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Fused Glass PinHalloweenSince Halloween is fast approaching, I need to make a few pins for my friends and family. These adornments can be made using a pattern or free hand your own design. For this section, I am going to talk about a fused glass pin I am making for Halloween. These pins are in the shape of a bat. Bats are pretty basic to cut and adorn, and since I have so many to make, they will be fast. Let's get started...
Materials: Select your pattern. Use old comic books, clip art, etc to find patterns to choose from. Once you have your pattern, decide the size and scan it to your computer. Print and cut out your pattern. Using a permanent marker, draw your pattern on the black glass. Dip your finger in the bees wax and coat the pattern. Coating the pattern with bees wax will prevent it from being washed off during the sawing process. Using a glass saw, cut out your pattern. Clean thoroughly with soap and water, or alcohol free glass cleaner. Allow to dry. Arrange pattern pieces on prepared kiln shelf. Place white or red glass dots on bat as eyes. Glass eyes will need to be made in a separate firing. Because these are tiny and don’t have several thick layers, I turned on the kiln and allowed them to ramp up as fast as possible. I didn’t want a full fuse, because I didn’t want to lose all the detail of the wings. Once the pieces reached around 1325 degrees Fahrenheit, I shut off my kiln and allowed the pieces to cool down naturally. If your kiln is a ceramic fiber kiln you'll have to cool down at a pace not faster than about 300° per hour. Once cooled, they can be removed from the kiln.
Now those aren't too scary!
Bat Pattern
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