wasser glass yucky!

Vickie · Post by **Vickie** » Thu May 08, 2003 11:20 pm

I just bought some beautiful glass from Wasser, called the Water pack, it's pretty blues and greens etc. Once I fused it, let's call it YUCKY glass. It lost all of it's beauty. I tried with clear on the top and bottom...looked pretty much the same. Now I'm stuck with all this glass, and can't even make some nice jewelry from it. Do I complain to Waser, or just suffer my losses...any thoughts! The whole pack was $32, and 8 pieces of glass.
I don't care about the money, I just want spme nice FUSED glass.
Vickie

Chris H · Post by **Chris H** » Thu May 08, 2003 11:53 pm

I bought the gold and silver and have only used a small corner of the gold and the same thought about it

It was very expensive also, was reading their little folder and found that I need to fuse at a much lower temp. Have not tried that yet. also the light violet struck to a light blue when I fired to a full fuse. Not bad just not what I wanted colorwise.

Mike Byers · Post by **Mike Byers** » Fri May 09, 2003 8:08 am

Wasser will often yield poor results when fired at higher temperatures; at least this was true for the old Wasser and I imagine it's true for DTI/Wasser, too. Since many of my pieces are fired in the 1350-1400 range, I've had good luck with both the old Wasser and the new metallic colors (gold, sliver and antique copper). I've found you can often prevent problems by capping the Wasser with clear when firing to around 1500, but my best results have come from having the DTI/Wasser on top of other glass and keeping the temperature lower. The time a piece is held at the higher temperatures has an effect, too. The old Wasser red, for example, will turn sort of a brick red color if held at 1500 for very long.

vblue · Post by **vblue** » Fri May 09, 2003 9:14 am

I'll say about the same as the others.........Wasser must be fired at a lower temperature or you do end up with "Yucky" results. Around 1340 (according to their notes) is a full fuse (my notes are in the other room).
Don't give up, keep trying and I think you will be more pleased with the results.

Riverviewglass · Post by **Riverviewglass** » Sat May 10, 2003 10:48 am

If you can only fire Wasser to 1340 degrees must you do a long hold if you cap with BE clear and/or use dichroics on it?? I too ended up with "Yucky results" and haven't used it since. Otherwise 1340 is only a tack fuse so what does one do???? thanks Kim K

Mike Byers · Post by **Mike Byers** » Sat May 10, 2003 5:31 pm

Most of what I do with DTI/Wasser involves using this glass on top of Bullseye, GNA, etc. Since the DTI/Wasser melts at a lower temperature, than the other glass, going to 1350-1430 degrees F or so will give me the effect I want. Now and then, I'll cap the DTI/Wasser with Bullseye thin clear if going to 1500 degrees, as this seems to prevent color changes. But in these cases, I'm using a small piece of the DTI/Wasser: a small dot or a line. For the DTI/Wasser metallic colors, the substrate will flow out from under the metallic surface and with more time or higher temperatures, the metallic surface will begin to separate into discrete particles. A piece of "harder" glass placed on top of the DTI/Wasser--such as a piece of Bullseye stringer--will sink into the DTI/Wasser at temperatures between 1350 and 1430 F and concentrate the metallic particles around the harder glass. Since I tend to make framed, sculptural pieces rather than bowls or plates, this is just what I'm looking for. But a friend who does mostly bowls and plates always has the DTI/Wasser between layers, and she gets good results from this. At one time, Wasser made perforated glass; glass with regularly-spaced 1/4-inch or 1/8-inch holes. I believe these were the sheets from which their "dots" were punched. If you sandwich a piece of this "perf glass" between layers, you can get tiny bubbles at each of the perforations: a nice effect, and quite easy to control. Perhaps we'll see this perf glass again if DTI starts making punched out shapes.
I'd encourage you to experiment with DTI/Wasser. It's not quite like other glass, but it can give you some very nice effects. But anyone who has gold, silver or the old Wasser red and wants to get rid of it should contact me. And if you have black or red perf glass or some of those little five-pointed stars that Wasser used to make, I'll be glad to take these off your hands, too.

Judith Andre · Post by **Judith Andre** » Sat May 10, 2003 9:01 pm

I bought quite a bit of Wasser several years ago when they went out of business, including the perferated glass, only to find that I had compatability problems when I combined it with Bullseye in larger pieces. It works fine when combined for jewelry or other smaller works. I have tried running tests to see which glasses are the problem but the incompatibility is so slight that it is hard to say for sure until I've ruined a piece that I've put hours into. Anyone that works large and combines brands have the same problem with the new Wasser?

Nanette · Post by **Nanette** » Thu May 15, 2003 12:59 pm

I agree with Mike on this. Try firing Wasser at a lower temp and you'll probably like the results much better. I use Wasser a lot and haven't had any problems. If you're going to do a lot of firings on one piece I have found good results with holding longer at each firing so when the piece is done it hasn't lost much shape. Hopefully that makes sense!! Give it another try - you'll like it!!

Nan