Tack fusing freeze n fuse?

[Maryar]

I've made a few Freeze n Fuse pieces.
Do you use the same schedule as a normal tack fusing to tack the finished Freeze n Fuse piece onto another piece of glass?
Or do you find that Freeze N Fuse components are more prone to flatten at tack fusing temps than pieces of sheet glass?
Mary

[Barry Kaiser]

Mary
I usually play fast and loose with my fusing schedules. The one area I do not is with glass clay or freeze and fuse elements. If you are not careful, you can lose detail in the element.
There is no easy schedule to give you for fusing these. It really depends on your kiln. For instance, when I use our 8x8 kiln, I run the temperature up to 1410 real fast and hold 10 minutes (I am doing this on small glass backing to make pendants). But if I am using our 16x16, I use 1350 as the top temperature.You need to run tests in your kiln to determine what happens and the best temperature for elements. Also, I try and avoid top firing when doing these elements. It distorts the top of the element.

One other thing. When you are trying to tack fuse a glass clay or FnF element to a glass base, I will use a small amount of Kaiser Glass paint as sort of a firing glue. Powder elements are light and may not attach when tack fused. The paint ensures that the element stays where it is placed.

We have a tutorial on our site that describes fusing elements to a base (see below).


Here are 2 simple examples:

Floating leaf

Yin Yang fish

[Maryar]

Thank you for your suggestions Barry. Now that you mention the glass paint; I remember your mentioning that before. I have your paints and enjoy them. I have not yet tried glass clay. That would be very interesting. Although I like FnF, it has its drawbacks.
Barry, I want to thank you for your giving nature. I have learned much from your website and posts. I was lucky enough to listen to you at the Glass Expo in Vegas a couple of years ago.
I have a top and side firing kiln that I use the most. I don't think there is anyway to turn off the top elements. I have a large one with only top elements.
I FINALLY got a schedule down for a few FnF pieces that kept detail and fused well. Now how to use them on another fired project will be the next adventure.
Mary

[Barry Kaiser]

Mary,
I would assume that you could use a similar top temperature to your successful tack fuse schedule for attaching elements to base glass.

Barry

[S.TImmerman]

image.jpg (20.68 KiB) Viewed 8767 times

I make my own molds and do the "freeze and fuse". The poppies were some buttons from Amsterdam .
"

[Barry Kaiser]

Beautiful pieces Shereen,

I find the biggest problem in freeze n fuse or glass clay is finding good originals from which I can create molds.
PMC molds are in abundance, but I find most of them too small.
Your Flowers and leaves are beautiful.

Barry

[S.TImmerman]

Ebay! Look. For buttons or old jewelry . Estate jewelry , I recently found two gals selling all their late mothers jewelry at jaw dropping prices, it made me very sad.

Thank you for the compliment !