Use Fused Glass Inclusions
To Make Art Glass Jewelry

Inclusions can be metallic or organic as outlined on our glass inclusions page.

In this particular tutorial very thin copper has been used as the inclusion.

Thin material is normally used to prevent the glass from breaking.

Thin copper sheet is available from many art glass supply stores.

Shapes can be cut with scissors or scrapbook shape cutters produce good pieces for fusing. There is a very wide range of scrapbook cutters available.

The leaf shape used in this pendant is a commercial product from www.thatfritgirl.com, normally used for handmade glass beads. Provided it is not exposed to direct heat the copper fuses very well in a glass fusing kiln.

This small pendant has been made from a black base and a clear fusing glass cap.

One of the issues that can arise when fusing inclusions is unwanted air bubbles.

To avoid this the base glass was cut in half and the base, inclusion and clear cap were fused on fiber paper.

This technique allows air to escape through the cut pieces during the fusing process.

During this process the base pieces will fuse together and air bubbles should not appear. This can be influenced by the size of the inclusion and overall size of the glass.

To make this pendant you will need the following:

Black fusing glass

Clear fusing glass

Copper inclusion

Glass Cutter

Fiber paper

Kiln shelf

Glass fusing kiln

To make pendant proceed as follows:

Step 1. Cut one piece of black glass 7/8" x 11/16"

Step 2. Cut glass in half

Step 3. Cut clear cap slightly larger than the base

Step 4. Place fiber paper on kiln shelf, put base glass on paper, make sure cut pieces are closed up and square.

Step 5. Place inclusion across the cut in the base glass. Center fusing glass cap on top of inclusion, put kiln shelf in glass kiln.

Step 6.Bring temperature up quickly to about 1000° F and hold for 10-15 minutes.

Raise temperature to 1500° F and hold for 15 to 20 minutes

Step 7. Check fusing, if glass is nicely rounded turn off glass kiln and allow glass to cool to room temperature.

The copper may have changed color; this is not unusual for copper as color changes are unpredictable.

The back of the glass will probably have a rough texture from the fiber paper. This can be smoothed out by re -firing the glass on thinfire paper and gently fire polishing the glass.

The back of the glass will probably have a rough texture from the fiber paper. This can be smoothed out by re -firing the glass on thinfire paper and gently fire polishing the glass.