How to Make Glass Frits With Pipes
Glass "frits" are small pieces of granular glass most frequently used by artists in the creation of glass art, sculptures, beads and jewelry. Frits are often used to embellish art pieces with an infusion of color or texture.
While commercially produced frits are available through glass supply and art companies, artists can easily make glass frits with pipes themselves, often utilizing discarded pieces of glass left over from previous projects. The fastest and safest way to do this is by using a metal pipe cylinder with a bottom and a metal plunger that fits the cylinder tightly. These can be obtained from most hardware and home improvement stores.
Before you begin making your frit, it is imperative that you are wearing appropriate protective eyewear to guard against flying glass shards. You should also work in a well-ventilated area or wear a respirator mask to avoid inhaling small glass particles. Also consider heavy-duty work gloves when working with sharp glass shards.
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Things You'll Need
- Glass shards or rods
- Heavy-duty work gloves
- Protective eyewear
- Ventilation mask
- Metal pipe cylinder with plunger
- Plastic containers of varying size
- Metal screen or sieve
Instructions
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Organize leftover pieces of glass used in fusing, lampworking or stained glass projects according to co-efficiency, or COE. The COE of a glass indicates its expansion temperature. Mixing glasses of different COE can result in uneven cooling of molten glass, resulting in breakage or stress fractures.
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Organize your glass into color batches. You may combine different colors in your pipe to create a confetti blend, or you may stick with single colors with which you can later create custom color blends.
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Clean your glass to remove any paper labels, kiln wash or bead release and use glass nips or a glass scoring tool to cut glass to a size that will fit the opening of your pipe.
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Pour your selected glass pieces into the pipe and insert the plunger into the cylinder. Rapidly move the plunger up and down, applying moderate pressure to crush the glass beneath it into desired consistency. You may remove the plunger at any time during the process to check your progress. Small glass frits the size of a rice grain are appropriate for glass fusing projects and lampwork bead making, whereas larger, pebble-sized glass frits are typically used for larger projects, such as kiln fusing and stained glass art.
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Remove the completed frits from the pipe by pouring the glass into a collection container, such as a plastic storage bowl. If you find you have an inconsistency in the size of your frits, you may return them to the pipe for additional reduction, or pass them through a sieve or screen to filter different sizes. Once you are satisfied with the size of your frits, transfer them to plastic or glass vials or other appropriate containers for storage.
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Clean the inside of the pipe with water between glass batches to ensure that you are not mixing colors or co-efficiencies.
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Wash and dry your pipe thoroughly at the end of your project. This will prevent your pipe from rusting.
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Tips & Warnings
According to Arrow Springs, a small amount of metal may flake off your pipe cylinder during the frit-making process and contaminate your frit. You can remove any stray metal particles by moving a magnet over the surface of your frit once you've completed the crushing process.
Wear protective glasses to shield your eyes.
Wear heavy-duty gloves to protect your hands.
Use a respirator or face mask to avoid inhalation of glass particles.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit glass on glass image by Vanessa van Rensburg from Fotolia.com
