Experiments with fusing

Try, And Try Again, And Again...

I work with stained glass but I like to try different techniques and recently I bought a small kiln from a studio that was downsizing. At the moment I knew pretty much nothing about kilns and fusing, so, really I had no idea what I was buying. The seller told me that "it was a great kiln to try out things and quickly see how glass reacts before doing it all in the larger kiln". That satisfied my curiosity, and the price was great, so I took my kiln home.

I read a book about fusing, then took a 30-minute crash course with a fusing guru and started to experiment. My first little experiments of fusing coarse frit to glass in order to make polka dots were successful. However, pretty soon I realized that since my kiln did not have a programmable controller, there was no way to control the temperature other than by turning the kiln on and off. The corner stone of fusing - bringing temperature up gradually and holding it constant for specific periods of time - was not available to me with this kiln. However, I did not want to do anything complicated, I just wanted to see how far I could get with this small simple kiln.

I came up with a simple design of a medallion of a bird with a wire loop for hanging, cut the glass and arranged it on my kiln shelf. I turned on my kiln and about 10 minutes later, when the temperature got up to around 1100F, I heard a popping sound. I knew it was not right, so I opened the kiln only to find that the background has completely blown up. The temperature was too low for any of the melting to take place, so the shards have burst out from a single point and stopped where they hit the kiln walls. Amazingly, all the pieces on top of the oval have remained practically in place. I had no idea what caused it and decided to simply try again...

 This time the kiln heated to 1750F without incident and the glass fused together fine, except the wire loop somehow got dislocated and just lay separately on the kiln shelf. Now I wanted to see if I could reattach the wire loop by placing it between a small piece of glass and the oval and firing again for them to stick together. Turned out that I had to heat the glass to a slightly higher temperature for that to work and as a result the oval's border has distorted and the bird looked misshapen. Also, you could see where the small piece of clear glass was fused into the oval and that was not pretty.

I tried it for the third time and it worked out. I turned the kiln off at just the right temperature, the wire loop was fused in, the oval remained sharp and the bird looked good. So, it was possible to get good results for similar designs with the kiln I had after all. Most probably, though, that was the limit. Also, having repeated the process four times, I came to realize that I did not really enjoy babysitting that kiln in order to get it to just the right temperature. Maybe once or twice, but not on a regular basis. That pretty much meant that if I wanted to go on to fusing more complicated projects, I would need to purchase a better kiln, one with a programmable controller. I weighed that option and decided that I was not ready for the commitment and that silly bird medallions and polka dot glass would keep me happy for now, especially if I would come up with a way to incorporate them into my stained glass designs.

By Alla (FleetingStillness)

Peridot, the stone of August

Peridot is the August birthstone. The name Peridot comes from the Arabic word "faridat," meaning gem. According to other sources, пeridot got its name from the Latin word pæderot that later became an Anglo–Norman word pedoretés that was a name for a kind of opal. The third version is that the word peridot comes from the Greek word peridona meaning plentiful.

Since antiquity peridot was associated with nature because of its green color. The shades of green in peridot vary from yellowish-green to dark olive. In occult, this gemstone symbolizes vitality, signifies strength, and promise of new growth in years ahead. It enhances beauty, patience and happiness of its owner.

Peridot should be worn by clear-minded & spiritual persons, it will protect them against the negative emotions and aid in treatment of gall bladder and liver. Early Christians considered peridot as a sacred stone.


Peridot is the gem variety of mineral called olivine. While olivine is not a rare mineral, gem-quality peridot are quite rare and peridot is considered a precious stone. In antiquity most of peridot came from Egypt. Peridot can often be mistaken for emerald and the legend goes that some of Cleopatra's beloved emeralds could actually have been peridots. Egyptians also called peridot "gem of the sun," because of its dazzling brilliance when seen in the desert sun.



Currently peridot is mined in quite a few places, including the USA, Australia, Brazil and China. Peridot is also found in some meteorites and is, in fact, the only gemstone found in meteorites.


Story by Alla (FleetingStillness) and Irina (Beautyland)

Interview with a star - Alla

Today, we'd like to share an interview with a great glass artist Alla who runs FleetingStillness shop on Etsy.


How have you started working with glass?
I love making things in general and I have been drawing, sewing, knitting and making collages since I was very young. Working with glass always seemed magical to me, something out of this world, not to be tried by mere mortals. I've always wondered how it was done but never had an opportunity to find out. Then one day about 10 years ago I found some tools, a book and a box of glass being sold at a yard sale. I bought it all and that same evening I cut my first piece of glass, wrapped it in foil and soldered it back together. As simple as that. The rest just came naturally with time.


What do you sell and what is so special about your works?
I sell anything I think would be fun to make out of stained glass and have around the house: window panels, sun catchers, candle holders, night lights and lamps. Stained glass is an ancient medium that is very capricious: it is flat and rigid and needs to be positioned and lit in a certain way. All this makes it hard to compete especially with computer-based art. I try to come up with the way for stained glass to fit into the modern lifestyle. I make and sell one-of-a-kind (OOAK) items that I would (and do) use in my house to make it more beautiful and whimsical.


What is most important about your works?
I get a lot of ideas and try to create basic sketches whenever I can. When I make time to work with glass, I pick out a sketch that matches my mood the most. My sketches are very basic and each has a little story associated with it. I let my sketches transform depending on the music I listen to as I work, the story I came up with, and the glass that lends itself to the piece. Very often the panel evolves so much while I work on it that it is hard to trace it to the original sketch... For me this evolution is the greatest part of the process because the finished product then is not just a colorful pattern, it becomes an illustration, a postcard, a mood snapshot.


Which one of your items do you like the most?
I honestly do not have a single favorite item. Glass interacts wonderfully with light and especially with candlelight, so I enjoy making candle holders the most. I am also into making lamps lately - a stained glass lamp can make a huge décor statement. I also love using agate geode slices in my works - they are always gorgeous. Every item is my favorite while I work on it, and then the next one takes its place.


This interview is also available in Russian there.