The Process of Making a Fused Glass Art Plate

I often share picture of my work on Facebook. Usually it is a picture of the piece ready to be fired and then a completed picture. Today I thought I would share a few more pictures showing the complete process from beginning to end.  This is a piece I just completed. Our family has a fusion wedding coming up, so I made this “fused” glass plate for an engagement ceremony. (Bad pun intended.)

First I worked on the design using a program called GlassEye

After I had a design I liked, I ran some tests to determine which method I wanted to use when translating the design into glass.

Once I decided which technique I would use to implement the design, I cut out a paper template of the design. I used the template pieces to cut the glass that made up the design element.

Then I cut two circles for the base.

Next, I cleaned and assembled all of the glass and fired it n the kiln to approximately 1465 degrees Fahrenheit to fuse all of the pieces.

The piece comes out of the kiln as a fully fused piece. The next day I slumped the glass into a plate mold to give it the shape I wanted. This time only firing in the kiln to about 1215 degrees Fahrenheit.

Viola! The finished piece!