Recycled Glass Bowl with Raised Squares – Tutorial
Materials
1/4” window glass, larger than the mold
Square bowl mold
glass cutter
running pliers
marker
ruler
kiln
This is the second tutorial in our series of creating with recycled window glass. This tutorial will include a fusing firing before we slump the bowl into our mold.
We are going to start with cutting and assembling our project. Measure your square bowl mold, or simply flip it upside down and mark it on the window glass.
Cut the glass just inside the marks, this will be the main part of the bowl.
Using the remaining glass, cut 8 1” squares. These will be the visual interest part of the bowl.
Clean all of the glass pieces and place them on the kiln shelf. Place the large square first, then one small square on each corner, about 1/2” from each edge. If you are a very precise person, use your ruler to place them evenly from each corner.
Place the remaining 4 1” squares in the center of the bowl, about 1/2” apart.
Fire to a full fuse. The raised corner pieces will fuse fully to the base, but won’t completely flatten out.
For the slumping firing, we will first need to cold work the edges using a diamond file or sanding pad, or a grinder if it’s available.
The edges of fused recycled glass tend to wrinkle and pucker during the slumping cycle. By cold working, we expose a new glass surface that will fire smoothly and save us a lot of time in cold working later. I’m using a diamond sanding pad here so my finished edge will be rounded. A set of diamond pads is available from Fusion Headquarters for a very reasonable price ($25USD at the time of this writing). The diamond pads should be used wet to avoid dust and undue wear on your pad.
Note that the entire edge is now frosty, this is the newly exposed glass that will fire polish clear and smooth during the slumping cycle.
After cold working, clean the glass very well and place on the mold with the squares down.
Fire using the slumping schedule.
Very nice! You can use this layering technique again and again as you become more proficient in cutting complex shapes.
Our third project is a fused recycled window glass lattice bowl. I hope that you’ll join us!
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Hi, I have a couple questions (love your blog- great explanations). I have a ceramics kiln that will follow your schedules but I am scared to use glass in it for fear of wrecking the kiln itself. I'll stick to simple fusing and melting for now until I get used to the process- as opposed to pot melting and molding. So my questions are: Are you using a glazed bowl for slumping prepared with kiln wash inside and out or do you use unglazed bisqueware with kiln wash? What is the chemical you spray on glass to keep it from going cloudy? We are in New Zealand so chemicals, not brand names are more useful. Will slumping a wine bottle or even fusing it ever make the bottle liquefy so much as to run off the edges of the kiln shelf- assume I put it at least three inches from the edge. How thick does the kiln wash need to be? Aaaah! I am so keen and excited, but scared....
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