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A Beginner's Perspective on Fused Glass Jewelry

July 24th, 2008 in patterns & designs, jewelry making

Victoria North, editor

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Here is the finished pendant before being fired in the kiln.

Simple red, black, and clear glass can be transformed into a heart pendant.

The heart design is almost complete. You can see the glue surrounding the frit.

Here is the finished pendant before being fired in the kiln.

Photo: Victoria North

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Last week I was able to spend the day with my friend Luana from Below 14th Studio. We met in May at the Etsy CT Street Team Jewelry Show in North Haven, and have been talking about life, television, and crafts ever since. This particular jewelry show is really important to me, because it was the first time I really felt like I was joining the community and also marked my first post on CraftStylish. Luana and I have been trying to get together for months and finally found the time to meet and work on a project together.

It was nice to finally see her studio in person after getting to know it so well online through blog entries and emails. There were completed project covered the tables which I recognized from her Etsy store. I was even able to get some tips on how Luana takes such great photos.

For my first project, we created a heart pendant made of red, black, and clear glass. I was excited to watch I actually was able to break some of the glass myself. I was even more nervous because this was the last piece of clear glass in the whole studio. Luana has been busy lately and waiting for more supplies. It was actually much easier than I expected, and there are so many creative things you can do with glass.

The first step is coming up with a design. This was fairly easy for me as I have been coveting a design from Below 14th Studio for a while.

Simple red, black, and clear glass can be transformed into a heart pendant.

Surrounded by her fantastic, completed projects I was feeling just a little nervous when she began pulling out tools and told me that I was going to help. I moved around to get a better view and worried that I was going to ruin the last piece of clear glass and with it my opportunity to make something.

The clear glass should be a little larger than the finished product to cover the pendant.

The most difficult part is having the confidence to score the glass in a straight line using the cutter. At first I thought I would break the glass, but it was actually fairly easy to make the cut. Using a cloth and breakers I could then just snap the glass on the score line. After my success breaking the glass I turned things back over to the pro.

Luana shows me how to break the glass using a cloth and breakers.

You will need to spread the glue in a thin, even layer. We had wipe off the glue and try this three or four times in order to get it right. It may have been that we were completely distracted and deep in conversation at this point.

The layer of glue needs to be smooth without any excess.

The black frit is used to make the heart design on the red glass. Apparently, you can buy frit ready made in many different colors and grains, but Luana enjoys making her own, as it adds variety in size and shape.

The black frit will make up the heart design on the pendant.

After carefully placing the frit into the shape of the heart we are almost done with the pendant.

The heart design is almost complete. You can see the glue surrounding the frit.

Now we are ready to fire the pendant in the kiln. Luana tells me this will take up to 11 hours so I left my creation in her capable hands to complete. I will update you with photos of the finished product when I have it back in my hands. I think this was a very successful first lesson in crafting.

Thanks Lu!

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Fused Glass Broken...
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posted in: patterns & designs, jewelry making, glass, below 14th studio

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Comments (5)

hillbiehle writes: congrats! I just recently acquired a kiln to try my hand at fusing glass. Posted: 7:14 pm on August 6th

iHanna writes: Nice post! I wrote about my experince with glassfusing recently in my blog here:
http://www.ihanna.nu/blog/?p=835

and the finished glass can be viewed here if you're interested:
http://www.ihanna.nu/blog/?p=836

:-) Posted: 1:04 pm on July 27th

cmk34 writes: Wow! Looks like you had an awesome time with Below14th...you are an official crafter now Vicky! Posted: 4:05 pm on July 24th

below14th writes: You're doing a great job earning your badges.

Thanks for the visit and excellent conversation and not posting pictures of the messy(er) parts of my studio! Posted: 1:27 pm on July 24th