Images on Glass

    I recently attended a two day workshop in Lowell, Mass with Barry and Sharon Kaiser of Kaiser Glass Studio of Greensboro, North Carolina.  Barry and Sharon teach several fusing classes but I chose this one so I could learn more about silk-screening on glass.  As they work solely on jewelry sized items, we all worked on roughly 2x2" pieces of glass.

We learned about the various types of enamel paints that can be applied to glass for firing.  The Kaisers have designed their own paint that works very well which they generously supplied us with for use in class.  Several mica powders were also available to use and we learned how to successfully apply those to pre-fired decal pieces. 

What was truly wonderful about Barry and Sharon was that there were no secrets as to their methods!  They have perfected their technique and the results are beautiful.  Their website is http://kaiserglass.com/index.html .  Their website has several tutorials and tips on working with fused glass.  I'd recommend their classes if you are interested in incorporating any sort of imagery on your fused glass pieces.

I have been experimenting with the silk-screen process on glass for a few months now and this class was just what I needed to get me in the right direction.  There are a lot of steps involved but so worth it in the end!

The challenge for me is taking what I learned on a very small scale and putting it to work in larger pieces that are slumped with multiple layers.  It has been a wonderful process figuring out how to incorporate the paint and mica into my larger glass mandala pieces.