Beginner - Fusing Glass HELP!

[elwoodprints]

Hey all, *bows to knowledgable ones*

I've done something stupid that I hardly EVER do - I made an impulse buy!
I've been thinking about getting into glass fusing and was just randomly searching for info and supplies on ebay when I bought a kiln! I KNOW!!! Insane! But it was a really good price and I'd been kind of searching on and off for a while and found they were really hard to come by at a decent price.

Anyway I bought a UHLIG U15 - hopefully that means something to some of you because it didn't come with instructions! Ek!

I have no idea how long fusing glass takes, what glass to use or where to get it and could really do with some help!

I wanted to try this to make jewellery pendents - I don't even know if what I was thinking was possible - maybe you could advise?

I wanted to mount dried flowers between two sheets of glass?

Possibly even some jewellery beads?

Anyway - i'm officially an Eegit and need all the help I can get so any advice would be GREATLY appreciated!

[claireybear]

OMG wish I had the money so I could do that! Lucky you!

Try the glass forum www.frit-happens.com (http://www.frit-happens.com) the people there are really helpful

[claireybear]

I meant www.frit-happens.co.uk (http://www.frit-happens.co.uk) sorry!

[Aviya Glass]

You can buy glass on Ebay too but I buy mine from Warmglass. Make sure you only use the same COE glass together - usually coe90 - this coefficient of expansion needs to be the same between glass as different rates will cause glass to shatter or crack.
ie When a glass shatters or cracks if using hot or cold liquid this happens as one side of the glass is a different temp to the other.
You really need a course or perhaps a good book to understand glass and how it 'behaves' but it is very addictive. The glass is heated slowly in the kiln to approx 820 deg C and then 'hold' it at this temp for 10 - 15 mins usually for small items like pendants and then cooled slowly to anneal or remove stress from the glass. At this temp anything you put between the glass will burn away unless it can withstand this heat - flowers are unlikely to withstand such high temps.
Not really possible to do a full 'how to' explanation here, if you were closer I would happily do a one day intro to glass etc but I am happy to help if you have more q's.

[annnoble]

Best place is www.warmglass.com they have loads of basic tutorials and bits.

[Niknak]

Hi!
OMG i bet you are the winner of one of the kilns I was bidding on lol, from seller HCONI? very few sellers ship to NI so it stuck in my mind....
Anyway Ive just started to get into glass fusing too and have just bought a kiln. Ive researched a good bit into it but by no means do i know what im talking about lol. Did it come with a controller?
Im in ards too, ive got some books I bought that I find useful if you want to borrow them, they give you firing times and temps etc, also Belfast met are doing a glass fusing course in sept for £90 for 10 weeks evening class - first reasonable fusing course over here that i could find. Think im going to sign up for it :)