Fused Bottle Glass Frit Ball Pendant

Wondering what to do with all of the bottle glass frit balls we made a while back? Not sure what to do for shows or gifts? Well, here you go.

These pendants remind me of a classic (in)famous Utah dish called Ambrosia Salad. Essentially jello, cool whip and fruit cocktail all mixed together to make an opaque white-ish not actually food stuff with bits of un-naturally colored fruit floating in it.

But, these are better by far! For one thing, you aren’t expected to eat it and pretend like it’s delicious.

Materials needed:

Bottle Glass Frit Balls

Prepared Mold

Tweezers

and this:

Opaque White Float Fire Frit.

The reason we can use multiple colors of bottle frit balls in the same pendant is the connecting glass is this Float Fire Frit which is compatible with all bottles.

Step 1:

Carefully place a layer of frit balls in each of the pendant molds using the tweezers.

Step 2:

Add enough opaque white Float Fire frit to nearly cover the frit balls.

Step 3:

Add another layer of frit balls.

Step 4:

Add another layer of white Float Fire frit. Don’t cover them too much, because we’re going to grind off the white glass after firing. If you completely cover the frit balls it will mean more work down the line.

Step 5:

Fire to a full fuse using the full fuse schedule for 1/4″ glass.

Now comes the fun part.

Step 6:

Coldwork the pendants to expose the frit balls on the front and the back. You will want to remove enough of the opaque glass that light can travel all the way through the heart from both sides.

You can do this with grit on a sheet of glass (the way I’m doing it), a lap wheel, diamond sanding pads, diamond files or even a diamond bit in your dremel tool.

Step 7:

After your hearts are all nicely cold worked, fire polish them using the slump firing schedule for 1/4″ glass. The green heart on the lower left is green frit balls with translucent yellow frit, just to give you an idea of what that combination looks like.

And here’s the back:

And backlit:

Step 8:

Add a bail and a chain/ribbon/wire of your choice and wear proudly!