Last year at our Glass Art Guild of Utah meeting, we made glass name tags to wear at group shows so patrons can identify us. It’s always good to know who the artist is!
Materials
- Thin window glass or framing glass
- Float Fire by Armstrong Glass, frits and powders, one light and one dark For best readability, it’s a good idea to use an opaque color for your name and a lighter opaque or transparent for your back ground. Ultra Dense White (with lead, don’t lick your name tag) is a good choice, as is Ultra Dense Black for the letters.Gold Ruby Pink, or Light Blue is a good choice for the background.
- Embossing Ink and Pad
- Letter stamps
- pin back and epoxy (or other glue of your choice)
- sheet of paper
Cutting the glass
The size of your name tag is going to be determined by the size of your stamps, so assemble your name and measure how big it is. If you are planning to have nothing but your name, add 1/4” in each direction. If you’re planning to embellish, then size up appropriately. You will need two identical sized pieces.
Stamping the Glass
Load up the ink pad with Embossing Ink. Embossing ink is a scrap booking product designed to be very sticky and hold onto embossing powder until you can heat set it. We are using it for exactly that, but with glass.
For the name layer, ink the individual letter stamps and apply to one piece of the window glass. If you need to start over, clean the glass very carefully, embossing ink is very sticky and just wiping it off isn’t good enough.
After the letters are stamped on, sprinkle Float Fire over it, using the paper to catch the extra. (You are wearing a mask, right?) Return extra frit to the bottle.
For the background, press the entire surface of the second piece of glass onto the stamp pad. Sprinkle with frit or powder and tap off extra onto the paper.
Fusing
Stack your two pieces of glass carefully, with the name on top in the kiln and full fuse.
Add Pin Back
Using your favorite epoxy, glue on the pin back. A variation of this is to add nichrome or brass loops before fusing and make a pendant style tag.
Wear with pride and reckless abandon!