So as I mentioned in a previous blog I have countless fused glass molds, so many in fact that I haven’t used them all. I want to change that. To make sure I do, I’m going to start using them and posting the fused glass pieces I create using the molds.
First I want to give you a little background about molds. Molds for fused glass are ceramic or stainless steel. They have to be coated with a separator (for cast molds I use MR97) to prevent the glass from sticking to the mold.
Second molds can be used for casting which is fusing small pieces of glass frit inside the mold, slumping is shaping glass by bending it into a mold, and draping is shaping the glass over a mold. There are also other specialty molds but I’ll talk about that in another blog.
So which one to chose was difficult because I have favorite molds so I tend to use my favorite molds over and over which is one reason why I don’t use my other molds. So of course I decided to use one of my newest fused glass mold it’s doggy paws – 4 to be exact. To make the paw pads stand out I put black powder into the little dents then I added clear and various shades of white. The first time I used it for this blog I made them too thick so I used the mold again, the second go around I did it wrong, the third time – lucky for me they turned out flatter. The reason I wanted them thinner is because I wanted them for a fused glass bowl above.
The dog paw mold is a great mold because I can make the little paws and use them as necklaces or I can fuse them to another piece of glass like a picture frame or clock or as I did here a small dish. After making the doggy paws I created the base for the bowl. To add the paws to the bowl I fired the bowl and paws to a tack fuse. What the tack fuse does is keep the shape of the paws while simultaneously fusing the paws to base.
After the tack fuse and cleaning the glass I slumped it into a bowl mold.
The bowl mold was actually a bowl from good will. I coated it with “mold coat” that I’ve used before. I like this separator because you can turn any ceramic mold into a fusing mold. As you can see by the picture The bowl turned out perfect and I can even use it again.
Finally after at least 4 firings (paws, base [twice], tack, & slump). I now have a doggy bowl. Because it’s 2 layers (not counting the paw) it’s a pretty sturdy bowl.
So I’m sure you are wondering what I’ll do with the first set of doggy paws. Well I used a pinch bail for one (after drilling a hole) and added a bail to another one which can be used for either a pendant, bookmark, or key chain. I’m going to make a magnet out of the third one. The 4th one I’ll just keep until the other 3 sell. I look forward to your comments as to the piece and to the blogs about learning more about molds through my self imposed mold challenge!
If you would like to purchase any of these fused glass doggy pieces email me at elegantfusedglass@gmail.com as I haven’t added it to my site yet www.elegantfusedglassbykaren.com
Keeping my kiln warm,
Karen
