I have quite a bit of regular stained glass that is not rated with a COE. I have used some of it to make 1x1" cabs for necklaces. I tried to put some low fire gold decals on them but they didn't come out very well. The gold had a crackle appearance. I contacted customer service at the business I always buy glass from and she said the regular stained glass would not work with the decals like the COE rated glass. Has anyone tried this and had good results?
Also, she told me not to fused the stained glass at all. I thought all glass could be fused as long as you only fused it to itself if you don't know what the COE is. I have several sheets that would make lovely bowls. I had planned on cutting 2 layers from one sheet, fusing them together, then slumping in a simple bowl mold. The customer service told me not to do that at all but didn't give me a reason why.
Does anyone have experience with fusing non-rated glass that can give me some information?
a lot of regular stained glass will devit very bady when you try to fuse it. Some are under a lot of stress aready because the mixes of are not really compatible with each other but holds together because it so thin and is kept in a flat plane.sometimes sheer surface tension helps hold them together. many paperweights have a lot of internal stress but their shape holds them together.
all that said, many reguar stain glass wilL work quite well. with no problems.
TEST! TEST! TEST!
I've done quite bit with Fremont glass, a beautiful hand blown flashed sheet glass that I use to get from Seattle.
A friend of mine worked there. As it was flashed, I just fused clear to clear, worked great . . .
Kelly, it's complicated. COE is only part of the compatibility paradigm, viscosity is another component. Glass made from a furnace in the morning could be incompatible with glass made from the same furnace in the afternoon. Time cooking at 2300ºF can cause the chemical composition to change. Glasses made for fusing are formulated differently than glasses not designed to be fused. They are often devitrification prone. Gold lustre is not particularly dependent on COE. It will work on a wide range of glasses, just fine. However gold does not stretch. If you stretched the glass, the gold will get the crackle look.
