Since starting in glass fusing a little over a year ago, I have not had the opportunity to be around other glass fusers. Most of what I have learned is from books, and trial and error. Online bulletin boards like www.warmglass.com can be a good source of information. But sometimes, you really just need to talk to someone.
Recently I ordered a kiln shelf from D & L Stained Glass. It looked fine when I unpacked it. But when I applied shelf primer there was an obvious problem. On one section, the primer would not absorb into the shelf. It looked like something had splashed on the shelf and was keeping the primer from adhering. When I called D & L, they had little in the way of answers for me.
Fortunately, last weekend, we had a trip planned to the Dallas area. Just north of Dallas is Stained Glass of McKinney. I decided to visit with the shop owners about my kiln shelf. I am so glad I did. Jacqui and her husband were very helpful. They suggested I remove all primer from the shelf and then fire it in the kiln to 1200 degrees for 20 minutes and see if whatever it was would burn off. I am happy to report that it worked great! If you happen to be in that area, be sure to visit Stained Glass of McKinney. They have a full selection of supplies, and if you are lucky enough to live in that area, they have a great class schedule.
This morning I opened the kiln to find my champagne bottle and wine bottle had fused together. I am sure I didn’t place them too close together in the kiln. The only other possibility is that one bottle rolled into the other. When I place bottles on the shelf I always check to see if there is a tendency for it to roll. The bottles aren’t always the same thickness all the way around, so I roll them to find where gravity natural takes them. Not sure why it rolled. I will have to check if the shelf is level. I also always place a kiln post on the edge of my shelf to prevent the possibility of a bottle rolling off the shelf. That would be a real disaster and cause a major melt down – not just in the kiln, but in me as well.
You might be thinking that the fused together bottles could actually be quite useful. Cheese on one side and crackers on the other. This is true, and will probably be how I will personally use it. But don’t look for any of these in my online shops. It is not something I can sell. I have no way of knowing if the glass in the two different bottles are compatible. What that means is that if the glass is not compatible, combining the two could have caused some stress in the glass and it could break apart anytime. It could break today, tomorrow, or next year. There is no way of knowing. I think I read somewhere that if you put the glass in the freezer for a certain amount of time, and it doesn’t break that you are okay. I’ll have to look into that a bit more. In the meantime, I’m going to have to figure out how to appease the kiln gods!
The first thing needed to make a recycled wine bottle cheese board is, of course, an empty wine bottle. Collecting empty wine bottles can be, without a doubt, the most fun part of the project. This bottle is from a recent wine tasting hosted at a friend’s home. The wine was from Ravines Wine Cellars in Hammondsport, NY on Lake Keuka. This is in the Finger Lakes region of New York; a place that evokes fond childhood vacation memories.
Now to the not so fun part! The wine bottles that will be fired need to be absolutely clean. My process is to load up the sink, soaking the bottles in hot water with a little bit of detergent for 30 minutes, or however long it takes me to remember to get back to them. I then take a plastic scraper to scrap the label off and put the bottle back into the sink. Next I take a sponge with a scrubby side on it and a little abrasive cleaner to remove any residual glue. The cleaner is whatever I have under the sink. Ajax, Comet, Bon Ami, Bar Keepers Friend should all work. After I get all the glue off the bottles they get a good rinse inside and out in clean water. The last step is a little Windex and a paper towel to clean and dry the outside of the bottle. This last step may be a tad overkill, but it avoids any water spots, and it often shows up where I might have missed some glue. Finally I turn the bottles upside down on a wire rack to dry.
Some other tips:
- Give wine bottles a quick rinse as soon as they are empty. Residual red wine left to dry in a bottle can be difficult to clean.
- Some labels peel off nicely with a heat gun or hair dryer. This may be worth experimenting with, especially if you use the same type of wine. I get bottles from everywhere, so usually it isn’t worth my time to try it.
- Don’t forget to dry the bottom of the bottle before you turn it upside down to dry.
I can’t stress enough how important it is to have the bottles clean. The pictures below show what happens when you don’t clean the bottles carefully. Next week I’ll write about the firing schedule.
The first title I considered for this blog post was “The Art of Making a Wine Bottle Cheese Board.” But truth be told, I don’t consider flattening a wine bottle in my kiln “art.” In fact, it is more science than art. More than once I had a flash back to my high school science class. Remember studying the scientific method? I repeated the Hypothesis – Experiment – Analysis cycle many times before I had a system that worked for me.
I originally started flattening wine bottles because I thought this would be an inexpensive way to learn about glass, fusing, and my kiln. This, however, turned out to be flawed thinking. The glass that wine bottles are made out of behaves nothing like the standardized glass that is available for glass fusers. Results aren’t always consistent. Different shapes, colors, and brands of wine bottles can have different results. But heck, it was fun anyway!
So here is an overview of what I learned in the last year.
- Removing wine labels is a pain.
- Bottles have to be absolutely clean.
- Some bottles have a tendency to get cloudy (called devitrification).
- Bubbles are inevitable.
- It takes time experimenting with firing schedules.
- All your friends will want one.
Look for future posts where I will go into more detail on the steps involved in making recycled wine bottle cheese boards.
Remember the fused glass screen melt I did a while back? The one that damaged my kiln shelf! Yes, I’m still mad about that. Well out of the ashes arose this beauty. I cut a piece from the glass slab. Then I used a grinder to soften the corners and smooth the edges. It went back into the kiln for another firing, and this unique one of a kind pendant is the result. The picture does not do it justice. It is much prettier when you see it in person. The clear layer of glass on top made it difficult to get a picture without reflecting the camera in it. You can find this pendant in my Wearable Art Pendants Collection in my 1000Markets store.
I've been around glass my whole life. Both my father and grandfather were stained glass artisans. In 2002 I started working with stained glass, and in 2009 I started to explore fused glass. My blog is mostly about my journey in glass, what I've learned and what I am exploring. It's a wonderful adventure! Please visit my website. 
