Oops! Now what?!? Working with frit and No Days Liquid Fusing Adhesive

"Embroidered Dogwood" fused glass plate created with frit,
Glassline paints and No Days Liquid Fusing Adhesive.

The creation of this plate is an epic tale. So grab your preferred beverage, sit back and enjoy the ride!

Clear fusible glass base with painted trace lines done with
Glassline paints.

In the beginning, there was a circle of clear glass and some glassline paints to outline the design...I've been working on a series of floral themed platters. Some of them are very realistic looking, but mostly, I lean towards abstract and lots of color. My aim for this particular plate was to make it look geometric with a sense of needlework. After tracing the outlines of my design from a template to the clear glass base and letting the paints dry (10-15 minutes), I was ready to add details and color with various frits.

Building frit design from the center outward over the
dried paints. Frit is held firmly in place with
No Days Liquid Fusing Adhesive.

When I'm using frits, the size grain that I use depends upon the outcome I'm going for. When adding fine detail lines, I use fine frit (size F2 in System 96 or size 01 in Bullseye). The fine frit allows me to create highly detailed imagery. It is also easy to sculpt with the No Days Liquid Fusing Adhesive. If I have larger areas of my design to fill in, I'll switch to medium or coarse frit sizes and often blend colors, as well as mixing opals with cathedrals. Once I've got my design established, I find a good starting point in the center-ish. This makes it easier to work on your piece without brushing your arms across your design.

Detailed frit designs are added in a circular motion building outward.

I lay down a bit of No Days Liquid Fusing Adhesive, then cover it with frits. I sculpt the frits into the shape I want them to be. It's easiest to work from the inside out (in this case).  By starting in one spot and then working next to it, you've got a wall of frit to support each new addition. I decided to experiment with adding some coarse frit accents in areas (to mimic the knotted stitches in embroidery), and then covering them with fine frit. Here, we're viewing the plate from what will be the front side when the plate is finished. It's helpful to have a mirror to work on, then you can see what the front side of the plate looks like as you're working without having to lift the plate overhead.

Checking the progress, looking up at the underside.
If you build on a mirror, you can check your progress as you work.

Although there are no trace lines outside of the flower in the center, I wanted to continue building in a pattern around the edges. Each new color got placed and sculpted until I reached the edge...

The design is nearly finished! And then...

Super close to being finished, and can you believe that it still hasn't occurred to me that I'm working with "enemies"? Wait, what?!?

A picture of the finished frit design before firing in the kiln to
burn off the adhesive and save my design...hopefully.

Yea! It's all finished, and about this time I realize that I've used a piece of 90 COE clear base with 96 COE frits. This is one of those projects that sat in my studio for a few months after being painted before I was able to get to it and add frits. A great lesson in keeping an extremely well organized studio if you plan on firing glass in the kiln. Either stick with one kind of compatible glass, or segregate your pieces from step one! 
So, now I'm left with a beautiful mosaic platter. I could have left it glued together as a flat piece and the No Days Liquid Fusing Adhesive would keep it glued together for good. But, that's not the intention I had when creating this plate, so it's time to trouble shoot. And, admittedly, that's one of the great pulls that fused glass holds over me. I love problem solving and understanding the whys behind the process. So, time to experiment...

First attempt to burn off the adhesive...obviously failed.

Getting to know No Days... The picture above shows the results of my poor plate going into the kiln after the first attempt at burning off the adhesive. 

The firing schedule follows:

300ºF per hour	600ºF	1.30
off

NOTE: All following firing schedules will have the above layout, with the first column being degrees per hour (in ºF), the second column is the target temperature in ºF, and the third column is the hold time: hours.minutes).

Obviously the adhesive did not fully burn out. The frit is still stuck firmly to the plate and has not dropped to the kiln shelf. Looks "carmelized." Yum.

Detail of caramelized glass...Frit is still stuck in place!

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Okay...so the adhesive really holds! Let's see what a second burnout attempt looks like...

Second burnout attempt.

I left the kiln vented for the entire firing so I could observe what was happening. [Also, my studio is in the garage next to a window that I can open for ventilation. I always recommend trying to keep your kiln in a space that is not a living space. That way anything that burns out while firing (binders, adhesives, fiber papers, etc.) will not stink up your house.]

At 800ºF, there was visible smoking.

At 920ºF, there is no visible smoke, but I could smell the adhesive burning off and see brown on the kiln shelf.

After 45 minutes at hold temp (1000ºF), I could no longer see any carbon burnout on the piece or kiln shelf. The frit has not dropped from the glass to the shelf.
  

After the firing was complete, the adhesive in the center of the plate had obviously not burned off. The frit on the edges of the plate can be tapped off of the glass. (This makes me want to do another experiment to see how well the frit holds on to the plate after burning off the adhesive...that's for another post...)

[NOTE: The plate is placed directly on a kiln-washed shelf with no fire paper. The clear glass on top of all the frit is preventing the adhesive from burning out in the center. It would be much quicker to burn off the adhesive if the glass base were on the bottom and the frit on top. However, I need to get the adhesive to burn out and release my frit onto the kiln shelf, so I can replace the clear glass with compatible System 96 glass! This means that it's taking longer for me to burn out the adhesive than it would under normal circumstances (frit on top of sheet glass in the kiln).]

Second attempt firing schedule:

300ºF per hour	1000ºF	1.30
off

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The adhesive has fully burned off after 4.5 hours in the kiln and
three successive low temperature firings.

At this point, I decided to try the second firing schedule again. Why? Well, I don't want to raise my top temperature any further. If I creep up towards 1100ºF, my glass base will start to distort and slump into the frit, and my hope is to salvage that piece to create a different dogwood plate. I figured that another long hold at 1000ºF will help to get that adhesive out from under the glass in the center of the plate. Guess what?!?  After the third burnout attempt, SUCCESS! Full burnout of adhesive. The frit is still stuck to the plate in places, but can be tapped off, mostly.

Third attempt at burnout firing schedule:

300ºF per hour	1000ºF	1.30
off

The frit that has been tapped off of the clear glass and salvaged on the kiln shelf.

The frit design has been saved on my shelf so I can now prep a clear piece of System 96 glass to cap it with!

This is the frit that was still hanging on the clear piece of glass!
Can you believe the adhesive is still working after all of that?!?

I wasn't able to tap off all of the frit. The adhesive has fully burnt out, but the frit is still sticking together. It did come off of the plate when I wiped it clean, but I just trashed the bits that didn't transfer to the shelf. Below, you can see where I added additional frit to the design to fill in the gaps (aiming for the magical 6mm thickness that glass wants to be at a full fuse).

Take two...(or is it four?)...I've added a clear sheet of Spectrum to
cap the frit that was left on my kiln shelf.

I prepped another sheet of glass, this time using the proper glass: Spectrum clear with Glassline paints.

Full fuse number one...success-ish!

After a full fuse, the plate has a few divots (not to be confused with devit = devitrification; because there's none of that), plus I want to add more depth.

Time to add more depth and detail to the top side of this design
with coarse frits and a No Days Powder Wafer.
Plus, clear frit to even out the thickness of the glass.

There are areas where the thickness of the glass wasn't 1/4," so I added some clear frit to fill in the divots. Also, I wanted more of those embroidery "French knot stitches" and added bits of coarse frit for detail. Then, because the middle was still lacking, I decided to add a No Days Powder Wafer. Uh...what's that? It's still a secret! But, watch for details in the next few months. Oh! And you can sign up for Jacqui Bush's Vegas class to get a jump start on the technique, too!

I'm on a roll! Time to get these projects fired and finished!

For the finishing full fuse, I loaded the kiln with two other projects I've been waiting to fire.

The plate on the lower left is ready for it's first firing. It was also built entirely of frit on clear with No Days Liquid Fusing Adhesive. 90 COE exclusively... I did not have to fire it several times to facilitate full burnout of the adhesive because the clear piece of glass is on the bottom of the frit. This means the adhesive can escape straight up and out of the piece, unlike the previous pictures of the dogwood plate where the adhesive had to escape beneath the clear glass to the edges before burning off.
Also, notice the addition to my kiln shelf of fire paper. Firing on fire paper ensures that any air between the kiln shelf and the plate has a chance to escape, meaning that I get no big, unexpected bubbles bursting through the top of my plates!

Ahhh! What a feeling! Finally finished, well, except for the slump.

Tada! Full fused again and ready to slump. This particular mold is the Round Rippled Drop Out Mold from Slumpy's. I've been really into using drop-out molds against the kiln shelf to make nice flat-bottomed plates. Flat-bottomed plates make my slumping world go 'round...or something like that ;)

Post-slump firing in a drop out mold from Slumpy's.

Wow! You made it all the way to the bottom and the end of my saga! Hope you were able to follow along without too much confusion. However, if you've got questions, I'd love to hear them and see if I can't answer them, as well :) Leave a comment on the blog and I'll do my best to answer!

Making No Days Mosaic Night Lights

Tools & Materials:

• glass base - can be a circle, square, rectangle of plate glass or stained glass (textured stained glass adds a nice look)
• scrap glass, tiles, millefiori, etc.
• mosaic nippers
• circle cutting system (if you're going to cut circles, this is the easiest solution aside from buying them)
• glass grinder
• safety glasses
• No Days Mosaic Adhesive
• standard heat gun or embossing heat tool
• long tweezers
• night light hardware
• sanded grout : container to mix it in, water, gloves, paper towels (You can use No Days Groutless Mosaic Adhesive to skip this step, but you may need to use a different adhesive for gluing the bail, or come up with a creative jig for holding the clip.)
  
  

  To make a No Days Mosaic Night Light, start by cutting a piece of glass for the base of your mosaic. I’m using a Toyo circle cutter with Spectrum’s System 96 clear glass, which cuts and breaks easily leaving a nice flat surface for building your mosaic on. Set the circle cutter to the radius of the circle you want to cut & center it on your glass. Make sure that there are no obstacles in the way of the bar before pressing down and scoring the glass. When you return to the start of the score, stop turning the cutter head. You only want to score once. Square off your circle, removing any excess glass.

  
  
  

  Next, place the breaking button from the Morton Safety Break System under the scoreline on the glass and use the running tool to push down on top of the line. Make sure you’re holding the running tool perpendicular to your score. Start your score in a corner so there’s less chance of the score running to the edge of your glass. Press with gentle but firm pressure until you see a score start to run. Rotate your glass, placing the edge of the run on top of the button and press down with the running tool again. Repeat until your score line meets itself at the other side of the circle.

  
  
  

  Now, score some release cuts from the edge of the glass almost to the circle score lines. Do this on four sides of the glass, then gently break the scores.

  
  
  

  After cutting the glass base, it’s time to get on the grinder and soften up the sharp edges of the glass so that no one gets cut picking up the night light. Using a glass grinder with water, shape the glass if needed and remove sharp edges by grinding on an angle. If you're unsure of how to do this, find a local stained glass shop and they'll show you what you need to do.

  
  
  

  Make sure to wear safety glasses while grinding and prevent glass bits from flying at your face with a splash guard.

  
  
  

  Dry the base piece of glass and cut a piece of No Days Mosaic Adhesive the size of your glass base.

  
  
  

  Nip various bits of glass or follow a pattern and cover your glass substrate (base). When you've got it filled in, leaving some room for grout lines, you're ready to heat set the No Days Mosaic Adhesive.

  
  
  

  Working on a heatproof surface, use a standard heat gun to heat the mosaic from 8-10” away, which helps to prevent the glass pieces from being blown away by the force of the hot air. As the adhesive liquefies, some of the mosaic bits may move around. While the mosaic is still hot, use your tweezers to nudge the pieces into place. If you need to add extra pieces, make sure to heat them so that they firmly adhere. Then, let the mosaic cool and assemble your grouting station.

  
  
  

  Gather grout, a mixing cup, water, and gloves. When your mosaic has cooled, it's ready to grout. Mix unsanded grout with a very little bit of water, adding more until you get to the consistency of toothpaste or peanut butter. Wipe the grout across the surface of your mosaic so that it gets in between all of the tiles. Pull it around the edges of the mosaic, too. Scrape the excess grout off of the surface of the mosaic, then let it sit for about 10 minutes. Using a damp sponge, wipe across the surface of the mosaic to remove the grout from on top of the tiles turning the sponge to a clean side with each pass. Again, let the mosaic sit for 10 minutes, then buff with a dry paper towel or rag to remove any haze.

  
  
  

  Wait another 10 minutes before gluing the night light clip to the backside of your mosaic. Cut a small length of No Days Mosaic Adhesive. Place a few layers of the adhesive film on the back of the night light where you want to attach the clip.

  
  
  

  Working on the heatproof surface, turn the heat gun on and have tweezers out to hold onto the clip while heating it. It’s important to heat the glass base long enough to get it hot to the touch in order to ensure a good bond. Don’t worry about your mosaic pieces falling out. The grout and adhesive should hold them firmly in place while you heat. Let your mosaic cool down, and then check to see that the clip is firmly attached. If it pulls off, then it wasn’t heated long enough. Reheat and try again, pushing excess adhesive out from between the glass base and clip.

  
  
  

  Attach your nightlight hardware together securely, then plug it in, turn it on and enjoy!

  
  
  

  For more project ideas and instructional videos, visit streuter.com.

  For ordering information or help with questions, email info@streuter.com.

  
  

Pacific Artglass' 9th Annual Glassfest and a new mosaic sign

Pacific Artglass' new No Days Mosaic Entrance sign

Every year, Pacific Artglass in Gardena, California hosts a spectacular event, GlassFest, a weekend filled with fun, food, demonstrations, prizes, workshops...whew! It's a glass-lovers' dream!

Leigh is always smiling!

This year, artist extraordinaire, Leigh Adams joined the mix to demo No Days products AND create a new mosaic sign for the entrance of Pacific Artglass using No Days Mosaic Adhesive.

Leigh recruited her "Mosaic Mafia" mosaic fiends to help with her cause.

Heat setting the pieces in place and getting ready to grout.

The lovely ladies that made the sign possible!

Pacific Artglass' John Williams lends a smile and a hug.

2014 Glass Craft & Bead Expo ~ Frit Wafers in the Oven with Jacqui Bush

Frit Wafers created using Jacqui's special No Days technique

Join No Days Artist and Instructor Jacqui Bush at the 2014 Glass Craft & Bead Expo on Saturday, March 29 from 8 am - 4 pm for an exciting new fusing technique for creating quick frit (& powder) wafers for fusing.

SA_24 - Frit Wafers in the Oven
What?!?! No Fusing!!!!! Yes, you heard correctly. Frit wafers in the oven. Tired of trying to get frit where you want it to go? Tired of the mess when you breath on your project or try to spray it with hair spray? Tired on the time it takes to fuse the frit wafer then fuse your project? Wouldn't it be easier if you could quickly make a frit wafer, that isn’t fragile, and place it on your glass and then fuse it? Or make a bunch at one time and then create your project without waiting on the kiln? YOU CAN!!! These wafers are very sturdy and travel well - unlike the wafers you create on a kiln shelf. You will also learn other techniques for working with frits, powders and enamels that take all of the frustration out of being able to transport them. You will make several frit wafers and create two 4 x 4 fused tiles using 2 different techniques. Come see what you can do with your oven besides cooking dinner. Hobby Knife, dust mask, copies of designs, stencils, drawings, etc that you might be interested in using . Contact instructor for more information if needed.

Saturday 8:00am - 4:00pm

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Jacqui Bush took her first copper foil class in 1997 and hasn't looked back. From flat glass to warm glass, and silver art clay to enamels, her classes and experimenting continue. In 2004, she could no longer resist the call of the glass and left her career in technology to open a studio. She has a contagious passion for glass in all its forms and loves to share it with others through teaching and demonstrating. Some of her favorite places to share glass art in all its glory include: local schools (K-12), colleges, Historic Living History Day demonstrations at a local century-old village, city festivals, Library openings, and anywhere she can. One of the most rewarding, and popular activities, are her frequent "Teach the Teacher" workshops and her many students, aged 4 to 94. Jacqui is certified in the Unique Glass paints, a member of AGA, RAGS, and is on the Board of Directors for the KBW Education Foundation. Learn more about Jacqui on her website: Stained Glass of McKinney.

Q&A Monday ~ Vertical Mount Mosaic with Mesh

Subject: mosaic product question

I an interested in doing some mosaic work on  concrete wall outside. Is there a product that would work well for this? It needs to be able to withstand winter and hot summer conditions as I am located in KS.

Thank you,

S

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No Days Mosaic Mesh allows you to build your mosaic on a horizontal
surface and then mount your mosaic vertically using thinset or mortar.

 Hi, S ~

The best way to approach the work you want to do would be to build your mosaic on mesh and then mount on the wall using an appropriate thinset / mortar.

Our No Days Mosaic Mesh has a heat set adhesive that holds the tiles to the mesh while you're building the mosaic. When the pieces are set in place, then you use thinset to attach it to the wall.

We have a YouTube channel and there's a quick video on the process here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHExYFozByA&feature=share&list=PL2470E6E3D2CD6545

There's an artist that uses our mesh all the time on installations and she likes to place and then heat set the tiles on the mesh. After the tiles cool down, she butters the back of the mosaic with a thin layer of thinset, which helps to stabilize the mosaic and makes it easy to install. http://nodaysadhesives.blogspot.com/2013/05/merle-art-design-custom-dogwood-bathroom.html

Hope this helps,
Carrie

Mosaic insert on stone bench, made using No Days Mosaic Mesh.

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No Days Instructor and Support Carrie Strope Sohayda

Hi, there! Carrie, here... Not only do I travel the country teaching folks how to use No Days adhesives (and other techniques), but I also answer customer support emails about using No Days. So, if you're having an issue with the adhesives, chances are good that I'll be answering your questions! Since I get so many good questions, I thought it might be a great learning opportunity for people that may be having some of the same issues but haven't thought to email us. Don't worry, I'll keep the emails anonymous! Also, don't forget that we've got a lot of really fabulous videos (I put those together, too...) on our YouTube channel. So for those of you who are visual learners (umm...we're visual artists, right?), you may want to check them out! If you've got questions, feel free to contact us at info@streuter.com.