WarmGlass.com

I am pretty inspired by the flash glass after visiting the new stained glass work in baptistry in Pisa, Italy. https://www.opapisa.it/en/multimedia-en ... attistero/ During my stained glass apprenticeship in Siena I met the artist, Francesco Mori, who explained that he used flash glass for this work. In fact, the face and hands of the virgin are painted on blue flash glass, that has the blue layer etched away. (He did the masking and contracted someone else to do the sandblasting if I understood him correctly). I also admire the flash glass work of Judith Schaechter, who often even uses multiple layers of flash glass and does her own sandblasting and etching.

I'm in the Seattle area, and it appears that hand blown flash glass could be obtained from Fremont Antique Glass. At the opposite side of the cost spectrum, there's Armstrong Float Fire-82. But that appears to be just enamels painted on glass? How does that compare to true flash glass? Would there be any difference between that product and just painting on my own enamels kiln fired onto whatever glass I want? (Frankly, I don't see any advantage of making a sheet of glass if that's the case, as I'd rather just paint the enamels where I want them).

I'm wondering about whether anyone has tried making their own flash glass using the kiln press method described by the fused glass org site: http://fusedglass.org/learn/project-tut ... sed_glass/ How many layers of clear should be under the layer of colored glass to replicate flash glass? How about making your own custom flash glass, say having the top layer red, next layer yellow, then clear underneath, and getting different colors depending on the depth of sandblasting?

The Armstrong is just enamels on float. You an do the same thing yourself if you wish, using whatever base glass you prefer. Etching/blasting off the enamel will not give you the same look as true flash glass.

You can make your own, using whatever combination of colors your want. The method described at fusedglass.org will work. You'd have to experiment to find the right color combination for your work.

Of course that's not the same as the glass Fremont makes. But it's a LOT less expensive.

Higgins glass for examples of what is possible

I do stained glass and frequently use fused layers to afford the multiple color capability of flashed glass. I don’t full fuse the way the ‘kiln press ‘ folks do. I tack fuse the layers to better retain the shape of the individual piece. It works well. It doesn’t ultimately save me any money because I use bullseye colors and the thin colors that I like approach the cost of the best flashed glasses once you start stacking them up. Full fusers out there who actually teach their technique of stained glass include peter mcgrain and Tim Carey. Narcissus quagliata claims credit for developing the full fuse technique that Tim Carey uses. I don’t know any other stained glass folks that use the tack fused flash technique but you see some of it pop up in peoples work from time to time.