Fused recycled glass donuts are a wonderful thing, truly, but they are so very round, and just, round. Sometimes it’s fun to make fused donuts and rings that are a bit fancier you know. This simple Celtic knot donut came into being after an epic bottle cutting with a tile saw left me with 24 thick champagne bottle glass rings.
Step 1.
Cut bottle rings. Champagne bottles work very well for this because the glass is thick. Try to cut your rings as tall as the glass bottle wall is thick.
Step 2.
Use 2 rings of equal size from the same bottle, and mark one of them off in thirds. Since we’ll be trimming off sections, it doesn’t have to be exact, just a close approximation will be fine. You can see my rings are not of equal thickness, so I’m choosing to use the thicker ring for the outside ring, and cut the thinner ring.
Mark one ring in thirds
Cut the marked ring into thirds. I use my glass cutter and score the inside of the ring, and then ever so gently squeeze in with running pliers.
Step 3.
Place one of the curved sections inside the ring that is still whole:
Place first curve
Now, place the other two sections over the top, the goal is to mark where you need to cut.
marking the second and third curve
You want to mark and cut the 2nd and 3rd pieces so they fit together like this:
Curves cut
You’ll end up cutting both of the other curves in half, and then cutting bits off the ends to make them fit. Place them back into the ring periodically to see if they fit. It’s easy to over trim and make the pieces too short, so be conservative with the trimming.
Step 4.
Put the assembled knot into the kiln and fire to a full fuse. If your pieces are all touching when assembled, they should spread slightly and fuse together.
Celtic Donut
For such a fancy donut, that was pretty easy don’t you think?