how it works

Have you been wondering what Glass Fusing is?
Learn all about this glass art technique & more down below.

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about glass fusing

What is Glass Fusing? Click here to read more about how we make our Glass Art at MoltenWolf Glass.

glass fusing techniques

Learn about the techniques we use to create Fused Glass art, such as contour fusing and full fusing.

other types of glass art

Read about types of glass art other then Glass Fusing, such as Stained Glass and Glass Blowing.

Presentations

Did you miss our Live Event? When you click here, you will find all our past presentations. Learn in-depth about Glass Fusing techniques.

about glass fusing

As can be seen, glass fusing is one of the most diverse glass art forms.
This of course is our opinion – we are definitely biased towards Glass Fusing!

the basics of glass fusing

Unquestionably, glass Fusing is one of the four major disciplines in Glass Art. Because Glass Fusing can produce new glass patterns and textures, this technique also gets used by Glass Blowers as well as Stained Glass artists.

Fused glass projects usually start with large sheets of various colored glass. Firstly, the artist will cut the glass into the shapes of each color that they need for the project. Then, they add smaller amounts of glass – such as cut glass, stringers, noodles, frit, or even powdered glass – to get the basic design complete. Finally, after the final design is complete, the cut glass gets placed in the kiln that is heated to 1500 Fahrenheit (815 C).

This glass is then heated up until it melts together, to form a single piece of glass. Afterwards, the glass is cooled down to room temperature for inspection.

heating, melting, and gravity

In the next phase, the artist makes any adjustments needed to the glass art. Depending on what is needed, the artist can choose to grind down the sharp edges from the glass, cut away pieces, or adding new glass.

Once the artist is happy with the final design and pattern, the art piece gets placed into the kiln once again. This time to re-heat, which melts the glass into a single piece. This part of the process can be repeated several times.

Finally, it is time to shape the glass. The glass is heated up to the point where it is soft, but not liquid. Then, the glass can be manipulated into the desired shape. This manipulation usually involves the use of gravity.

To explain, the gravity will pull the glass down over a mold and consequently the glass will take its shape. The glass can also be manipulated by hand, where the artist reaches into the hot kiln and manually bends the glass. However, this last method is very taxing and difficult, because the glass will want to sag once the artist is done.

glass fusing techniques

There are many techniques used in Glass Fusing.
Below we explain four of our favorite styles.

full fused glass art

This is where we create the design that we want by heating the glass to the point that all pieces melt together into one flat piece of glass.

As a result, fully fused glass art is smooth to the touch and may show some of the movement of the glass from when it was in a liquid state.

Full fusing projects are usually what you see in functional Fused Glass Art, such as sushi sets and soap dishes.

contour fused glass art

With contour fusing, unlike fusing all of the glass together, we want the piece to keep the texture of the glass that was used.

To illustrate, the glass is heated to the point that it gets “sticky” and softens a little, but the glass will not melt down to a single piece.

When the final piece cools off, you still have all of the glass components stuck together. Hence the object is one solid piece, but the texture of the different glass is still visible.

mosaic fused glass art

Similar to a mosaic, we put small cut pieces of glass together to create the desired design.

Since the glass pieces will eventually need to be one piece of glass, mosaic glass art is usually completed on top of a second piece of glass.

All in all, mosaic artists tend to favor the more abstract nature of art. 

There are many more glass fusing techniques such as Freeze-and-fuse, Powder wafers, Glass Painting,
Vitrograph and more.

Please feel free to come to the shop and ask us any questions about glass and how we produce our art.

flow bars, polt melts & screen melts

With this technique, we let the glass flow!

As always, we first cut the desired amount of glass in the color of choice and arrange the glass in the pattern that we want the glass to flow.

Secondly, we place the glass above a mold suspended over steel rods (Flow Bars), Pots with holes in the bottom (Pot Melts), or Stainless steel screens (Mesh). Then, we can heat the glass in the kiln until it is in a liquid state. As a result, the glass will melt through the steel or pot and “drop” onto the mold.

Once the glass is cooled to room temperature, we have a single piece of glass that contains the movement of this liquid glass.

other types of glass art

Glass working has 3 other main disciplines: Glass Blowing, Flameworking, and Stained Glass.
To clarify, these are techniques that we don’t use ourselves – we do Glass Fusing only. However, it’s good to know the differences between the disciplines as you can read below.

Glass Blowing

When people hear of glass art, usually the first thing that comes to mind is Glass Blowing. Surely you are familiar with this picture: a large kiln that the Glass Blower pulls their starting glass “blob” from, using Glass Blowing rods.

Most importantly, the glass must be maintained above 1300 degrees Fahrenheit (700 Celsius) the entire time it is being worked on. Consequently, that requires the artist to constantly rotate the glass to avoid the glass droop towards the ground. That is why Glass Blowing must always be completed in a single session.

Blown glass usually comes in the form of a circle due to the constant turning of the glass to keep it from falling on the ground. By and large artists mostly make vases and glasses.

There are techniques to make more intricate shapes, however, that involves flameworking and the fusing disciplines.

Stained glass

Stained Glass is the process of cutting glass (usually transparent glass) into the shapes that will eventually make up a picture.

To begin, stained glass artists start with a drawing or design that they want to create. Then, they cut the glass pieces to the correct shape and size for each part of the picture or design.

Afterwards, the glass is “framed in” using foil. As a result, the design can be used as windows, Sun Catchers and even Lamp Shades.

Additionally, Stained Glass artists can utilize glass created by Fused Glass artists in their work.

flameworking

Flameworking is working with an open flame at around 1500 degrees Fahrenheit (815 Celsius). The flame workers use a torch that is connected to several types of gas to produce a small hot flame that looks a little like a blow torch.

The Flamework artists then uses colored glass rods and heats them up until the glass is soft and sticky. The artist can use several techniques to combine the different colors of glass together and shape the glass into a single project.

Flamework artists typically make beads for jewelry and small figurines. In addition, they can combine the skills of glass blowing to create some unique art.

Would you like to know more about anything related to Glass Art?

Don’t hesitate and come see us in the shop. We are always happy to talk to you!

Additionally, we host events where you can learn about our techniques.

Come to our Events

Presentations
from past events

Occasionally, Glass Artists give presentations about how they create their Art in our shop.
These presentations are very interesting, and accompanied by photos, videos and real examples.

Did you miss a presentation? No fear! Down below we have made
all presentations available for you.