Glass fusing is the art of joining glass together in an oven. The glass is assembled cold and moved to an oven where it is gradually heated and cooled according to the thickness of the glass and the desired affect of how melted the final piece should be.
The pieces used to assemble your art can be everything from large sheets of glass to ground glass (frit). You can cut glass to make specific shapes, or you can use cutoffs or scraps to assemble mosaics. Different textures and color layering of the materials create different effects. Some projects take many stages of making detailed pieces and shaping them with a torch or using blown glass techniques, and then fusing those in the oven.
The most important aspect to understand for glass fusing is that the glass must all be compatible. Glass is made with different types of chemistry that affect its Coefficient of Expansion (COE). All the glass you utilize in fusing projects must have matching COE values, otherwise, some colors will cool and contract faster than others, which will cause the piece to break. We use COE 90 in our shop.
As pieces melt in the oven, they will flatten out. To achieve 3 dimensions in a finished fused piece usually requires two firings in the oven, the first to fuse the smaller pieces together solidly. The next can be to “slump” the flat piece over or into a mold to produce the rounded or angled shapes you desire.
Fusing glass is a terrific art form. It’s fairly easy for all ages. It can be simple or highly complex. You can make suncatchers, garden art, plates, platters, bowls, light fixtures, signs, sculptures, and more. Learning to cut and shape the plate glass are the first skills to learn and master. We are really excited to help you learn this stunning art form and then see what amazing things you will create.
