I’d been wanting to try fusing some old watch gears into glass for a pendant for a while. Only recently did I have the watch gears. So I dug around a little bit and read about other people’s experiences with this. Then I realized their information was about specific types of metal. Having no clue what kind of metal I had, I decided to throw caution to the wind. So I cut and grinded and loaded the kiln. It occurred to me to wonder if my unidentified metal might emit toxic fumes, so I took my fire extinguisher and sat outside in the yard while these fired.

So here’s the one with the watch gears. I’d read someone else had a similar result with the huge bubble. Their piece, I believe, shattered later after a sudden temperature change. I currently have this stored in a climate-controlled safe room. The gears are fairly close to the same color now as when they went in. I’d love to find a way to make this one have fewer bubbles - I actually like the small bubble over the center of each gear - and be less likely to shatter at inopportune times.

This one is a tiny watch gear and an old key. Probably the one key out of the bajillions I keep finding that would unlock that box with all the money. I thought it’d be cool to hang the pendant using the key as the bail. The key turned black and had a coating of some black stuff that fell off the exposed part when touched. The ratio of bubble-to-watch-gear is way off here, so this one is a no go, too.

First experiment with metal: epic fail. The quest for knowledge goes on.

Oh, and this is me, resisting change. I don’t like the improved “Add media” function on wordpress.



3 Responses to “Metal Inclusions”  

  1. 1 Aaron

    Well done! It may not have come off a full-blown success, but if we don’t try, then we won’t learn nothin’! ;) Just happened to run by this page, but it’s a pretty cool idea; I bought some clock bits recently (got mine from VolcanoArts, like $3.50 for a little container of about 20) and have been trying to decide what to do with them, and also have been wanting to make a steampunky version of the pendant I wear; glass fusing just might be the ticket! Thanks for the inspiration =)

  2. 2 Christy

    So first off what do you not like about the new media function on wordpress. I like it but think it needs a few improvements.
    Now, can you take these pieces and fuse them again in more glass? I know NOTHING about glass fusing so if that is a silly thought then just laugh… hehe… but maybe that would safeguard the possible blowing up of the bubble? Or would that actually make the bubble explode?
    Funny I got this mental picture of driving down the road and seeing some blonde sitting outside holding a fire extinguisher. Which alone could cause you to think of tons of blonde jokes you know… oh, and yea, I’m blonde so I’m allowed to make blonde jokes!

  3. 3 Alicia

    Well, as we speak, I am hand coding some rather image intensive entries on wordpress. I can upload the images, but the insert function isn’t working. I can copy the image’s url and enter it by hand and GEE it’s so efficient to do that. *sigh*

    I most likely won’t mess with these glass pieces again. I don’t think a bubble squeeze will work (which is what one usually does to get rid of bubbles. I’ve never done it.) but I have been talking to someone who used float glass rather than the kind I used here. She was successful. So I ran right up to Lowe’s and bought some scrap glass. We shall see…

    Yes, that’s the same mental image I had, too! Let the jokes begin!

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