Fusing Idea Centre

Mikey had a bright idea the other day- why not get Vanna Opal to come up with a bright idea on how to creatively help out those into fusing. 
It seems that many of you want to explore fusing and slumping as you already have the tools and the skills, just not sufficient knowledge and/or creative ideas to go further. 
Well now you do. 
While Mikey has been fusing for over thirty years (since he was six) and is a walking change purse of knowledge, we have now make a bigger effort to provide and display even more reference material and patterns than before.
So if you need a sheet on reactives, or on firing schedules, or a firing log or some pattern ideas, we've got them!

Chihuly- More Videos

Tripped across three more short videos from this absolutely stunning show of Dale Chihuly's work at the Montreal Museum of Modern Art.

Fusing Resource Centre

In the kiln today...
As mentioned previously, we have set up a more extensive fusing resource area with patterns and technical stuff to inspire and help. We also will be doing up many of the projects to better illustrate what's capable.

Let's Not Forget

Yes, Tiffany was a genius. 
Had his hand in inventing/developing opalescent glass, ring mottles, iridescent glass, fracture/streamers, drapery and ripple glass along with the copper foil technique of assembling stained glass. Yes folks, that's right. If not for Tiffany, we'd all be gathering the radio knitting doilies listening to Henny Youngman. And companies like Bullseye and Uroboros would be making only white porcelain toilets.

But let's not forget poor old overshadowed John Lafarge, also a giant in the art of stained glass as clearly evident from this panel now at the Corning Museum of Glass.

Collaboration...

... or to work, one with another, usually willingly. So we offered our (limited) technical expertise and tools, along with Colero Jewellery's ability to be creative and here are some of the test firings we've worked together on (now- don't judge, most are test blanks experimenting with colour and reactives)-

Chihuly

If you follow us on Facebook that brings a smile to Mikey's face. If you are on FB and you don't then for shame!
If you aren't on FB, we haven't forgotten you and just want to let you know that we've added 230 pictures from a Chihuly Exhibit we visited in Montreal on the weekend here...

... and if you are a real fan, here's a few videos we took...

Our Sale Square Racks

We stock well over 15,000 Sale Squares from Spectrum, Kokomo, Youghiogheny, Wissmach, Uroboros, Oceana, Bullseye (even some coe90) and Chicago Art Glass and here's some fresh pictures to see them...

Sys96 Spectrum, Fusers Reserve and Uroboros

Spectrum Sys96 Solid Opals, Spirits and Opalarts

Spectrum Sys96 Cathedrals and Fusers Reserve

Mostly Spectrum Opals and cathedrals

Mostly Spectrum Opals and cathedrals

The 'Boneyard'- a real mishmash-
mostly Yogi and Oceana Mottles

More Spectrum and Kokomo above and below

One of two racks of Spectrum and Uroboros 6" Squares
that we will ship to you for a lousy 5 bucks!

The other rack of Spectrum and Uroboros 6" Squares
that we will ship to you for a lousy 5 bucks! The other one is below

Our Way Too Cheap Boxes- glass from $1.99!

10 x 12 inch sale pieces from Spectrum,
Kokomo, Wissmach and Youghiogheny

Mostly Bullseye (and fusibvle too!) and Chicago Art Glass 

Youghiogheny Stipples and Mottles- at more than 50% off!

All Spectrum fusibles- with extra good
sale boxes starting at $5.55!

Bullseye coe 90 fusible glass at $3.88

Used Kiln

... for sale.
This is the great Coneart B3K117 kiln, complete with shelf, posts, stand and Bartlett computer controller. It's used but it's a Coneart so it's still a fantastic kiln. Charis needs to sell it because just like a sailboat, she already has her eyes on a bigger kiln. 
Contact her directly at charis@charis.ca...

Bullseye Glass Expands Further Into Retail

Great news for those of you who still desperately cling to COE 90 glass from Bullseye in spite of the full line being unavailable here in Eastern Canada.  Effective October 8 you will be able to buy Bullseye sheet glass, accessory glass and other fusing related sundries from their new (and closer) location in Mamaroneck, NY (tel- 914-835-3794) as well as partake in their courses.. 

To celebrate they will be having their First Fall Sale from Nov.13-16 and it's a big one! Sheet glass as much as 50% off, frits and stringers at 40%, etc! Details here.

Yup- It's Finally In!

Our truck shipment of zinc and lead has finally arrived. 
And kudos to the failure of Hollander Glass, prices are now less than when we bought from them!

Coneart Kilns

We have been a big booster and seller of Coneart kilns for years and have one of their big ovals upstairs (42" x 21" by 13" high). 
While this might be a good opportunity to promote the new square kilns we are having them make (see here) we aren't going to as this entry is just a 'service announcement' and an apology to Frank at Coneart.
You see, we have had Mike Colero Jeweller Extraordinaire in and when he loads up our kiln he means business. So much so that he fills it with close to a thousand pieces (all approx. 1/2" x 1"). 

Now while this might be tedious to him, it is the ideal way for us to map out hot and cold spots in our kiln- useful to know as you might notice from the closeup of Baby Bop's (?) foot here which hardly melted when glass only an inch away was fully fused. 

So now Mikey's all concerned and devastated and needs to call Frank (actually Zenia did because Frank likes her better). In a calming and reassuring response that only he is capable of, he said 'don't worry, we'll look into it'.
Well, what can you say about a guy who is more than willing to help out and support us.That's why we love him (yet still he loves Zenia more... Mikey)
Anyhow, going back to the kiln, and doing a few more test firings, Mikey noticed that one of the peepholes was left open (it was hidden by Picholas's Starbucks, 
Grande, no foam double shot, extra hot, soy milk, half sweet, with room for milk latte (people say the longer the drink order the bigger the a@#$#%).
We closed the peephole and everything is just fine.
Sorry Frank...

Gotcha!

Nanopod Studio

Tosca Teran, friend of Fantasy In Glass, has posted her upcoming classes for the season. Learn skills such as Flameworking, Goldsmithing, Sculpting with Molten Glass and Fused Glass Jewelry Components. Well worth checking out here.

House Cleaning

A few leftover things to chat about before taking off to Montreal to see the Chihuly exhibit- don't worry- lots of pics to come for sure:

1. Mikey neglected to point out that we got in some Uroboros 50-56 Herringbone Ripple that's both iridescent and fusible- just spectacular and always a fast sellout!

2. Because we no longer sell Bullseye Glass for fusing (they wanted us to buy from them as they also sold directly to our customers. Kind of saw that as a conflict?) we are blowing out all that's left at $3.88/pc (.61 sq. ft approx). And remember, glass is just glass- it doesn't matter if it's fusible if you want to use it for stained glass as well.

3. We have cleared a large piece of wall and posted 50 project sheets for fusing (Vanna Opal also up for the taking perhaps?... Figimodo). You now have no excuse to not have any ideas as to what to make!

Fuser's Reserve

We just brought in well over 400 square feet of this strikingly bizarre glass- suitable for fusing and stained glass work. An introduction like that only requires it be backed up with pictures as displayed by our diminutive Figimodo-