…Or maybe I should say “hottest” craft! For the past two days I have been obsessed with making fused glass in my microwave!
I am NOT kidding, my sister (who is the most awesomest sister in the world) remembered that I saw an ad for a microwaveable bead kiln in a magazine and bought me one for my birthday! She gave it to me Thursday! I love this thing, it is made by a company called Diamond Tech and the brand is Fuseworks, she got me the beginners kit that came with some colored glass rectangles, glass shards, foiled glass, millifeori slices, the kiln, kiln paper, glass cutter and heat resistant gloves. Now, I have an old wimpy microwave so I was very skeptical that it would work since it recommends a microwave with a wattage of 800-1200 but it worked! I just had to nuke it longer! Here is how it works:
Place a piece of kiln paper on the kiln and lay your staked glass on top. Place it in the microwave for 2-4 minutes.
Put on the gloves and peek under the lid to see if it has melted yet, if it had take the kiln out and set it on a trivet to cool for 30 minutes (no more peeking under the lid!) If not heat it for 30 seconds to a minute at a time until it is melted.
After cooling for 30 minuted remove the lid and let it cool some more, trust me the glass will still be hot and hot glass looks just the same as cold glass (don’t ask me how I know)
Remove the glass from the kiln and enjoy!
After a few beads I knew I was hooked so I went on-line to see where I could get replacement glass and kiln paper and no surprise It was pricey, a small bag with a couple of glass scraps was $6 so I found some old glass I had leftover for a stained glass project and tried that in the kiln and it worked just fine! I even sandwiched some glass slivers between a microscope slide and that melted too! I also found that if the kiln paper was still intact you could use it over again, try to remove the bead without disturbing the paper, I got 4 firings from one piece of kiln paper. The kiln paper keeps the hot glass from sticking to the kiln. After experimenting with random glass I decided to visit mt friendly neighborhood stained glass supplier where I bought a jumbo coffee can of colored glass scraps and a 18″x18″ sheet of ultra thin kiln paper fro under $15. The lady at the stained glass shop was familiar with the kiln, she even had one of the Fuseworks kilns. The glass I got from her was 95 COE (coefficiency of expansion) and the stuff in the kit was 90 COE but they both worked just fine. As for the ultra thin firing paper I had to use two layers of it but I could get multiple firings if I was careful and as a bonus it left the back of my glass and edges a lot smoother.
This is so much fun! I am glad you can use off brand supplies with it although the beginner kit gives you a lot to work with, I approve of this kit and if you shop around on line you can likely get a good deal on it! I saw them for $95 various places.
Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting…now what can I melt today….
The Frugal Crafter Blog 