How to Make Fused Glass Jewelry

How to Make Fused Glass Jewelry

Hey Gnomies,

A couple of weeks ago I was invited along to a jewelry making party with my husband's cousins. Their friend makes handcrafted fused glass jewelry and art at her home. She hosted us for a two hour class and we all got to make some fused glass jewelry to take home.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that fused glass jewelry is very easy to make. All you need is a few simple supplies, a kiln to fuse the glass together and you can create gorgeous wearable art.

Supplies:

• Glass suitable for fusing
• Glass cutter
• Nippers
• Elmers glue
• Glass Kiln

Unfortunately you can't just use any old glass for fusing. You need to use fuseable (also called dichroic glass). If you try to use glass from broken dishes or bottles it might not work and you could ruin your kiln. You can buy glass online from suppliers like Delphi Glass.

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Begin by choosing the glass colors you want to work with and arranging them into a design. You will need to cut the glass to the size you want. To cut glass you will need a glass cutting tool to score the glass and nippers to break it.

Decide where you want to make the cut on the glass. Roll the glass cutter with pressure so that it scores the glass.

Place the nippers in the center of the scored line and squeeze the handles. The glass should break along the score line.

Arrange the glass in a design and when you are happy with it use regular Elmers glue to hold the pieces in place until you can place it in the kiln. The glue will burn off and you won't be able to see it once the glass melts and fuses.

The round glass pieces are pre-made and you can purchase them in any color. The tiny clear pieces are small crushed pieces of glass and when fused, they look like drops of water.

Next it's time to place the glass in the kiln. There are many different types of kilns that you can purchase, it just depends on how much you want to spend. You can spend thousands of dollars and buy one that can be used for pottery or smaller ones that cost a couple hundred and can be used inside your home. We used the later to fire our jewelry at our class.

I was checking out kilns online and discovered they make microwave kilns ones like the one above on Amazon. You can fuse glass at home in your regular microwave. I'm planning to purchase one soon so I can continue to make fused glass jewelry. If it works out I will be very pleased since they are super affordable. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Once the glass is fused any sharp edges on the glass will smooth out and the whole piece will melt together.

Once your pieces have cooled completely you can add pendant bails and chains. Use E6000 glue to secure jewelry bails and add the hooks and clasps.

What do you think of my designs? Have you ever made fused glass jewelry or art?

Tell me about it in the comments!

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