Some Freeze and Fuse Examples

[Mike Jordan]

When one fishes for compliments one should really have a fish... perferably a whole fish. And thinking that fuseing glass is much better than cutting bait, I decided to do some fishing... except, when I deboned them, I threw away the wrong part. :D

For those that haven't tried it or don't know about freezing and fuseing powder frit, here are some samples of what I've done.

I saw this neat ice cube rubber fish mold on the internet and started looking for it. I found it all over the place... in England. But none of the stores shipped to the US. I found it talked about a lot in several store web sites in the US (Kitchen Kaboodle was one) but none of them had it. So I kept looking. I finally found one in Hone Kong that a guy was selling on Etsy.com. So I bought it. I couldn't wait to try it out, so as soon as I got it I packed the frit, froze it and popped it into the kiln before I went to bed that night. And since I am a firm believer that anything worth doing is worthless without pictures, here is one of the mold and the frozen fish after I popped them out.

http://www.sitnprettyphoto.com/display/glass/fishplus/fish8425.jpg

Since I had 4 to make, I decided to go with different colors on each one. The colors are Bulls Eye Red, Yellow, Orange and French Vanallia powder. Each is about 3.25" long and the head is about 1.75" at it's widest.

After letting them cook over night and cool during the day while I was at work, this is how they came out:

http://www.sitnprettyphoto.com/display/glass/fishplus/fish8428.jpg

The colors came out nicely although there are the very tiny bubbles on the head of the red and some on the yellow. I suspect that this is because I didn't pound the frit as well as I should have and there was just a small amount of moisture left in there. I let them sit on the self for about 2 hours but I'll let them sit over night next time to give the moister a chance to wick out into the fiber paper or shelf.

Mike

[strawberryblondie]

Mike those are neat fish. I don't do warm glass but can appreciate a person who is always looking for something new to try. I would be interested in seeing what you will do with the fish bones, what they will become or be a part of?

Linda

[Mike Jordan]

Thanks Linda. I'm still debating on what to do with them. I thought maybe a wind chime, but they are two thick to make a nice noise. I've thought about getting some netting and mount it into a frame and hang the fish from that, but I've not found the right netting and I was never a Boy Scout so only know how to tie 2 types of knots, neither of which could be used to make a net with. :D

I also want to play with some high temp wire and make a fish hook hanger. I know how I can fuse it with the hook in, but haven't tried that yet.

These are just a small group of what I've been making out of the freeze and fuse technicque. I'll post some of my other pictures of things I've done later. But I've done things from a few grams of frit to over 3 pounds so far. I have a mold that will take about 6 pounds of frit, but I have to wait till Bulls Eye has their next half price sale to get the powder frit. There are so many neat candy, soap, candle and other types of molds out there that only cost a few dollars that I keep getting side tracked into trying something else. I really need to get back into the casting stuff I was working on before I started doing FnF. :D

Mike

[strawberryblondie]

Mike, here is just one link where you can find netting that would look great with those freeze and fuse fish. Post some pics when you figure out what you will do with them and get it done. I look forward to seeing it.

Linda

http://www.shelloutlet.com/catalog/item/3525606/4678426.htm

[MaryBeth]

Those are so cool! How big are they?

[Mike Jordan]

Thanks for the link, Linda. That is the kind of net I was looking for. Some of the netting around the glass floats would work also. I noticed they had a $50 minimum though, so if I see anything else I can't live without, I'll grab the net too.

MaryBeth, thanks. They are 3" long and a 1.5" at the widest part of the head. The mold is advertised for making ice cubes.

Mike