IMPORTANT! RECALL NOTICE!

Due to a technical error by our staff, (honest, we thought he was taking his medication) we regret to announce a recall of all Swiss Cheesed GlassWerks amber cathedral colours. Colour #'s 1656, 1658, and 1659 are affected. All other 927 colours are not. 

It seems that the size of the holes and their spacing is not to spec, and will have to be remanufactured. If you have used any of this glass in any projects, either remove the faulty glass as soon as possible, or contact us for a free retrofit kit. This kit, comprised of silica, soda and ash along with zircon encrusted tweezers is available free of charge with any proof of purchase.

Swiss Cheesed Glass Werks apologizes for any inconvenience this might have caused and assures the public that it will take whatever measures it deems necessary to get to the hole truth on this matter.

Theresa

Theresa M is one of our instructors. 

Has been for close to a decade.
And she really can do it all- from stained glass, to glass fusing, to oils and watercolours and even clay and pottery.
A real inspirational instructor that runs our Friday Intermediate Class.

Need technical help- she can offer it.

Need artistic input by way of design and glass selection. There's no one better.

Check out some of her work here...

Recall Notice

Due to a technical error by our staff, (honest, we thought he was taking his medication) we regret to announce a recall of all Swiss Cheesed GlassWerks amber cathedral colors. Color #'s 1656, 1658, and 1659 are affected. All other 327 colors are unaffected. It seems that the size of the holes and their spacing is not to spec, and will have to be remanufactured. If you have used any of this glass in any projects, either remove the faulty glass as soon as possible, or contact us for a free retrofit kit. This kit, comprised of silica, soda and ash along with a zircon encrusted applicator is available free of charge with any proof of purchase. Swiss Cheesed Glass Werks apologizes for any inconvenience this might have caused and assures the public that it will take whatever measures it deems necessary to get to the hole truth on this matter.

... and Just In Case

... to add, Spectrum's Score magazine, while perhaps a bit self-serving, ocassionally does try to broaden the knowledge base of this craft of ours. Whether you are a stained glass craftsperson or a fuser, this is a worthwhile source to check out. You can find the latest issue here- The Score.

New Stuff

We just confirmed and locked up a shipment containing some pretty exciting new glass which while fusible, is just as great and useable for your stained glass projects. 

Due in about 10 days...

Above are swatches of five new Limited Production Spectrum Spirit Glasses, with two Aventurine based!

Quantities ordered are substantial but nevertheless, these are limited production and most likely to not last long.

This is Spectrum's Peacock Green Opal- a deep blue/green filling a necessary void.

On another note, we are still hopeful to get the Uroboros Gold-Pink also on this shipment.

Selfish Self Promotion

The Fantasy In Glass website is a virtual change purse of stuff that might amuse, inspire and maybe even offend you. At least it is hopefully provocative, from the woefully pathetic catalog (currently being revised totally) to the technical articles written by Mikey, to the info pages on courses and seminars to the numerous Picture pages. Maybe even to the occasionally feeble attempts at humour.  

Segue alert!

One of Mikey's favourite artists has always been Salvatore Dali, and tripping across one of his works last month in Montreal reminded us of the 'Inspiration' Pictures page on the FIG website... 

So have a look, and poke around in some of the dusty cornered. You'll never know what you'll find.

We are also on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter!

Brain Injury Association

Patty and the staff at the Brain Injury Association run a fantastic studio for glass fusing. This studio is for therapeutic rehabilitation for those unfortunate enough to have experienced some sort of brain trauma, either by physical accident or stroke, etc. They also run a production studio along with a loyal group of volunteers and make hundreds of items per year to raise additional funds to help sustain their good work.

If you are looking for a worthwhile cause to become involved in or to make a donation, this could be it.

Want to see their setup, check here-

Contact Info:
Patty Lehman, Executive Director
Brain Injury Association
871 Victoria Street North, Unit 1
Kitchener, N2B 3S4
Tel # 519-579-5300

www.biaww.com

Upcoming Incredibly Amazing and Stupendous Seminar

Looks like Mikey has been buying some adjectives again. It's just him bragging about the popular Glass Cutting Seminar he holds a few times throughout the year. So, on Saturday April 26 (thanks Mike W!), for a lousy $19...   

So you think you know everything about cutting glass? This seminar is for novice and expert alike. Can't cut a perfect circle? Can't manage tight inside curves? Can't cut two hundred pieces all exactly the same? Don't know the hexadecimal value of the number 32? Mikey might. and he'll tell you when you take this course. As well as proper cutting techniques, he'll cover the use of strip/circle cutters, pattern making, etc. That’s the glass cutting part. Below is the Jig part-
     When you work in a studio setting there are all sorts of tricks you develop so the boss doesn't know you've been goofing off. These tricks allow for more accurate and faster production as well as the undying gratitude of the bourgeois capitalist who owns the business. While the average craftsperson may not care much about speed, being able to cut the same shape repeatedly with perfect accuracy might be kind of cool and useful. This show will delve into the use of strip/circle cutters, the use of sliders and how to build and use a jig board- a tool shrouded in mystery and fear by those who fail to learn and understand it.
Call 416-252-6868 to register...

The Big Blue Broken Meanie!

Today Mikey wants to talk a bit about something almost every fuser has encountered and even occasionally wonders about- the dreaded !@#$% cracked piece. 
Now, cracked kiln fired pieces are often the result of heating too quickly, cooling too quickly and/or a problematic uneven heating kiln (remember to close up those peepholes when above 500F). 
If you think it through logically, it's easy to determine when the glass broke. A smooth edge means it did so on the way up in temperature so therefore that edge got fire polished. Should the break be sharp, it has happened on the way down. 
One of the most fun and dramatic fused pieces we've done was The Blue Meanie from The Beatles Yellow Submarine (actually one of several characters from that animated classic that we've tackled). This one unfortunately cracked right in two on a third firing. 
Sitting on it for a few months, all forlorn and forgotten in the deep bowels of The Ivory Tower (Mikey's office), Mikey yanked it out the other day, laid it out on top of a yellow sheet and thought to re-fuse it back into one. 
Now, the problem with this piece in particular is that fire polished edge. This means that we are unable to fit the crack tight together and the gap will fill and fuse together but the 'memory' of that crack will always remain (see here for more).
So, to conclude, yes we can fuse broken pieces back together again so long as we place them on a base glass. Will the crack still be visible?
What do you think?...

Free (and possibly worthy) Plug

(April 12-13 at the Waterside Inn in Port Credit

www.artsonthecredit.ca)

Slumpy Order Pending

Anyone interested in special ordering any molds from Slumpy drop us a note before April 25 and we'll make sure to add it on, and at a 25% discount too!
Below, some samples-

Check Your Glass For Holes!

If you're looking for great cutting glass, we suggest you look on the back side of your glass. 

For holes the size of a dime. 
Or a 15mm jewel. 
Lots of them. 
Because glass that has these holes is a full three decibels louder when being cut. 
Which may not sound like much. 
But an increase of three decibels will double the cutability of your glass cutter at its tuning frequency (30 hertz). And reduce what's known as 'cutter wheel excursion'. With this added tractibility your glass cutter requires less pressure to generate force to the glass. 
Of course, with this remarkable glass, there's one thing you'll miss- frustration. Simply, Swiss Cheesed GlassWerks' cathedral glass is unmatched in ease of cutability when compared to glass without holes. It cuts with less pressure and therefore poses less stress on your cutter wheel and therefore your hand. 
Now remember, this is a science, so there's more here than just drilling holes. Swiss Cheesed GlassWerks' engineers fine tune each sheet of glass for optimum performance and efficient cutability. All of which means that if your glass doesn't have holes you might want to talk to a Swiss Cheesed GlassWerks dealer. 
And get the hole truth!
Available exclusively at Fantasy In Glass Glassworks, Canada's first and still only officially sanctioned stained glass emporium!

(SwissCheesed GlassWerks is the official defacto holder of the naming rights to the Fantasy In Glass building)