How to Create a Fused Glass Fish Sconce

Materials and Tools:

1/8" clear and colored sheet glass
colored glass powders
colored crushed glass of various sizes
dichroic (metal-coated) glass
metal screens
torch
kiln
safety glasses
leather gloves
small sieve
spoon
punty rods
glasscutter
running pliers
needle-nose pliers
paper
permanent marker
craft knife
colored pencils
mold
light and electrical bracket

Figure A

Steps:

1. Sketch the fish on paper and color it with colored pencils.

2. Cut out the paper fish with a craft knife and trace it onto clear glass using a permanent marker.

Figure D

3. Score the outline of the fish on the glass with a glasscutter and break the glass using running pliers.

4. Apply colored glass powders to the clear glassfish blank by filling a small sieve with individual colors of glass powders and tapping it with a spoon to spread the color onto the glass.

Figure F

5. Heat two squares of black glass in a kiln to embellish the tail and fins of the glassfish:

• Heat a punty rod in a glory hole (torch) and pick up a small amount of broken clear glass.
• Attach one black square of heated glass to the end of the punty rod by touching it to the melted glass on the end of the rod.
• Heat the black glass in the glory hole.
• Remove the rod from the glory hole and grab the melted glass with a pair of needle nose pliers.
• Pull the glass creating a very thin string of black glass.
• When it cools a bit, break it off.
• Repeat the process until there are several strings of glass.

Figure H

6. When cool, break the strings of glass into short pieces and lay them as decoration on the tail and fins of the fish.

7. Apply dichroic glass pieces to the fish for highlights. Cut two round pieces of glass in two different sizes for the fish eye. Stack the glass circles and place them on the fish's head appropriately.

Figure I

8. Fire the entire glass fish in the kiln to fuse the glass together.

9. Fire the prefused glass fish in a second firing on top of a mold to give it a dimensional shape.

10. Drill holes in the final glass fish piece for attachment to the electrical bracket.

11. Mount the fused glass fish sconce to the electrical bracket.

Web site: www.glassfirestudio.com