Extraspot’s Weblog

Frit Lace

October 29, 2010 at 11:31 pm (glass) (frit, frit lace, fused glass, kilnworking)

The following is a “how to” on making frit lace.  There are a couple of versions.  One looks like your grandmother’s drapes.  There are instructions for that version at Spectrum’s website, and a few other places on the interweb.    Another version is in Brenda Griffith’s book.  It looks like this, and is what will be described here.  The basic construction is to fuse the “lace” and blank separately, then tack fuse them together.  After making a few of these, here is what I like to do [and what not to do].

But first things first, a materials and tool list.

• ThinFire
• Frit, preferably medium
• Wide, flat, firm paintbrush
• Medium, flat, firm paintbrush
• Glass for the blank
• Mold

While it is possible to use any size frit, medium probably works the best.  It is possible to use coarse frit, but due to its larger size, it will retain more of its volume as it fires.  Also, the chunkier size is less cooperative when being swirled around into a design.  If it is too “tight,” you will end up with a bit of a blob.  Ask me how I know.  I mad a small one that looks like Patrick Star from SpongeBob.

To start, trace an outline of the mold you will use with for your slump on the ThinFire.  Pencil works fine, will not damage the kilnwash on your mold, and does not transfer during firing.  The outline will let you know where the outer edge of your glass will be, and help to determine the outermost edge of the lace.

Once you have outlined your mold, place the ThinFire in your kiln.  It is probably best to put it on a washed shelf just in case any frit escapes you and ends upon the shelf.  Build this on your kilnshelf.  Otherwise, there will be tears.  And a number of very bad words.  And probably frit all over the floor for years to come.

Next is designing your lace.  Carefully dump a pile of frit in the middle of the ThinFire outline, then take the wide paintbrush and start pushing the frit around into the design of your choice.  It is as easy as that.  The good thing about frit is that if you can always always dump it back into the jar and start over again.

The frit will shrink a bit when it fires, so feel free to “color outside the lines” a little bit if you want it to reach the edges of the glass.  Also, it will change shape a bit as it fires:  lines will shrink, holes will form in a thick pile of frit, curves will become sharper in places, etc.  Remember, just like sheet glass, the frit lines want to be a quarter inch when they fires.  Also, do not get the frit too thin, as you will want some substance to it when handling it during the construction phases.  An ultra skinny line may also look out of balance if you have thicker lines.  So try to keep composition in mind.

When you run out of frit, simply add more.  But do so carefully.  Putting some in a lid, and carefully dumping it near your design is probably the best way.  It is also possible to add it by pinches [carefully, it is glass, after all], using bent paper or cardstock, etc.  Keep pushing the frit around until you get a design you like.

As you are creating your design, if you run across any contaminants in your frit, especially bits of glass of the wrong color, remove them.  Some stuff will not burn off as it fires.  The blue piece in the first picture has a tiny bit of white frit that was in the jar of Caribbean Blue.  Unfortunately, it was on top and fused white.  I could have removed it before firing, but did not.  And what does my eye see every time I look at it?

When you have a design you like, use the paint brushes to tidy up the stray bits of frit.  Then stand back and admire your work, tinker some more, and more, and tidy up, and admire, and generally drive yourself nuts until you get a design you like.

After you have decided that piled frit is unruly and simply will not stay where it is put, it is time to close up the kiln and fire it up.  Since I want the frit to melt rather than retain its fritiness, I fire it to a full fuse.  In fact, I fire it a bit longer than I do blanks.  It also probably does not need a bubble squeeze, but what does it hurt?  And you are always better safe than sorry, so I have a short bubble squeeze in my schedule.  But due to its size, I have shortened my anneal, letting the natural cool down of the kiln take care of the anneal down from 900.  I have a fairly large kiln [20x20x13], so something this “small,” i.e., thin and lacking in overall surface area, so I can probably get away without a staged anneal to the 700s.  If you have a smaller kiln, you may want to use your regular anneal schedule.  I will also note, however, I make up for the shortened anneal by extending it during my tack fuse and slump because (1) the glass is thicker in places, (2) tack fuses tend to like longer anneals, (3) multiple fuses tend to like longer anneals, (4) the cry factor, (5) paranoia, and (6) it does not hurt anything.

At this stage, my firing schedule, using Bullseye, is as follows:

500 / 1225 / 20

600 / 1490 / 15

AFAP / 900 / 45

Off

At the time this post was created, I was firing three frit laces for 6″ Bullseye ball molds.  Here is what they looked like before firing.  The one at the top is Indigo Blue Tint, bottom right is Juniper Blue Tint, and bottom left is Ruby Red Tint Striker(!).  Yeah, I know, the frit is blue, but it will strike to gorgeous pink.  We won’t discuss what the Ruby Red costs.

After standing back and looking at it for a bit, I decided there was something missing from the one on the right, [and now that I look at a picture of it, it is starting to look a bit pornographic!], so I added a bit more frit.

This is what they looked like when the kiln was closed.

That one is still looking a bit pornographic as I look at it.  In my defense, I will say that I had had a very frustrating day at work so I was consuming an adult beverage at the time the frit was sloshed around.  Oh well, I can think of a few friends who would find this to be the perfect Christmas present!

When they come out of the kiln, I will post some more pictures.  At the time this was posted, they were at about 1250 and dropping to the anneal.