Make an Opal Glass Cab

Though I love stone cabochons, as a glass artists, I was drawn to making glass cabs to incorporate into my jewelry designs. After much experimentation, I have made a number of glass cabs that I’m very happy with. Among these are what I call my "Opal Glass Cabs." By combining regular clear glass and clear Dichroic glass, you can make some beautiful glass cabs that have an opalescent look to them.

You’ll need:

clear glass
*your choice of clear Dichroic glass
glass set-up
fusing glue or white glue that dries clear

*Dichroic glass either has black or clear on one side. As with all of this beautiful glass, the clear comes in a wide variety of colors and patterns. Pictured below is rainbow clear (which I adore), a lacy patterned clear, and a checkered clear pattern.

1. To begin, cut out squares of clear glass. This can be any size you want, but you need at least 2 pieces each of one size. For my cabs, I made some 1 inch by 1 inch square and some 1 inch by ¾ inch. Squares are the easiest shapes to cut in glass, but of course, you could cut any shape you want. Just make sure you have two that are about the same size.

2. Once you have your squares cut, use your grinder to round off the ends of all the squares.

3. After grinding, rinse and dry your glass so it’s nice and clean.

4. Lay out your squares so that you have 2 pieces of glass grouped together. I usually make a number of cabs at once and lay all my pieces on a cookie sheet.

5. Now select the Dichroic glass you want to use. For some cabs, I cut up odd shapes of the dicro and used 2 or 3 different pieces for each cab. For other cabs, I used one piece of dicro and cut it to be a little smaller than the clear piece. I tend to like to have the different pieces of dicro mixed, but experiment and see what you prefer.

6. Now take a little bit of glue and dab it onto your dicro pieces and adhere them to one of the clear pieces. You can either put the dicro side down or up. If the side with the dicro film is down, you’ll get a more fuzzy design. If the dicro side is up, you’ll get a clearer design. I like both looks and vary with some up and some down. Be very careful here when using the glue. I do not using fusing glue. I use ordinary white glue that dries clear. However, if you use too much glue your pieces will be cloudy and yucky looking. You only need a tiny amount. Also, when adding the dicro pieces, you only need a few here and there. You do not need to completely cover the clear.

7. Wait a few minutes and let your glue dry before continuing. I know this is hard to do, but it will be help the glass so it all the pieces don’t slide around and drive you crazy.

8. Once the glue is pretty well set, add a tiny amount of glue to your matching clear piece and set this on top of the dicro pieces you previously glued on. Make sure to position the two clear pieces directly on top of each other.

9. Now set them on your kiln shelf (which, of course, should have dried kiln wash on it already), and set the shelf inside the kiln. You need to have some space between each cab. My 8 inch by 8 inch shelf can hold 15 to 20 cabs depending on their size.

10. Each kiln will vary slightly, but this is the approximate fusing schedule I use for cabs:

25 minutes at #3 (500 degrees)
25 minutes at #5 (800 degrees)
20 minutes at #6 (1000 degrees)
15 minutes at Hi (1500 degrees)

The last 15 minutes are the critical part of the fusing process. If you don’t fuse them long enough, your top and bottom pieces won’t be completely fused together, and you’ll get a ridge between the two pieces of glass. If this happens, you can refuse them using the same schedule. It’s no big deal, but it does take more time and another run in the kiln. If you fuse them too long, the cab might become odd shaped as the glass will over melt.

11. After you have fully fused the cabs, turn off the kiln and let the cabs cool inside the kiln. I usually wait over night. After the cabs have slowly and completely cooled, you’re finished.

I know these cabs aren’t identical to opal stones. However, their shine and brilliance is a very close second. I've wire wrapped one opal cab already and plan to figure out a beading project to show them off as well.

All graphics created by Tammy Powley.