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.

Slumping Glass over Steel

I wanted to slump a glass sheet over the top of two heads made out of steel.  My first attempt the glass broke.  The glass was too close to the heating elements in the kiln lid.

So I eliminated the steel rods supporting the heads and welded the heads directly to the steel plates.  I also covered the glass with kiln shelf paper. 

The combination of the two items prevented the glass from breaking.  The only problem was that the glass only slumped around the edges.  The steel also reacted with the air because of the high temperature.  The shop vacuum cleaned up the kiln, and sand blasting cleaned up the steel head.  The lessons learned: don’t use steel in the kiln – use stainless steel, and don’t expect the glass to mold itself around several objects. 

Fused Glass Space Ship

Another project combining steel with fused glass.  The steel background is 22” by 28”.  It consists of ¹/₈” steel plate with ¾” by ¹/₈” steel strap welded around the perimeter.  The fit was not perfect, but I was able to bridge the gap with welding.  Sometimes it takes a second attempt to eliminate the welding flaws.  The surface was ground eliminating the mill scale leaving a shiny surface.  The surface was painted using a transparent air brush paint.  Then multiple coats of DuPont ChromaClear were sprayed on over the entire surface leaving a high gloss finish. 

Fused Glass Projects

I was trying to come up with some new ideals combining fused glass with steel. The two kinetic sculptures are 28 inches high, and the little guy is 21 inches. The steel was painted using One Shot Paint.