A couple of weeks ago I had a small group arrange a private class to make fused glass coasters. I asked if they had any particular designs in mind and one of them sent me some photos of coasters she had seen on Etsy and liked. It was a perfect opportunity for me to play and make up some sample pieces!
I decided to make a set of four coasters that all used the same glass but in different designs. My goal was primarily to see what pitfalls might arise as I layered and fused glass in a variety of ways. For the first set, I chose blue, white and black opaque glasses and a purple transparent glass. I also added in clear as a non-color option.
I decided with this set to cap each coaster with a piece of clear glass, hence there are quite a few bubbles. All except the bottom left coaster are fairly uneven because of variation in the number of layers of glass across the coaster, but I tested a coffee mug on them and they all work well. I'd be a bit more cautious with a narrow-based beer bottle or wine glass, but I haven't actually tried that, yet.
More experimentation was in order. I wanted to know how these would work out without the clear glass covering. This time I chose autumn colors in opaque glass (and clear) and similar designs.
You can see that the edges of the glass are crisper than in the blue/purple set, but this also means that they're a bit more uneven. They'd all work as coasters, however, except the top left one; it's just too high in the middle.
Holding the pieces at a longer time at the top fusing temperature would eventually cause the layers to completely melt into each other and result in a perfectly smooth coaster. I suppose my next experiment should be to see just how long I need to hold them at the top temperature to acheive this.
For now, though, the sun is shining and I need to be outside!
