WarmGlass.com

Heh. This year the letter says they're having a "Glass Weekend", so how much ya wanna bet there's gonna be alot of glass again? LOL. All glass, all weekend. Recently I read on another board about how some artists are starting to tell the groups requesting artist donations that they won't d...

Does anyone know anything about the National Liberty Museum in Philadelphia? I got a letter from them asking for a donation of a piece of glass sculpture to a fund-raising auction they're having. I don't donate to the many causes that request donations unless I know something about them and it's a c...

If the edges are rounded (I can't tell from the photo), it's going to be hard to re-fuse without it showing...probably impossible. If the edges are still sharp, you have a chance, but it will probably show. It's a good exercise to try it just to see what happens. If the edges are sharp, I'd reassemb...

My guess is that the firing was too hot. It sounds like they were bubbles that rose and popped and resettled, turning into lovely holes.

Maybe someone else has an idea...

Geri

There are different kinds of enamels. Some are meant to be used on glass, some are meant to be used on metal. Enameling on metal is challenging. You might want to take a class if that's the kind you want to do. Generally, it's taught as a jewelry or metals class, rather than a glass class. There als...

Geri - I know several "hard core" jewelers who insist on rolling their own material. They begin with casting shot. I might might as well try it, right? No doubt it'll be more work than it's worth. Heh. I know some people who used to do it, but don't any more. I know a jeweler who still dr...

Hey Jerry - Let me know how this works for you. I tried it once about 7 years ago and ended up with a huge mess because I didn't take out the pieces with solder on them before I made the ingot. Yuck! I ended up recycling the whole mess. If it works for you, maybe it will give me the oooooomph to try...

I really just want to be able to melt it so that it is "fluid". I do not care if I have to do "freeform" designs with it, but when I "fried" it, it just turned black and kept it's original wire form. (IE, it turned inot charred black wire!) Are you sure it was silver w...

Wha are you trying to accomplish by melting your scrap? Do you want to cast with it? When centrifugal force casting, silver is melted to a liquid state in a small container with a torch. I've never seen it "fry", so I'm not sure what you mean by that. Once you melt silver, it has to be &qu...

Home Depot carried several sizes of indoor halogen lighting that's meant to be installed, but they also carry an adapter cord which allows them to be plugged in. I've used them for several years now and they work great.

Geri

Here's another thought. Renee Lalique made some incredible cast glass and metal jewelry that couldn't have been made any other way than casting the glass. Perhaps you can find a reference to some of it in a book or on the web to see an example of his work.

Good luck!

Geri

Okay, it sounds like (in your added post) that I should make each petal separate? And then inlay them? If I were doing that, then I might as well fuse cabs for the petals.... I need to do something that is distinctly casting, that can't be done another way. I may be able to get away with casting a ...

Using an inlay technique, you don't set (bend over) the metal over the glass pieces. You leave the wall intact, standing at a 90 degree angle to the base plate. You glue the cast glass pieces in with a glass to metal glue. If you've never set cabochons before, you'll find this inlay tehcnique far ea...

Here's an addendum to this now that I've thought abut this a bit more... Rather than using bezel wire to make the compartments for the glass, I may have used a heavier gauge sterling silver. At least that's what we were supposed to do. LOL. I learned this technique from past president of the Society...

Geri - I don't understand how I could get a 3 dimensional object out of enameling though, without forming the flower out of metal first... and the project MUST be cast, in order to meet class requirements. And yes, this is a jewelry/metals class. The teacher has only done very minor things in glass...

wow... I'm getting really confused... Isn't taking a wax model of something, setting it in investment, burning/steaming it out, then setting it in the kiln and melting glass into it in some way kiln casting? If not, then what is? Yes it is, but it probably won't work if you cast glass onto silver, ...

Soldering stained glass, which I believe is what Brad was talking about is a completely different process than silver soldering. It's done with copper foil on the edges of the glass, a low temp solder (flows at about 700F) and a soldering iron. Silver soldering is done with a torch at much higher te...

What you're trying to do is basically a form of enameling. I can just about 99% guarantee you that it isn't going to work based on my limited knowledge of enameling. If I were trying to do this project, I'd cast the silver first. Then I'd make a mold of the area on the silver where you want the glas...

Hmmmm...that gives me an idea for thedead mouse in the wall in a few weeks...

Laughing -

Geri

Or consider learning how to cast your scrap silver.... cuttlebone castings are cheap and fun and might even make nice embellishments for fused glass bowls and dichroic jewelry. :idea: That's a great idea, as long as the metal doesn't have any solder on it. I did some castings myself late last year ...