Wednesday, July 18, 2007

What are Fused Glass Beads?

Since yesterday's post was about fused glass beads, you might be wondering, fused? What's that? Fused glass beads and cabachons are made by melting glass in a hot kiln. Layers of sheet glass are stacked on top of each other and placed in a kiln. The kiln is heated approximately 1400 degrees F to where the layers of glass become molten and fuse into 1 piece of glass. Small pieces of fused glass without holes are cabachons. Holes are made by drilling a hole into the glass or placing a piece of kiln paper between the layers befopre heating in the kiln.

Today, I'm showing two fused glass cabachons. One was a bead whose beadhole was a little rough. It was sooooo beautiful (the periwinkle cab) that I couldn't let it go into the bead trash. So I slumped it in the kiln and then ground the edge and firepolished it. It's gorgeous! Looks like a stone!

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