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Are you talking about the paint markers from the craft store that you have to shake and press down the tip? Or is this something else that I'm completely unaware of? If so, please let me know, because I'm always looking for new stuff to play with. I've had inconsistent results using the craft store ...

Ok, this is stretching my brain a bit...took an enameling class in '95. I have notes somewhere... Anyhow, as I recall, you don't need to flux the base metal. Just anneal and pickle it to get it clean, and avoid touching the surface. Aside from the actual enamel powders you would probably need to get...

Hi everyone. Thanks for your input. Bill--I bought my grit from Rio Grande. They carry 80, 120, 220, and 600 in 5 pound cartons. Becca--etching seems like it might be the way to go. I'm going to have to try that and compare the results. By the way, my original pieces have now been tumbled for a tota...

DHD metals in Conyers, GA can make custom sizes, but I think you have to order a minimum of 50 lbs, and also pay for a custom die. If you don't need that much, maybe you can fabricate it yourself. Cut 1 leaf off of a regular high-heart lead to make a T shape, and solder 2 pieces of it together. For ...

Try Monona Rossol's book. I think the title is The Artist's Health and Safety Guide. That's probably good for starters. Fiber paper gives off some pretty nasty fumes. You definitely don't want to be breathing those in. Also, when you are handling paper that has been fired and is crumbling and powder...

Thanks, Jerry. Wow, I had no idea how much time was involved! I bought this tumbler originally for jewelry work, so the only other stuff I've tumbled in it is sterling silver. I'm used to a much different time frame: silver jewelry + stainless steel shot for maybe an hour and a half, two hours = nic...

I just tried the archives on this one, but didn't find exactly what I'm looking for. I have a rotary tumbler that I'd like to use to tumble glass. I don't want to aggressively cut down shards into dull-edged beach glass. I'm just looking for a way to produce a smooth matte surface on small fused pie...

Jim wrote If I had to make a living from glass I would determine what the market wants and then have it made in the third world to my design specs. Fast, cheap and profitable. That sounds like bringing creativity to craftsmanship to me! Nobody has to make their living from glass. We could all go out...

oops...should have re-read. I guess you're not putting glass in the centrifuge. But when you re-invest, are you doing it the same way you would for a piece of jewelry?

wow...complicated. I am familiar with centrifugal jewelry casting, so I know about the whole investing and burnout procedure. Are you going to try to do that with the glass too? Is that why you had a glass sprue in the diagram? I looked at your sketches and I'm still a little confused about your pla...

This thread is taking a pretty interesting turn. Once again, I feel compelled to poke my nose into the discussion. Cynthia wrote: Doing good business is an art, no arguments there, but making art is not about making money (which doesn't precluce making money from making art) and to confuse those two...

Yes, yes, absolutely great. I am especially singing their praises today after the order I just placed. I'm working on a project with a quickly approaching deadline and needed some last-minute glass. Since I needed only about a 10x16" piece, and A&A sells either 8x10 or 16x20, I decided to r...

In the pieces I've done, the dichroic comes out just fine when it's fired face-down. In fact, it probably has less of a sticking risk than plain glass. Same with irid: I've heard of people who do large scale flat pieces and always use face-down irid as a base, just for its cleanness.

It all depends on the look you want. You could try any of those ways, but I wouldn't recommend the closely-fit non-overlapped idea. Sometimes side by side pieces will fuse together but often they'll just pull away from each other as they reach full fuse (especially if only a single thickness). If yo...

Is there any reason why you want to use float? If it's a cost consideration, I would personally rather spend a little extra money on compatible glass, rather than a lot of extra time running tests.

I think there's a misunderstanding here in relation to the 10 minutes vs. 40 issue. It seems to me that a pro, having mastered his or her technique, could go through the steps neccessary to complete a piece much faster than an amateur. It's not about the artistic integrity of the individual piece. O...

My work has changed quite a bit recently, so I am still reconstructing my website right now. As soon as it's ready, I'll have the link with my profile. Also, the flying incompatible glass was a six inch square tile. I've never seen any incompatible jewelry-size pieces do that, although they almost a...

I tried doing this with leaves a while back, with disappointing results. Fresh green leaves burnt up the most and created the biggest bubble. Even after pressing and drying them for weeks, I still had a small bubble, and barely a skeleton of the original leaf. I would think that if you raised the co...

What they will show you is stress between incompatible pieces of glass. Most of the books on glass fusing should show you an example of how to check for this. It's fairly simple. I use two pieces of plastic that have a polarized coating. Holding the pieces up to the light, or sitting them on a light...

Yep. About 5 years ago when I first started fusing, I would put anything together just to see what would happen. Some things have survived intact all of this time, (while still showing significant stress through polarized filters) but others didn't even last 2 days. You might get lucky and not have ...