Questions about Glass Clay

Pate de verre Turtle Earrings by GeltDesigns.com

We received a number of questions recently from folks working with commercially made glass clay. Sorry. We never used the stuff. We began making our own glass clay long before anybody was selling glass clay commercially so we really cannot comment on why folks seem to be having difficulty using the commercially prepared product... other than to say there is a learning curve with all warm glass techniques.

by GeltDesigns.com

When we began experimenting with different pate de verre techniques (including freeze and fuse and glass clay) we had a LOT of mistakes, failures and really ugly experiments. It happens.

Two years ago I was invited to give a presentation on Pate de Verre and PMC at the PMC Conference, another presenter discussed freeze and fuse and I was surprised at how different their firing schedule was from my own.

When it comes to both freeze and fuse and glass clay, in our studio we tend to allow the clay to dry out longer, fire a LOT slower and anneal the glass longer than did some of my presenting peers... but then we are always always trying to push the envelope to tease out the most colors in my work.

Bottom line: kilns vary and firing schedules are not absolute. Keep detailed records and expect trial and error when working with glass clay... and consider making your own. It is not difficult to do and you can make a greater variety of colors.

Pendant by GeltDesigns.com

Related Tutorials
All about Glass Clay
How to Make Glass Clay
How to Use Glass Clay
How to Form Glass Clay
How to Fire Glass Clay
Freeze and Fuse: Pate de Verre the Easy Way
 
Further Reading
Warmglass.com