Fusing Demo! (Day 1) IMAGE HEAVY!

I missed a day of updating... not really that fun. But luckily for everyone who reads this, I am going to give everyone a look into fusing this week!

The first thing to do is to gather up all tools you'll need. In this picture I have: a protractor (I use it for making straight and curved lines), two colors of sharpie marker, breaking pliers, standard pliers, a glass cutter, and underneath it all, my maxi surface (to catch all bits of glass that come from breaking).


Oh.. The MOST important piece of equipment in my studio! SAFETY GLASSES! You never want shards of glass flying towards your face, but it happens. Protect those eyes! An artist needs them for simple things like color selection, don't put them at risk for even a moment.


Next, glass selection. It's a tough choice for most of us glass artists since we all have stashes. There is nothing really else to go with this picture but, OOOOH Shiny!!!


Here is the selection for one piece. This is a great piece of clear glass with a Dichroic coating. As you can see I have already made lines on the glass with the sharpie so I know where to cut.



And the first cut is made.













Here is the "capper" glass with it's first score made it the glass. The score is made with that nifty little glass cutter from the first page. It doesn't actually "cut" through, it just makes a line in the glass. The noise can be a little unnerving, almost like a zipper on a ziploc bag, just much more loud, and sets most peoples teeth on edge.


When pressure is put on the put on each side, there is a distinct snap, and there you have two pieces from one.





Eventually when you need to make it smaller, your hands will not be small enough or strong enough to hold the piece. Luckily though, those pliers from the first picture come in really handy!



Unfortunately almost each trip to the studio yields one thing... A cut on the hand... OW!








Once the two pieces are put together you get a piece of jewelry ready to fuse! Some times if the pieces will not stay together, you have to use a bit of glasstac, an awesome glue from Bullseye glass! It's only for pre-fused glass, just for placement.

Tomorrow's blog will have another piece of this fun but pretty intense process. Hopefully seeing it through will be worth it!