Finished Project and Tips

Kiln-pressed glass has endless possibilities and produces work unlike most of what is being created by fused glass artists today.

To help you on your way, here are some tips:

Glass reactions (the color changes that occur when certain glasses are fused together) tend to be intense in kiln-pressed glass.  You can avoid this by placing clear glass between the reactive colors.  You can see this in the finished piece above – reds, yellows, greens and blues all overlap without creating browns that would typically occur when mixing these colors.

As mentioned in the article above, many of the transparent colors available today are very saturated and appear almost black without a light behind them.  When thinned during in a kiln-pressed glass project, these same colors often produce gorgeous hues.

Pay attention to how glass spreads when pressed – usually from the center out to the edge.  With practice, you can be increasingly deliberate with your design.

Use a scale to determine how much glass you are going to press.  If you use too much glass, it will squeeze out from under the top shelf.  One square inch of a single layer of fusible glass weighs about 0.2 ounces (5.5 grams).  You can use this value to determine how much glass is needed for a given size – or, you can simply use our Pot Drop Calculator to do the work for you.

That’s it!  Please be sure to share your results in the forum or in your photo gallery on FusedGlass.Org.

• Firing