WarmGlass.com

With the demise of Spectrum and the expected high price increases of Bullseye and Uroboros I am exploring the use of Kokomo transparent glasses for fusing. I have heard that the Kokomo glasses are a 96 COE glass. I have been bending their glasses for light fixtures for many years but I have never tried fusing their transparent glasses. Has anybody out there worked with Kokomo for fusing projects?

Check out Wissmach made in WV. The are producing both 90 and 96 compatible now. I have used the 90 and am pleased with the color.

Wasn't Wissmach bringing in that awful Chinese 90 glass? Are they now doing it in-house?

Marty wrote:Wasn't Wissmach bringing in that awful Chinese 90 glass? Are they now doing it in-house?

They say it's in house.

The best stuff costs a little more now. No change of plan here. Thank you BE and Uro.

I use Kokomo too, but not for fusing.

Wissmach... not much in variety of opals that I can see!

Here's some information from Kokomo from 2004. Don't know if it's still current.

http://warmglass.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=4548

I've been told that some artists in Australia are fusing with Kokomo, testing before committing, but I have no personal knowledge. Jen

It can be done. I met a woman at an art fair about 10 years ago from Florida who used Kokomo exclusively for fusing.. As has been mentioned, test everything before getting too carried away with designs.

The current scheduled price increase isn't 12.5% for Canadians.
It is probably more like 16% with the exchange rate we have.

Just how bad is the Baoli 90?

Just this week Jackie Pferrer posted on Fused Glass Fanatics (FB) about a free seminar she took at JRing on using Kokomo for fusing. I think the gist of it was that it is 96 COE, but not tested-compatible. There are a lot of caveats around devit, with the general recommendation being to coat sheets (particularly opals) with SuperSpray and pre-fire before cutting and firing as usual. Also, some glasses, yellow in particular I believe, will shift compatibility. If you are a member at FGF, you can do a search and find the full details. Frankly, it sounds like too much work for me... by the time you monkey around with pre-firing, devit solutions, and compatibility issues, I say spend the money on BE or Uro.

I've worked a little with Wissmach's Luminescents... I haven't been impressed (even face down, the coating fires off on the opals and can cloud on the transparents). When I have cut the lum it seems a little brittle when breaking out. I just ordered in a "variety pack" of several sheets and a couple of sheets of their Prismas (fancy name for wispies). The glass seems a little thin, and the texture on the pieces in the variety pack is very rough. I haven't fired any of the pieces I just ordered in yet.

I needed a particular Spirit glass for a commission and ended up ordering a "boat-load" of System 96. It should last me a while. By that time, I am cautiously optimistic that supplies will have settled out some. I expect the price to still be elevated, but Uro will hopefully be in full production and BE will have recovered from this mess.

Dana W.

Also, some glasses, yellow in particular I believe, will shift compatibility.

Just perfect to have shifing COE.
That is what Bullseye was like before the necessary compatibility testing that is now taken for granted.
Bullseye back then had some wonderful glass that would fuse perfectly but only for the duration of one kiln firing.
I am thinking of the frustrations that occurred with the firing of the infamous 'canary yellow' at that time.
It would work with the fuse firing but with the forming second firing all bets were off and cracks were common.

So to go to all the work and then have a piece crack?


Thus my earlier posted question, just how bad is Baoili?

Kevin Midgley wrote:Thus my earlier posted question, just how bad is Baoili?

Never found a Chinese made fusing glass that worked well in terms of compatibility across the line. Haven't tried Baoli, so can't say about current production. Don't they mostly concentrate on stained glass? According to their site, they only have a handful of fusible colors, almost all transparents.

On the other hand, I don't see how the Chinese wouldn't go down the same learning curve that Bullseye did.

Kevin Midgley wrote: Just perfect to have shifing COE.

So to go to all the work and then have a piece crack?

Agreed. I added a caution to her post about the need for the fuser to TEST TEST TEST. However, I imagine for most of the folks who read the info, their take home message will be that Kokomo is compatible, fusible glass that can be used with other System 96 glass.

Dana W.

Well from the Baoli website if you have a high resolution monitor, the bubbles are clearly visible or at least I think I saw bubbles which would indicate to me that there is already one giant strike against them.

Bullseye hasn't raised their prices in four years, so even without the current situation of needing to increase revenue, they were due. As for a 12.5% increase, I suspect most of us are buying at the wholesale level, so that's really only a 6.25% increase. For my money, Bullseye is (and will continue to be) my choice of product.

Valerie Adams wrote:As for a 12.5% increase, I suspect most of us are buying at the wholesale level, so that's really only a 6.25% increase.

The math doesn't work that way. 12.5% at retail is 12.5% at wholesale.

Suppose you get a 50% discount on $100 retail worth of glass. So your cost is $50.

The price increases 12.5%, which makes $100 now $112.50 at retail.

You pay half. Half of $112.50 is $56.25.

So your price went from $50 to $56.25, or an increase of $56.25/$50, or 12.5%.

I posted the initial question and have received a variety of responses. With all respect, most of the responses do not address the original question. I have been using System 96 for many years now and have an inventory that I would like to use with a compatible glass. If the Kokomo will work, it would be one small answer to the problem even if I have to run my own compatibility tests on all of the glasses. I don't really like the Wissmach colors that are currently available and the Uroboros sheet glass is too expensive and irregular. If some of us could put our heads together and share our future test results with Kokomo, that would be great. Anybody interested? Kokomo may even be interested in the results.

Thanks Brad!

I figured it was that way too but had a few people correct me; should've stuck with my gut

Still, since its been four years since we've seen a price increase, I'm actually fine with paying more, since I appreciate the testing and quality product Bullseye provides.

Brad Walker wrote:

Valerie Adams wrote:As for a 12.5% increase, I suspect most of us are buying at the wholesale level, so that's really only a 6.25% increase.

The math doesn't work that way. 12.5% at retail is 12.5% at wholesale.

Suppose you get a 50% discount on $100 retail worth of glass. So your cost is $50.

The price increases 12.5%, which makes $100 now $112.50 at retail.

You pay half. Half of $112.50 is $56.25.

So your price went from $50 to $56.25, or an increase of $56.25/$50, or 12.5%.

Terry- That's a tall order. Does Kokomo date their batches and number their sheets? Do they do any testing? Are they interested in testing for compat.?
We'd be working in the dark unless they started formulating for fusing and keeping track of their stock.