How to make drilling holes in glass a whole (ha!) lot easier.
I’ve been playing a lot with bead release lately as I’m figuring out the best formula for kiln formed beads. I noticed that the bead release is much stronger after firing than both plaster or kiln wash, so I tried an experiment.
After kiln washing my moon face mold, I used a chopstick and put a drop of bead release on the mold where I planned to drill a hole later.
Then fused a bottle bottom on the mold:
Moon face mold with bottle bottom pre-fusing
When I took it out of the kiln, this is what I ended up with:
The glass fused around the bead release dot and created a hole about half way through the glass. This pilot hole decreases drilling time by about half, AND helps keep my diamond bit from skipping around on the glass. And even better, the glass doesn’t stick to the bead release so the pilot hole is clean.
This is what the mold looks like after fusing, sometimes the bead release comes with the glass, sometimes not. This method will also work with plaster dots. Pottery plaster works best, but plaster of paris will work too. Make the dots on a sheet of waxed paper and let dry completely. The dots can then be peeled off and used under projects that need a hole drilled.
Related Articles: