Kiln Formed Glass – Process
In general the process of producing a piece of fused glass involves cutting the glass pieces to the desired shapes, laying out the pieces on a foundation piece of glass, fusing the glass together to form a solid piece in the glass kiln, and slumping the piece to the desired shape. Specifically the main three steps to fusing are as follows.
Design and Layout:
This is the beginning stage where a design is developed and laid out on paper, to scale. Usually two copies are produced so that one can be used as the pattern for cutting out specific glass pieces and the other as a guide for the layout. Depending on the design each piece of glass is cut by hand and assembled on a piece of foundation glass. Small amounts of glue are used to hold the glass in place until it is placed in the kiln. The foundation piece of glass is usually clear but can be coloured as well, all dependent on the design of the piece. Foundation pieces are usually round, oval, square or rectangular.
Fusing in a Glass Kiln:
Before fusing the kiln must be prepared for firing using kiln wash. Kiln wash is a very fine clay powder mixed with water to make a wash, and applied to all areas of the kiln and kiln furniture that will come into contact with glass. Kiln wash prevents the glass from sticking and makes is much easier to remove the piece from the kiln when finished firing. Kiln furniture which includes shelves, fire bricks, or posts are used inside the kiln to suspend the glass pieces during firing. At this point the kiln is set to fire up to a set temperature, for a specific period of time and allowed to cool (anneal).
There are five main stages of fusing, which are heating, soaking, rapid cooling, annealing and cooling to room temperature. This process allows the glass to slowly move up in temperature while it is melting, soaking helps to smooth out the glass to a uniform shape, rapid cooling prevents crystallization which can occur at high temperatures when the glass has been subjected to the soaking stage for a long period of time, and then to the annealing stage which slowly cools the glass to allow the molecules to realign into their original solid state. When naturally cooled to room temperature the piece can be removed from the kiln.
Slumping:
The slumping stage is similar to the fusing stage in terms of kiln process but the glass is placed into a mold usually made of clay or stainless steel. The glass blank is returned to the kiln and placed on the desired mold and fired to the point where the glass slumps into the mold, and therefore takes on the shape of the mold. Common mold shapes are bowls, plates, platters, etc.
Lampwork Process
Making the Bead:
Using the flame of a torch fuelled by a propane and oxygen mixture, thin glass coloured rods made of soda glass are melted and wrapped around a stainless steel mandrel that has been dipped in bead release. Bead release is used to allow for the easy removal of the bead from the mandrel after annealing. The mandrel acts as tool to hold the glass while shaping and forming the molten glass, as well as providing the hole for the finished bead. The process involves continuously rolling the mandrel between your fingers and moving the mandrel in and out of the flame to form the bead into a round shape. Due to the surface tension of glass, glass will naturally follow the heat and thereby will move to the center of the molten blob and form a nice round bead. The trick is to place a nice even footprint onto the mandrel, as you are rolling the molten glass, which will produce a nice even hole without jagged edges. This method will produce donut shaped beads when using the width of the glass rod as the footprint size. Other shapes, including round, square, tubes or flattened or squeezed beads can be made by using various tools made specifically for lampworking.
Surface Decoration:
There are various techniques or styles of surface decoration from applying dots, flowers, stringer (thin glass rods), using frits (ground pieces of glass) to using various colour combinations. Multiple layers of glass can be added, switching colors to create the desired effects, dots of multiple colors can be left as bumps on the bead's surface, melted in, or plunged with pokers in the center of the bead and filled with clear glass to form bubbles.
Annealing the Beads:
Lampwork beads are annealed (cooled slowly) in a special kiln that can be programmed to cool the beads at a specific rate. After the beads are finished in the flame they are placed in the annealing kiln. If this step is omitted and the beads are left in the open air, the outside of the bead will cool much faster than the inside as the inside remains hotter longer, and the point between the cooling and shrinking of the glass and the hot center can cause the bead to crack. Therefore annealing is the final and most important step in this process of making lampwork beads. The annealing process allows for a soaking period to ensure all the glass within the beads are at the same temperature then the heat is slowly brought down to room temperature.
Jewellery
All jewellery pieces including bracelets, necklaces and earrings are handmade using my own handcrafted lampwork beads. The jewellery pieces are strung using softflex wire, and accented with various combinations of sterling silver beads, fresh water pearls, Swarovski crystals and my own handmade spacer beads. My jewellery designs are all original and inspired by each set of beads I make.
