6. HOW TO MAKE FUSED CHRISTMAS STOCKINGS



Email me      Home Page     Fabulous Frit      Ceramic Tiles & Murals     

  Fused Glass Jewellery      Funky Fused Shapes       Glass Tiles and Tesserae 

To make some little fused glass socks about 70mm long, you will need:

Some clear fusing glass or 2mm flosing glass

Coloured fusing glass COE 90

Oddments of glass rod, some millefiore, coloured frit, watery white glue, small brush and an old teaspoon


Sock (A) has a white opal bottom layer, mutlicoloured frit middle layer and clear glass top layer.

You are very welcome to click this drawing and save it to your documents for printing.

Any problems with this just email me on dee@globalnet.co.uk and I'll email you a drawing.
Cut the top and bottom layers using a drawing as your pattern.
Paint a stripe of glue on the white sock.

With your old teaspoon, sort of 'shovel' a tiny amount on to the glue in whatever coloured stripes you like. I've chosen rainbow socks because I got a great pair like this for Christmas.

If any goes over the line, just push it back with your brush.

You really only need a tiny bit of Frit.

If you don't have much of a choice of colours, please email me, I can do you a sample selection enough for this project so you don't have to buy large packs of anything.
Continue with glue and Frit in stripes until the whole sock is covered and let it dry.

At this point, I'd transfer the sock to my kiln shelf.

With the sock on the kiln shelf, put some dots of glue on the back of the clear glass top layer and press it down gently onto the Frit.

You will hear a crunchy noise as bits of Frit dislodge.

Full fast fuse.

Here's the sort of result you will get ~ the sock will be 5-6mm in depth and nice and strong.

You can make many patterns this way and the cutting is minimal.

Sock (B) has the same basic 2 layers of cut fusing glass, but this time I'm going to add the pattern in sheet glass rather than Frit.

The other thing about this sock is that I've cut the clear glass layer a fraction bigger all round.

While cutting, the toe fell off my sock...if your glass breaks in the wrong place, don't worry, that's what fusing is great for!

Just glue the pieces back together and carry on as normal.

When I was cutting sock (A) I had some leftovers and slivers of white opal.

(Save every sliver and scrap of fusing glass because they are really useful for small details).

I've made ribbing from the slivers and cut a heel and toe in the white. Add dots of glue and stick them down.

Then I cut up some orange COE 90 rod very thinly and placed them in a  large polka pattern.

The white dots used here are white seed beads. They do fuse absolutely ok, just don't use too many of them. I have no idea what COE they are, but in small quantities they won't harm your piece at all.  Better still would be cut up stringer in COE 90.

Then I added some red Frit to the toe and heel.
Now you want to stick down the top layer of clear glass.

Remember I cut it a fraction bigger all round? See how it overlaps in the picture.

Think of it like bedsheets, you want to tuck the sheet over the mattress right? Well, it's the same with glass.

The top glass layer has to fuse and slump over the underneath layers. In this case, they are still only quite thin, (4mm), but if you use more glass as we will in sock (C) and the top layer isn't quite big enough you will not get a nice even smooth edge all round and the piece may have to be ground and firepolished.
This was full fast fused and the resulting sock is smooth, strong and very Christmassy!

Finished depth was 5-6mm.
Sock (C) is a colourful stripey sock with a floral pattern.

It's got a clear bottom layer, sheet glass middle layer and clear glass top layer, again cut slightly larger than the other 2 so that it overlaps.

Cut the pattern of your sock in sheet fusing glass. I've chosen to use up some more oddments and make a sock of 5 coloured stripes.

Stick them to the bottom layer and don't worry about any tiny gaps.

 
I've added ribbing using glass bugle beads. COE 90 stringer would have been better but I ran out!

As with sock (B), small amounts of glass of a different COE will not harm your piece.

The floral pattern is made from thinly sliced millefiore, stuck in place with glue.

Once it's all dry, stick the top layer of clear glass down.

Again, see how it's slightly larger than the other 2 layers.

Full fast fuse.
It's a very pretty little piece!

If you decide to turn your sock into a pendant, try sticking the bail in the top right rather than in the middle.

This way, the weight distribution will make it dangle nicely, see the picture up at the top.

If you have any questions or if you want small supplies of Frit or millefiore in project sized amounts, please email me.

dee@globalnet.co.uk