Basic Bottle Glass Fusing – part 1

As I mentioned this month I’m going to focus my blogs on fused glass webinars by Jodi McRaney Rusho from Glass with a Past (on Curious Mondo).  The first webinar I took from Jodi was her basic bottle glass fusing.

Now I’ve done bottles several times in the past. Matter of fact it was the first thing I fused in my kiln when I got it. But I made a lot of mistakes and I didn’t understand much about bottle glass. So when I took this class from Jodi (via curious mondo) I was shocked at what I didn’t know. Jodi is a font of information regarding bottle glass.

First most people call fusing a bottle, slumping a bottle but based on what Jodi has taught me that’s really not true. Slumping is just bending glass to really flatten a glass bottle you have to fuse it (for bottles it’s over 1500 – while slumping a bottle according to Jodi is 1385). I must admit I had my doubt, but I just took one out and it was perfect.

This blog I’ll discuss some of the fused glass projects Jodi taught in her first webinar:  basic bottle glass fusing.

First is flattening a bottle and then slumping it in a mold.

This one is a spice bottle with paint and a decal, it’s a prefect ornament, the next one is night lights made from bottles, the third is a bottle with silver foil and decal, and the fourth is textured bottles and slumped bottles.

The bottom of this one is covered in mica, I really am loving mica!

Another type of bottles that I’ve done in the past is bottle donuts. Here are some old ones I did in the past. I like glass donuts a lot. In the past I’ve fused on decals, sandblasted etc.

In class, Jodi also showed us how to add mica. I must admit, I really like the mica.  Below are some bottle donuts (unfired, fired, then with mica)

Another bottle project Jodi taught in the basic class was bottle bottoms. Again I’ve done it in the past but, I never really did anything with them.  Jodi makes molds specifically for bottle bottoms.

The bee is just a clear bottom, the green I painted the butterfly with mica, and the dragonfly I painted all over with mica.

There are two other fused bottle projects she taught in the basic class but I haven’t finished them yet. I’ll post them as soon as I’ve finished them. I’ll be honest, I’ve watched her webinars so many times and have gotten distracted by all the great projects. It’s funny and frustrating at the same time.