A very interesting way to create decorative ornaments appeared just recently. Its use at home allows you to create truly unique things that can become not only a wonderful decoration for your home, but also a good additional income or even start your own business.

All this applies to glass baking technology called fusing. This glass technology is used to create a wide variety of products that can even be used in jewelry.

Fusing technique: description and stages

• If it is not possible to purchase a special oven for the fusing technique, use a simplified microwave oven, which allows you to apply the fusing technique in the safest and most harmless way. This technique is designed specifically for beginners, teaching them how to create small pieces, jewelry or pendants.
• The microwave oven makes it possible to work with all types of glass: multi-colored frits, matte, millefiori, transparent. The manufacturers themselves recommend opting for 90 COE glass, but this recommendation is not mandatory, therefore, to create products using the fusing technique, take any other type of glass. Such a microwave oven with a capacity of 800 W will allow you to learn how to work with glass without purchasing a special oven for fusing.
• Before working out of the microwave, it is recommended to remove the glass plate or turn it upside down to prevent it from rotating. Before using such an oven for the first time, preheat it in the microwave following the instructions. After the oven has cooled down, you can start working.
• For work, prepare a microwave oven, gloves, glass cutter, goggles, oven, glass, heat-resistant paper just for fusing. Cut small pieces out of the glass for baking. Please note that it is necessary to use glass to create products with the same COE, since with a different indicator at the joints, the product will turn out to be fragile.

• Wear glasses when working with glass. Do not use oil glass cutters, otherwise the glass will burst during fusing.
• Next, cut out a piece of heat-resistant paper, its size should be slightly larger than the future size of the finished product. Lay the paper on the bottom of the stove, fold a pattern of glass on it, which you can put, both in height and on top of each other. Once the pattern is ready, transfer it to the bottom of the oven in the microwave. There, cover the bottom with glass with the top of the stove, close the microwave, set the maximum power, microwave mode and time 2.5 minutes.
• After 2 min. work, open the lid of the stove in the microwave and see if the glass is sufficiently sintered. Remember to wear gloves when working with a special or simplified stove. If the glass is not sufficiently sintered, continue fusing, but the heating time should not exceed 6 minutes.
• When the product is baked, remove the stove from the microwave and place it on a heat-resistant surface. It can be ceramic tiles or metal. Do not open the stove, but let the glass inside it cool down for 30 minutes to avoid the fragility of the product.
• As soon as the glass cools down, it will become the same color as before fusing, with the exception of dichroic glass, which differs in the fused form from the original form.
• In order to make a pendant, glue the fittings prepared in advance to the back of the cooled glass. You can simply wind a spiral from a thick spring. You can leave a hole in the glass pattern in advance, into which, after fusing, you can thread a chain or decorative cord.

Fusing: master class

• When using the fusing technique in a more professional way, you will need a muffle furnace, a spatula and a special thermal panel. It is also worth preparing a strip of stainless steel from which the mold is made. For the first time, you can try to make a heart from this strip. To do this, you need to take the strip and use the round-nose pliers to form the desired shape from it. When the shape is created, the antennae on it should be bent. This is necessary in order to close the form with a lock when laying glass.
• The finished shape is fixed using a special lock, which resembles a ring in shape. The mold is placed on a stainless steel sheet. And after that, the form is filled with glass, for example, beads.
• To make the product more interesting and unique, you can take a tablet with a picture embedded in it, which is called millefiori by professional glassblowers. It is placed on top and pressed slightly. The product is now ready for subsequent heat treatment.
• It's time to open the oven and put the mold into the chamber with a spatula. The fusing temperature is 8500C. It is necessary to wait for a certain period of time for the beads to melt. Through quartz glass installed on the stove, you can clearly see what is happening inside. So the whole fusing technique can be observed with your own eyes.
• When the glass melts, it must be poured into the mold. First get it out, and then do it with tweezers, reporting one bead at a time. If you want to make the edging of the future product in a different color, you can fill in the beads of a different color along the edging.

• As soon as the beads are presented along with the millefiori tablet, the blank can be put into the oven. When all the glass has melted, filling the form completely, the oven must be turned off and the things must be allowed to cool, otherwise the finished product will crack.
• When the product cools down, first remove the lock, and then the shape. The glass made using the home fusing technique is ready.