Rolling Along part 4

With still no full line wholesale supplier in Eastern Canada, our connections in the U.S. seem to have us in good supply. Here Figimodo shows off our Chemical Shelf...

Free Fusing Seminar

It's true. Some things in life really are free...
Saturday July 13 from 10am to 4pm. We have only 2 spots left.
But, don't panic- we have another free date on Sat. August 10th!
Come on in and bask in the glory of  knowing that you will be enjoying yourself unashamed and unencumbered by the worry of finance as you will be taking our six hour Intro to Fusing class (as taught by Louie 'I'm not from Barcelona' Deeaz, absolutely free (run-on sentences Mikey has to still work on).
That's right folks.
No casuistry or sophism, no stratagem or subterfuge (sorry, I've been reading Conrad Black's book again...Mikey), really- no tricks at all.
Just 100% absolutely free! Call the store to pre-register at 416-252-6868/1-800-841-5758. One catch- we will ask for a $50 goodwill deposit that will be refunded when you show up for the class (if you don't then you won't be there to get your refund, eh?!)
http://www.fantasyinglass.com/fantasyinglass.com/Seminars.html.

All You Need Is Love

Sadly, still not a single wholesale source of stained glass supplies for such things as grinders, or cool glass like Kokomo, Yogi or Wissmach, etc (Bullseye you can buy direct from the manufacturer). 

We did just get in a large shipment from the U.S. that arrived relatively intact (see pic for explanation of relative... Vanna Opal).
We also got in some heart shaped bevels and have made them into this kit (pattern and all pieces)-

Killing Time, Waiting for Our Truck Shipment

With absolutely not one wholesale source of stained glass supplies in Eastern Canada for the past three months, we seem to be managing fine. Today in comes eight skids of glass and supplies fixing the majority of our out-of-stocks as well as us introducing some exciting new stuff!
So what's coming in at any minute?
Lead cames (see if you can figure this one out- we buy a Canadian product from a U.S. supplier cheaper than when we bought it from our Canadian supplier!), straight line bevels, Morton Tools, etching cremes, all foils in all sizes and colours (oops, chartreuse was backordered...), every single Sys96 glass colour including the newest ones from Spectrum and Uroboros, textured fusing/slumping molds, all Spectrum Clear textures, all regular Spectrum opals, cathedrals and streakies, vase caps (yup- including the square ones), zinc cames, metal castings (nymphs, butterflies, gargoyles, etc), tinned copper wires, Yogi Stipples including a whole bunch of sale squares at almost 50% off, all English Muffles, tube hinges, silver bails, triolyse glue in bulk size, 96 Noodles and Stringers, 96 Clear Frits and Powders, left handed Supercutters...
Of particular interest- a dozen Pink Opals from Kokomo, Wissmach, Armstrong and Uroboros. And most exciting- we now are bringing in Oceana Ring Mottles- absolutely stunning!

Bandsaws

It seems sometimes that the only ones that buy diamond bandsaws for cutting their glass are Baltic mobster girlfriends. And you know what? That's all they then end up using.Yes, there is a time and place to use one, but not for straight lines and outside curves.
Makes perfect sense for this kind of piece...

(Zenia loves her power tools...)

Insert above piece below...

... and yup, we sell them too. Baltic mobster girlfriend not necessary

Getting a Reaction

Several years ago, the geniuses at Uroboros developed two ‘red reactive’ glasses- one opal and one transparent. Kat at Uroboros explained the glass to Figimodo (when he visited the factory- see pics on our FB Page) as a ‘copper bearing glass without the copper’, so when copper is introduced to this glass you will get an interesting reaction. Copper bearing glasses are blues and greens and when these colours meet one of the reactive bases, the junction between the two pieces will turn red. The strength of the reaction varies depending on the amount of copper, and the temperature and duration of the firing process.

So, to better illustrate this Mikey and Zenia picked some SP 233.74 Turquoise Blue Opal, some red reactive opal, black (for a base) and three different Slumpys molds (SM 9125, SM 9050, SM 298) and made some samples to show this cool effect.

Zenia wanted to make sure we could show you the reaction when you use the reactive opal as a base as well as an accessory, so she had Mikey cut the plate bases (with black for the bottom layer to add volume to the piece) while she crushed some frit- both the turquoise and the reactive opal.  

The pieces were placed in the kiln and both medium and small sized frit was sprinkled on top to give a fairly full coverage. 

They were then taken to a full fuse (around 1460F, Mikey's not so good at accurate note taking I've discovered... Zenia) to smooth out the surface and encourage a good colour reaction.

Once fused, we then slumped them to get the final product!