Painting with Fused Glass

The video shows how I add fused glass to my paintings. I love how you can take your fused glass artwork and add it to your paintings. It’s makes your paintings so much more exciting. The fused glass adds color that you can’t achieve from paints plus it also adds a three-dimensional look. It’s adds that Wow! factor to your paintings.

The painting needs to be on a hardboard painting panel in order to provide a hard smooth surface to attached the fused glass. I sometime add an epoxy coating to the painting to add more depth. I use clear silicone to attached the fused glass to the painting. Hope you are inspired to try painting with glass.

 

Fused Glass Dog and Cat

 The video shows how I made the fused glass cat and dog. The cat and dog bodies are two layers of fused glass that was fused using a full fusing firing schedule. The facial features were attached using a tack fused firing schedule. A welded steel frame was used to create the dog’s and cat’s legs. The fused glass was attached to the steel frame using clear silicone.

Simplifying Fused Glass

Using a saw to cut fused glass can reduce your time to make fused glass artwork. Instead of using your kiln for two firings, you do the whole process with only using a tack firing schedule. You also save on fused glass by only having to use one layer of glass for the base.

 

Fused Glass Cats

 

The video shows how I made the fused glass cats. The cat bodies are two layers of bullseye fused glass that was fused using a full fusing firing schedule. The facial features were attached using a tack fused firing schedule. The fused glass was attached to the refrigerator door and window using clear silicone. 

Fused Glass Mistakes

The video shows the mistakes that I made when I first started making artwork using fused glass.

The first mistake was fusing all the glass layers in one full fused firing. The second mistake was to use a single lay of glass for the facial feature. I now use a combination of a single layer of glass and two layers of glass that has been full fused for the facial features. The features are added to the base using a tack fuse firing. The final artwork now has a more three-dimensional look.

 

Whimsical Stand for Fused Glass

I have been wanting to make a whimsical stand for my fused glass panel, but I could not come up with any unique ideas.  I originally just mounted it in a 10 inch steel ring, but it was not very exciting.  Then I decided to add a steel baseball cap and feet.  Now I am happy with the fused glass stand.  I still need to paint the stand.

 

The glass panel is held in place by homemade steel clips.  The hole for the bolt was drilled and tapped in the steel ring.

Styrofoam Bird

The bird was my second attempt using Styrofoam.  The material is actually Owens Corning extruded polystyrene foam insulation.  The four by eight sheet of insulation was 2 inches thick.  The bird was made out of welded steel.  The bird’s head and body was made out of Styrofoam.  The bird made look like it is on skis, but I plan to bury that portion in the ground.  I am hoping this will prevent the bird from blowing over.  Slots were cut for the steel tubing.  I later filled the voids using spray insulation foam.  

For the glasses, I welded steel plates to the frame.  The steel plates would be embedded into the Styrofoam.  The eyes were steel half spheres with steel rods welded to the bottom of the spheres.  The slots in the Styrofoam were made by heating the steel and allowing it to melt the Styrofoam.  The eyes and glasses were glued using Loctite Foamboard Adhesive.  Because of the large gaps, the Foamboard Adhesive took almost two weeks to dry.  I coated the bird with a cement mixture used for setting floor tile.  I primed the concrete using Latex Base DRYLOK® Masonry Waterproofer.  The final paint was 1 Shot which is an oil based paint.