Harvest Moon - Repurposing a Fused Glass Texture Tile
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| Harvest Moon Fused Glass Tile |
Recently one of my texture molds that is used for making coasters had a little mishap. As I looked at the broken pieces wondering what to do with them, the half circle reminded me of a moon. I decided to create a moon and mountain scene -- below are the steps I followed.
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| Broken texture tile |
Tutorial
The broken mold was a GM137 Weave Texture coaster mold from Creative Paradise (link below). First, I kiln-washed the largest remaining piece. There was still a lot of tile left to work with, though it certainly couldn't be used for its original purpose!
Next, I cut pieces of 1/8" fiber paper into the shape of mountains. On one of my recent walks, I picked up some nice grasses and they had been drying on my workbench. I arranged these on top of the mold and fiber paper until I had a layout that I thought looked pleasing. Once I was happy with the layout, I removed the grasses, held them over a piece of paper, sprayed them with hairspray, and dusted them with a chestnut brown fine frit.
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| Designing the layout |
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| Frit coated grasses |
I chose a System 96 Wissmach Luminescent glass in transparent honey.Wissmach's Luminescent glasses are excellent for kiln-carving and texture tile applications. Their coating is typically more vibrant than many of the iridescent glasses, they intensify when fired coating-side down, and are generally less expensive than irids. While not suitable for all applications (i.e., the luminescence basically disappears when capped), this is the kind of application where the glass shines (pun intended!). Here is the layup going into the kiln:
- two "mountain ranges" cut from fiber paper, one placed on top of the other to create dimension, and placed on top of the mold
- grass on top of the fiber paper (grass, frit-side towards glass)
- single layer of honey, coating side down
- topped with a layer of Spectrum System 96 clear
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| Layup, going into the kiln |
I fired this piece in a kiln with several other pieces of glass, using one of my "go-to" firing schedules:
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Segment
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Rate
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Temp
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Hold
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1
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300
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1100
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30
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2
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50
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1250
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60
|
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3
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300
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1460
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15
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4
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1500
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950
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90
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5
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100
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700
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00
|
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| Wissmach Luminescent - Harvest Moon Fused Glass tile |
As you can see from the photos to the right and at the top of this page, the fired piece has a lot of beautiful color from the Wissmach glass, and I think the project is a great way to repurpose a broken texture tile.
This piece is approx. 6.5 inches square. For photographing I have this piece in a metal stand, but I plan to fabricate a base for it.
I hope this project sparks some ideas for how you may be able to salvage a broken mold, and also inspires you to check out Wissmach's Luminescent glasses!
Happy fusing,
Dana
Resources:
Creative Paradise's web site: http://www.creativeparadiseglass.com/
Mold: GM137
Wissmach System 96 Glass: http://wissmachglass.com/wissmach96.html
Wissmach Glass can be found at all your favorite glass suppliers!
Learn More About Glass Fusing! Bullseye Glass offers a great educational video series for a small annual subscription fee:
