare glass around the hole, the whole piece will be drawn through the aperture. There is a minimum size of the glass in relation to the size of the drop out hole. Up to some maximum size, the greater the diameter of the hole the greater the amount of

Temporarily Securing Panels

2013-04-20T10:00:00.000+01:00

When installing panels into an window opening or frame, you often need to secure it while you finish puttying or use other forms of weather proofing. If you use sprigs (headless nails) or even carpet tacks, use them where there are leads meeting the perimeter. There us less chance of a stray hammer strike hitting the glass. It is more likely to strike the lead and so cushion the impact

Initial Heat Up Rates

2013-04-15T10:00:00.000+01:00

Example of a graph of a heat up for industrial purposes There is quite a lot of information on the annealing cool rates, but not so much on the initial heat up rates. This is probably because the cooling rates are more critical than the heat up. But everyone knows that you can heat the glass up too quickly for its thickness. My experience leads me to suggest some heat up rates to 50C

Grinder Bit Height

2013-04-10T10:00:00.000+01:00

If your grinder bit is too low or too high the diamond surface will not grind the whole of the glass edge. This can lead to chipping of the surface of the glass at the edges. Example of top of bit almost too low for the glass A good practice is to start with the bit as high as possible to allow for differing thicknesses of glass. As high as possible is with the bottom of the diamonds

Mobile Glass Storage

2013-04-05T12:00:00.000+01:00

Sometimes people consider placing their glass storage onto wheels. It is better to avoid wheels on glass storage for several reasons. You would need heavy duty wheels to cope with the weight. Glass is 2.5 times as heavy as water, so it does not take much volume to make a really heavy glass case. Example of mobile glass storage You do not need to move all your glass at once - a piece

Antiquing Sandblasted Glass

2013-03-30T20:26:00.000Z

Sometimes a sandblasted area appears too white when finished. One method that can be used to tone down the whiteness is to use low temperature glass stainers' enamel. The low temperature enamels cure at temperatures between 530C and 580C depending on the type and manufacturer. At this temperature the glass is unlikely to change its shape. The jewellers and ceramics enamels fire at higher

Assembly of Circles and Irregular Shapes.

2013-03-25T13:00:00.000Z

Leading Circles and ovals as well as irregular shapes significant support as leading often involves sideways pressures to fit the lead to the pieces of glass. Thus there are two main methods of support for the perimeter of the panel. You can cut supporting pieces of glass to place around the perimeter. These need to be cut to the outside of the perimeter cut line. These supports must

Disguising Joints in Fusing

2013-03-20T13:00:00.000Z

You can use powder or fine frit to conceal the joints in fusing. This is most easily done before the first firing. Fine frit can be made from the off cuts from your prepared glass, or you can buy powder of the correct colour. Where two colours meet use the darker or denser colour of frit or powder over the joint. Push the frit into place with a brush or stick to form a regular edge. You

Placement of Pieces for Firing

2013-03-15T13:00:00.000Z

Placing pieces in the kiln, especially in oval and side fired kilns, is not about filling the kiln completely. Kilns have hot and cold spots, and the arrangement of the elements can have an effect too. The first thing to determine with a new kiln - and immediately after any alterations to the kiln - is where the hot and cool areas of the kiln are. There is an extensive guide to this on the

Glues in Kiln Forming

2013-03-10T13:00:00.000Z

Glues have two major uses in fusing. One is to stick things together after being fused (cold fusing). The other is to hold things together before fusing. Holding things together while preparing the piece to be transferred to the kiln is a major use of low tack adhesives and glues. All of these burn off a lot lower than the temperature at which the glass begins to stick together. So, if

Bones as Inclusions in Glass

2013-03-05T23:33:00.000Z

The major components of bones are calcium and organic materials making up the marrow. If the bones are not old and weathered a very bad smell will be produced. The organic material will cause bubbles. Finally, it takes a long time to burn out the marrow, so it is best to use bones that have weathered for a number of years. Calcium “erodes” during firing, so fine and thin bones will

Hanging Sun Catchers

2013-02-25T23:25:00.000Z

Unless you are using some manufactured system or a frame, the most frequent way to provide hanging points is to create a loop from copper wire. Hangers should originate in a solder bead that goes some way into the piece. The loop's tail should lie a significant distance into the solder line to ensure it does not pull the piece apart. If this is to remain invisible, some

Cleaning Magnets

2013-02-20T18:32:00.000Z

When making frit in steel containers the metal fragments need to be removed using magnets. It can be very difficult to get the fragments off the magnets. A solution has been suggested. Put the magnet into a small plastic bag before use. After cleaning all the metal from the frit, take the bag to the bin and remove it from the bag. The metal fragments will drop off into

Single Layer Firing

2013-02-15T08:01:00.000Z

Preparing a Single Layer for Further Kiln Work There can be circumstances where you do want to fire a single layer in building up your project. This is more often difficult on rectangular than round pieces. Some of the considerations are: Temperature Heat work sizing Cleaning after firing Firing a 3 mm piece to anything over a laminated tack fuse normally leads to the edges

Slump Point Test

2013-02-10T07:38:00.000Z

A slump point test is useful when you wish to determine the approximate annealing point of an unknown glass. The methodology follows: Prepare a strip of the glass 305mm x 25mm. Suspend this strip above the shelf on 25mm pieces of kiln furniture. Leave a 275mm span between the kiln furniture. A piece of kiln furniture also needs to be placed on top of the glass to keep it in place.

Ceramic vs. Glass Kilns

2013-02-05T07:30:00.000Z

The purposes of these two types of kiln differ, so insulation properties differ too. Ceramic kilns have high density brick insulation to retain the heat and slowly cool the contents from the top temperature to avoid breakage. Glass kilns have light weight insulation – whether brick or fibre - to cool quickly from the top temperature to avoid devitrification.

Removing Kiln Wash

2013-01-30T07:21:00.000Z

Kiln wash can get stuck on items for a variety of reasons. A variety of ways to remove the kiln wash are: Grind the kiln wash off with diamond hand pads, or small rotary tool with wet sandpaper. You can then proceed to continue to grind with successively fine grits until a polish is achieved, or you can fire polish after a thorough cleaning. Example of scrubbing kiln wash off

Grinder Chipping Glass

2013-01-25T07:11:00.000Z

There are a number of reasons that may cause the grinder to chip the glass surface. Some of the things to check are: Too much pressure It may be that you are pressing the glass into the grinder head too hard. The grinder head should do the work. Firm rather than hard pressure should be applied. If the grinder slows, it is an indication that far too much pressure is being applied.

Cutting thick glass

2013-01-20T06:57:00.000Z

Use the correct angle of cutter wheel for the thickness. Use a similar pressure to cutting 3 or 6 mm glass. It is natural to think that as the glass is thicker, you need to use more pressure. The different angle of the cutter wheel is designed to transfer the standard pressure more directly downward. Use cut runners made for thick glass to help break the glass. Run score from both ends

Air Brushing on Glass

2013-01-15T06:51:00.000Z

Raphael Schnepf Workshop Air brushing onto glass is a little different than onto other slightly absorbent surfaces. As glass cannot absorb the moisture from the material being sprayed, the medium needs to be allowed evaporate. This means that each layer of paint must be allowed to dry before the next layer is applied. If too much liquid is applied to the glass, it will bead up giving a