Funky Frit
My instructor had lent me a few books with patterns. If you’ve been on any of the glass sites under the Glass Jewelry Netlinks section, then you probably saw a few places that said "free patterns." Just as with sewing, glass designs (fusion and stained) are often used my cutting around a pattern. With glass, the pattern is usually cut out from a paper pattern. Then a black marker is used to draw around the pattern before it is cut out. I had photocopied some of the pattern pages and was armed with heart and moon pattern pieces.
I had watched and helped Stephanie put some of her special pendants together and decided I wanted to make a few using the same concept.
It’s kind of like a glass sandwich. You have two layers of glass with a sterling jump ring glued in between them. (The jump ring can handle the heat.) Then you can also add a design of glass on the top. The layers of glass help you control the volume, or size of the glass, when firing.
On this day, I explained to Stephanie my idea of making pendants, and she thought I might also want to play with some frit - which is a fancy word for small pieces of busted up glass. Then you can sprinkle this on top of your glass pieces before firing. Though you can buy frit in various sizes - from tiny to large chunks - Stephanie showed me how to make it. This is an excellent way to use up all those little pieces. There’s very little waste when it comes to glass.
MAKING FRIT
To make frit, you need a torch, a bowl water, a pair of long handled tweezers, and scraps of glass. First, turn on your torch. (You might want to attach the torch to your work bench so your hands are free - though this isn’t a must). Now, using the long handled tweezers, hold the bits of glass in the flame. It will take a few seconds before you see the glass start to get red and soften just a bit. When it gets red, but it’s not dripping, drop it into your bowl of water. Snap, crackle, pop! You’ve got frit.
This is not the only way to make frit. For larger amounts of frit, you can heat large pieces of glass inside a kiln, take it out, and drop it in a bucket of water. One smart glass artist created his own frit maker using a garbage disposal bolted into a bucket. Also, if you want your frit to be more evenly sized, or if you need a lot of it, you can also purchase frit already made.
Once I made the frit, I sprinkled it on top of some pendants I made, and then fully fused them in the kiln. I added some to a pendant made out of two layers of black glass. It turned out okay, but I should have added a lot more frit. The colors aren’t as bright as I would have liked.
My heart pendant turned out the best. I finished the pendant by polishing the fused in jump ring and adding another, so it could be added to a chain.
Comments? Questions? Ideas? Share them on the jewelry making forum.
