Bottle Glass

Bottle glass comes in an assortment of colors like smoky, brown, green, blue and of course clear. Glass bottles come in a mixture of shapes, colors and sizes.

You can use any type of bottle; wine, vodka, beer, etc. Don’t mix your bottles in your fusing projects, because there is no indication or guarantee of COE between manufacturers. This glass is considered "soft" glass.

So, what is the COE of bottle glass? The glass ordinarily has a COE between 85 to 87. Although the COE can be as little as 83 or as great as 90. The best way to find out the COE of any glass is by testing .

This glass fuses at a higher temperatures than other art glass, and has a tendency to form devit when firing. Watching your firing schedule and using a devit spray is highly recommended.

This glass can be extremely thrifty to use for glass fusing projects. You can purchase bottles for slumping purposes, or gather them from a variety of places for free.

Bottles can be shattered to make frit and used in molds. Break them up into large pieces and fused them together for drapes, slumping into molds, glass weaving, etc. You are only limited by your imagination when it comes to using bottle glass in your fusing projects.

Wash and dry your bottles before using them in any technique. Clean glass will contain less inorganic materials that can inhibit your glass fusing process. Some even believe that cleaner glass can prevent the problem of devitrification.

Cutting bottles can be tricky. The surface is hard to scribe onto and is not always smooth and even. The thickness can be different even on the same bottle. Some bottles have what is referred to as a “relief” area. This looks like a dimple in the glass and is the weakest point.

Try using glass bottles in your fusing experiments. They can add a mixture of texture and interest to your pieces.

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