Making fused glass dots from scratch
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- Опубліковано 24 січ 2021
- In this video we show you how we make our fused glass kiln dots or beads. We show you how we place them on our kiln shelf. How we cut them up from scrap glass. We explain our firing schedule and show you the before and after for the dots. We cover opaque and transparent dots and the different approaches for each. We cover the 6mm rule and what it means when you full fuse your glass.
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Do you make your own glass dots?
I really enjoyed this tutorial. Thank you for the video!
You are so welcome!
Box of Sadness makes Trays of Joy
Great, love it!
Agree! I had a piece that was a failure, after several months I turned it over, added glass and re fired, now it’s a favorite.
@@Ucantakeittothebank that's great to hear. Thank you for sharing.
Omg the box of sadness. I love it. I'm totally going to have to incorporate that into my organizing. You should make a room tour. I love your organization.
A studio tour is on our to-do list. We have a big tidy up planned for March so will do it after then.
@@FiredGlass I can't wait!
I turn my total failures into frit using the heat and quench method. I also do resin work, so pieces that I’m worried about if the COE has changed (like failed pot melts) I used as Resin only frit. Pretty glass still gets used but doesn’t risk ruining yet another glass project.
So pleased I found ur tutorials. Books r great 4 reference, but nothing like actually watching an experienced Glass fuser talking thru & demonstrating the process. Thank u
Seeing is often much easier, totally agree.
Dots are great made in a microwave kiln! I'm making some extra large ones with multicolours, topped with clear. So much fun. It's my favourite fusing. But I've saved enough for a proper kiln now, though I can't stretch to the dizzy heights of a hobbyfuser! I'm learning so much from your videos. Thank you
Thank you Catherine, glad our content has been useful. You can certainly make dots in the microwave, with your kiln you will find it's much quicker and easier to create a massive mixed batch of dots. Great to hear you have a new kiln coming, exciting times ahead for you.
What finally prompted me to cave in and buy a kiln was making dots. I was using them in my mosaics and paying a local shop to make me dots. Finally realized it would be cheaper for me to have my own kiln. LOL. This was before Microwave kilns were even thought of and home kilns were just becoming available.
One tip, as you’re laying each scrap out, sort them at that time into their color groupings. Makes the process go faster on the out end. Since you’re having to handle them going in anyway, put that handling to double useful. What that means is think of how often you’re handling something in a tedious process and how you can handle it the fewest times.
Good suggestion, thanks Linda
Thank you - new to the wonderful world of glass - exactly the tutorial I was looking for!
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you you are a pleasure to listen to.
Thank you too!
YOU MAKE ME WANT TO MAKE A TON OF DOTS .THANK YOU. YOU ARE A WONDERFUL TEACHER. 💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯
You are so welcome
Thanks so for the schedule for making these glass dots!!
Thanks for watching, glad it was useful to you.
Thank you very much Maestra I am in Mexico and with you I am learning the art of vitrofusion.
Thanks for watching 🙌
Jill, I absolutely adore you and your channel and have for quite some time! I am curious about about a project I saw in the intro to THIS video. It showed on clear glass a little underwater scene with the jelly fish and you used several glass dots, clear and I believe some smaller ones. I looked through your tutorials and didn't find it and I was wondering if by chance you might consider showing us how that one was done? I love your work because it is extremely beautiful and often delicate, but you always make it look so easy, lol. Thanks as always for sharing your gifts! 😉💖
Thanks for watching and I'm glad you like our content. The jellyfish is on our to-do list as a video.
Brilliant, I'm new to warm glass and this was really inspiring, thank you
Great to hear, glad the video was helpful and useful.
Thanks for sharing.
What a nice Person and amazing Artist.
Ah thank you 😊
Excellent tutorial. We are just starting the fusing adventure. Our kiln arrived yesterday and it is all unpacked. Thank you!!
Thanks for watching! Exciting times for you ahead then.
Awesome video, I learned so much, thank you for your talent and sharing to help others!!!
You are so welcome!
Wow ... what an amazing video. I had no idea about the 6mm rule and thought to make round earrings, I would need to use a mold. I am excited and will be trying in my microwave kiln tomorrow. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and passion.
Thanks for watching, have fun with your fusing.
Thanks for this, I have a hobbyfuser and hadn’t been going high enough so will try this on my next firing.
Pleasure, thanks for watching. Let us know how you get on with the higher temperature.
I love making dots, i just fill the kiln shelf up with them and make lots of dots at a time too - Love your little trays!
Dots are great fun to make and sort through afterwards!
Thanks that was really useful! X
Glad it was helpful!
Excellent tutorial! Thank you. This is super informative for a newbie like me. I wish I lived near you, I would love to take classes with you. You make it all look fun! Cheers from Canada.
Thank you for watching Diane and glad this was useful to you. Happy dot making!
I did enjoy❤❤❤❤
It’s a popular video this one
I want to start fused glass as a hobby but how has your electricity bill been affected by the kiln? I cringe at the thought of the cost of running a kiln at 1000 deg c for a hour or two.
Apologies for my slow reply.
It's a good question. Depends on your setup and electricity supplier. We have solar panels so run the kiln when the sun is shining which then costs nothing. Failing no sun then we are on a cheap rate between 00:30am - 05:30am every day. To run a kiln used about 5kWh @ 8.25p/kWh so it costs just 41 pence to run a kiln.
Now I know what to do with my "box of sadness", thanks!
Yay! Make good things from it.
Hallo and thank you for beeing
Thank you too
Hi Jill, as you mentioned, you do not want to inhale the thinfire dust and ought to wear a mask. I don't really know exactly how risky breathing that thinfire dust is, but in addition to wearing a mask, I remove the pieces, then spray the shelve with water to keep the dust from swirling while I scrape it together or sweep it off. Alternatively you can use a vacuum cleaner as long as it collects all debris in a micro-particle dust bag. Then when changing the vacuum cleaner bag, you really ought to wear a mask again and dispose of it within a plastic baggy (the kind you get in the grocery store work just fine). BTW, thanks for this video; I can second all of your advise but going a few degrees over the full fuse temperature was a trick I hadn't thought of yet. I appreciate it.
Thanks for watching. Great tip on the water spray to reduce airborne particles.
I love Learning from you. My husband and I are enjoying your tutorials very much. I also want to make glass beads and was wondering do you have to drill the hole for a glass Bead after they are made or is their a way of firing them with a hole??? Thanks Leonie
Thank you. You would drill them after firing Leonie.
@@FiredGlass thanks I thought so.
Hi Leonie, been thinking further about your question and there's a more detailed alternative technique that you can use to create a hole before firing. If you are making larger beads then you can create the hole a couple of ways:
1 use fibre rope or fibre board between two layers of glass. After firing you can remove the fibre by soaking and poking out with very thin file or cocktail stick.
2 use a very thin gauge steel Mig welding rod, stainless steel wire or nichrome wire wrapped in thin fire paper to create the channel. Wrapping in thin fire means you can remove it after firing.
Obviously the beads will not be round like they would be if you flame worked them, but they could be made into pendants.
Hope that helps
Please let me know how to do this in microwave kiln in detail ❤️ love you and your great information 💕
The principles are exactly the same. The downside with a microwave kiln is the lack of control over the temperature, ramp up and down to/from temperature, in essence the firing schedules. Therefore it will be a case of trial and error for you. We don't use microwave kilns therefore unfortunately we are not in a position to give advice and guidance on the specifics. Sorry we cannot help any further.
Does it matter the coe of the glass dots for future use? I’m just learning how to use kiln and not sure what scrap glass coe is.
Hi Jim, yes it does matter unfortunately. You cannot mix different COE ratings as you will end up with fractures and cracking at some point in the future in the pieces you create using the dots.
It's okay if you just want to play with the kiln, but the dots will be bin fodder if you decide to work in a different COE from the dots you previously made. I don't make the rules! :-)
Thank you very much for your tutorial. I have a question, please:
I need too many of these dots and prepared , cut glasses into small squares. But I use the kiln in the studio, and it is expensive. And where I go only twice a week. Decided to buy kiln for microwave. And to prepare dots at home in it. May I use in future dots made that way for all big projects, which I will make in the studio.
May I use those dots in the real big kilns?
Thank you in advance.
Yes you can indeed do that. When you make your dots in the microwave kiln you will have less control over the annealing process so make sure your dots are small, e.g. 1cm square pieces of glass. That way you won't run into issues with them cracking later on. The dots you create can be used in your projects and fired in the big kiln no problems.
Hi.I am from México city, just starting with Glass fusing. Can You advised me with the temperature curve for the verdad? Thank You very much
Hi Elsa
We have no details on a verdad kiln as we do not use them. Suggest contacting the manufacture or perhaps there maybe Facebook groups or Internet forums that might help you. Sorry we cannot help.
Quick question if I may. Do you sprinkle clear, powdered frit on top of the opalescent scrap glass before full fuse (same COE of course)? I understood all opaque glass needs this when going into a full fuse to prevent devitrification.
No never. There are some glasses which are more prone to devitrification. If you are suffering from this a typical cause either your top temp is too high and you need to drop as quickly as possible to your annealing temp. Otherwise devit crystals are encouraged to form. The clear powder solution does work but it’s not routinely needed if you follow the temp/drop temp firing schedule.
@@FiredGlass Thank you so much for answering my query.😊
What kind of kiln do you use in this video? Video is great and I was happy to find it.
Any kiln will do to be fair so long as you can control the temperature with the firing schedule. We use a Kilncare hobby fuser or cub fuser.
I have been having trouble getting the square pieces to round and make a dot....they look like rounded squares......I use a fiber kiln so i think i can increase the full fuse schedule 5 points but was also wondering about the hold time at that top temp.......your thoughts Please.
Depends on the colour of the glass you are using. White glass tends to round off less than other colours. If the squaring is across all colour ways then increase the temp by 5ºC and have another go. If that does not work, add another 5ºC until you get the look you are after. Many kiln are different so temperatures are always a guide.
@@FiredGlass great .....thanks
i was also trying to make some hearts and it happened with them too....so i will increase the temp....again thanks
@@marilynjoy4338 no problems, I hope that improves your dots.
I'd really like to make my own dots! I have tons of scrap - can any glass be made into dots? Also is there a microwave kiln you recommend?
Yes any glass can be made into dots, providing you know the COE and you don't mix different COEs of glass. Use a Full Fuse firing schedule, as per the video.
We have no experience of microwave kilns, best to search for a channel that specialises in them.
Do you go through the full fuse schedule - the slow ramp up and annealing - for such tiny pieces? It doesn't seem like it would be necessary.
You're right it is not entirely necessary to do a slow ramp up and annealing for such small pieces. We often put other pieces in with our dots, the dots are used to fill gaps in the kiln shelf so they go through the full fuse schedule because of the large pieces.
@@FiredGlass Thanks, I thought so. But that's a good point about using dots as a filler project when you can. Good advice.
Hi, i have a question, I used 2 cm fiber paper for firing. What to do with it now after burning it?
Not sure I follow your question. Is it 2cm thick or in another dimension. Fibre paper can be re-used.
Necesito saber de que material es el papel debajo del vidrio
Es papel ThinFire warm-glass.co.uk/thinfire-paper-p-2532.html
Can you use dichoric strips to put in dots
Hi Deborah. Thanks for your question although I'm not fully clear on what you're asking. You can certainly use dichroic glass to make dots and I do this often for use in Christmas ornaments :). If you want to actually cut strips and put them together to make dots then you need a way to ensure they don't pull apart when firing. I'm sure you're aware of the 6mm rule, but just in case... simply put, when glass is full fused it's preferred state is to be 6mm thick and round. This means you can full fuse a 3mm thick 1cm square of glass and it will become a rounded dot. If you put strips of glass together you may need to dam them or cap them to ensure that they don't pull apart. Depending on the size of your dots damming is tedious and wastes space. Capping means the pieces will be 6mm thick already so will come out less rounded. Give it a go with just placing the strips side by side the next time you do a full fuse and experiment to see what happens until you get the result you require. You might also experiment with the different types of dichroic as some can burn out at higher temperatures. Hope that helps. Jx
Brill
Thank you for watching Stephanie, glad it was useful for you.
I tried making my first kiln of dots, but a lot of mine did not round off.. they stayed in a somewhat squared off shape. I did increase my temperature by 10 degrees 10:37 but it did not seem to help. Any suggestions? Are my pieces too large? I can’t seem to find a way to post my photos.
Which firing schedule are you using Cindy?
How far apart should glass be before firing so they don’t fuse together?
So they are not touching. Glass thats 3’m thick will always draw itself up to 6mm. Any thicker than 6mm and it will pool down to 6mm . Therefore 3mm only needs a spacing of 3mm. Leave more space for thicker pieces.
Where is the best place to buy the thin fire paper?
Any glass supplier really, its a bullseye product so widely available.
Is it worth the cost of running the kiln to make the dots? How much would it cost to just buy dots? Is it much cheaper to just make them?
I guess it depends on a number of factors. The cost to run your kiln. Often we run our kilns for free from electricity generated by our solar panels. We have an overnight cheap tariff for our electricity too so will run it during that time.
Dots are made from scrap glass so the outlay has already been made you are making good use of all the product. Making them yourself you can choose the colours, size and quantity. You can also fire them alongside another firing if you need to fill up a kiln and make best use of the space. We have not purchased dots for years since starting to make our own.
You mentioned rinsing in vinegar and water? Why?
Apple cider or white vinegar?
Often dots have a coating from the kiln shelf adhered to the bottom of them if you're not using Thinfire paper on the opaques. A solution of vinegar (malt or white) and water can be used to clean them, however it is not always successful. Prevention is better than cure, hence preferring to use Thinfire paper.
Wheee did you purchase those tweezers from?
They come from Warm Glass in the UK.
Micro-mark small tool specialists, has a number of unusual shaped tweezers for all manner of purposes, you might check there too.