More glass stuff

[tripperfunster]

Now that I have a kiln, glass frit is something I've been looking forward to trying. Frit is basically ground up glass, and comes in a few different 'grit' sizes, from small (but square/jagged) peas all the way to dust powder.


I thought it would be cool to take my love of paper cutting and apply it in a stencil type fashion to glass.

These are just a few things I've tried so far.


I really wasn't sure how they'd work out, as there are SO MANY things to consider when fusing glass together. Temperature, length of firing, grit of frit, base glass, etc. Not to mention that I couldn't find all the colours I wanted to try!

There are frit makers on the market, but it's $80 for what sort of boils down to a boxy, metal mortar and pestle. So I made one myself with $3 worth of metal pipes and a length of rebar! The blue feather was from my own frit. Yay!

So after making these feathers, I tried to think of wtf to do with them now, and I came up with the idea of doing some stencil cats and birds and making a window out of them. They are cooking in the kiln right now! Geez, the hardest part is waiting for the glass to cool down so I can see them!!

Comments

[dickgloucester.livejournal.com]

Those feathers look almost ghostly.

[milly-gal.livejournal.com]

This was really informative, thanks for sharing :D

[clayangel.livejournal.com]

That's really neat!

[tripperfunster.livejournal.com]

The medium has pretty big limitations, but also a ton of opportunities I haven't even yet thought of. I'm looking forward to experimenting more!

[tripperfunster.livejournal.com]

:D No prob! I"m just sharing as I learn. I hate being a n00b at stuff, so I must torture everyone around me with my new found knowledge. :D

[tripperfunster.livejournal.com]

Thanks! The cats and birds came out REALLY nice too. This design is SOOO not my typical style, so that makes it even kind of neater.

[clayangel.livejournal.com]

So are all of those feather using the same grit size, or do you have different ones mixed in? I'm curious as to what a larger size comes out looking like.

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Very cool and I love that you immediately started experimenting with making your own frit as well:)

[synn.livejournal.com]

cool!
I wonder, would frit work on clear glass? Just thinking those stencil fealthers could look awesome as a backdrop of falling (ghostly) feathers around a stained glass castiel

[tripperfunster.livejournal.com]

Yup! It should work on clear, pretty much exactly the same way.

I'm already planning out one with Cas and his broken wings. :D

[tripperfunster.livejournal.com]

I am nothing if not single minded and obsessive. ;)

[tripperfunster.livejournal.com]

They are all powder. The thicker grit just looks more … defined? Therefore, less of a gradual transition between colours. I also think they'd be much more difficult to do any sort of stencil with, unless it was a very large stencil. (and my kiln is 15x15, so I'm limited in size.

[tripperfunster.livejournal.com]

You could also use white frit on dark glass!

[sillie]

That looks pretty damn neat! :D

[milly-gal.livejournal.com]

I like that though, because as you learn, we learn :D

[scifiangel.livejournal.com]

Very cool.

[tripperfunster.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[tripperfunster.livejournal.com]

Thank you! It's way too much fun!