The CGGE Challenge for January is for members to create glass art by recycling. The CGGE members have produced some fabulous glass items such as beads from wine bottles, fused roundels in stained glass, pot melts from scrap glass and fused glass "mistakes" smashed and then re-fused. Here is my contribution - although it is more of an example of "how not to"!
1. The first image shows a collection of old and battered picture frames that have float (picture) glass. All this glass is fusible but, as the source is unknown, I don't combine it with other float glass. Sometimes picture frames come with really poor quality glass and so I match like with like.
2. The second image shows a selection of metal items that I used as inclusions in the glass. These included copper, rusty washers and dubious metal decorations.
3. This image shows two fused glass coasters with metal inclusions. They were fused at the same firing in the kiln and they look fairly good!
4. The copper star shape has fused well because copper fuses at high temperatures and, as the copper shape is quite thin, it fused with a relatively flat air pocket inside the glass.
5. But look carefully at the coaster fused with rusty washers. Because of the variety and thickness of the metals the glass coaster has a stress fracture running along the base, which formed as soon as the coaster was removed, cold, from the kiln.
6. The final image clearly shows the stress fracture along the bottom of the glass. It's still in my studio and I look at it every day - waiting for the coaster to go "ping" and fall into pieces.
