Window (Float) Glass Snowflakes Tutorial

Materials:

Double strength float glass

Snowflake Patterns (Click to download PDF) Snowflakepatternsfiles

Glass Glue of your choice

Step 1:  Glass Prep

Clean and cut float glass into a variety of strips, triangles, diamonds and squares.  I usually set aside a bit of time for cutting and cut the entire sheet before I start building snowflakes.  It’s important that this glass be double strength (3.2mm) thick glass rather than picture frame or single strength glass.  It is also important to use glass from the same sheet to prevent incompatibility issues.

Step 2.  Build the snowflakes

Although you can make any design of your own with the glass strips, I suggest building the first one with a pattern, just to practice the stacking and overlap.  The glass pieces will need to overlap by at least 1/4″ to fuse together without gaps.  In cases where the glass butts together, you must have a piece over the joint.

Step 3:  Fuse

Allow glue to dry completely to hold the flake together, and then slide the snowflake off of the paper onto the kiln shelf.

Repeat as desired, and make sure to make some of your own designs too!  When the kiln is full, fire to a full fuse.

This is a fun activity to do with friends, or at a family gathering as a holiday keepsake for the year.

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