These pieces (except the finished pendant) show fused cabs made from lamp work gone bad. Either the beads broke or looked horrible. I can’t stand to waste anything. Yes, you can fuse with 104 C.O.E glass as long as you’re sure your pieces are compatible. Some of these pieces were cut and re-fused several times before I got the effect I wanted. I didn’t stress; I just had fun playing with the glass and adding bits of dichroic, gold stone and stringer as I went along. I also used some clear 104 C.O.E. sheet glass and home made frit from lamp working failures.
The fused piece in the pendant is Bullseye Glass, 90 COE. I made the bezel form brass scraps of an old charger plate and textured the metal with a texturing hammer I made out from a ball peen hammer The copper wire is stripped electrical wire, balled and torch enameled on the ends. The glass dangles came from stained class scrap and a wine bottle. I broke and cut the glass, tumbled and drilled it so I cold hang it from the pendant. I probably got the chain at a flea market or house sale. I made all the jump rings out of copper or brass wire from the street or the hardware store. No reason you couldn’t do something like this with any fused piece.
Three of the pictures show what you can do with a bead that’s cracked in half. One side of the picture shows the half bead before fusing and the other side is the bead after fusing. A great way to make earrings. One word of caution: If you are going to fuse old beads for fusing, be sure to clean out every last speck of bead release before you start.
Happy experimenting!
The two bottom pictures show what the class looks like arranged in the kiln before it’s fused. Since it’s bits of broken up beads, it looks a little different than your typical fusing arrangement.
Ornamento 