Earthenware ceramic tiles work wonderfully to texture glass in a kiln. Generally, any glass piece can be heated and textured on a texture tile. For the most reliable results the use of fusible glass is recommended and if more than one piece of glass is to be fused together, the glass pieces must be of the same COE.
Once textured, the glass can be slumped to create lovely vessels or displayed flat as panels or sun catchers. With the use of a common slumping firing schedule and most slump molds, the texture will remain intact.
The flat or slumped textured glass can be painted using a variety of post firing color products such as the opaque and translucent Color MagicTM colors featured in many of the projects pictured.
The basic procedure for the use of Creative Paradise, Inc. texture tiles and design tiles follows:
• Apply a quality glass separator to the tile according to the manufacturer’s instructions. If using a water-based glass separator, the water must be completely driven from the ceramic tile before use with glass. Take care not to choose a glass separator that is excessively thick as the separator can fill in too much detail. At Creative Paradise, Inc. Primo PrimerTM and Mold EZ TMby Hotline® have been used with great success.
Double Thick Clear with fired gold border, textured on DT03 and slumped
on GM19
DT03 Koi Texture Tile
Clear Irid and Black fused together on GX04 Harlequin Texture
And slumped in GM02 Sushi
• Once the texture tile is prepared, place the glass piece or pieces in the kiln and fire the project using the following firing schedule:
- Rate 1–300 Temp 1–1360 Hold1 –20minutes
- Rate 2–300 Temp 2–1465 Hold 2–10minutes
- Rate 3–9999 Temp 3–960 Hold 3–60minutes
- Rate 4–100 Temp 4–825 Hold 4–0minutes
• After the kiln has cooled naturally, remove the textured glass from the kiln and tile. Wash any residual glass separator from the surface of the glass using soap and water and a scouring pad if necessary.
• If a subsequent slump is desired, apply a glass separator to the selected slump mold (GM02 Square Sushi and GM17 Rectangle Sushi molds by Creative Paradise, Inc. were used to slump the projects in images in this tutorial), place the texture glass on the mold texture side down or textured side up according to your own artistic preferances and fire the glass using your standard slumping schedule. The schedule used for the pictured slumped projects is below:
- Rate 1–350 Temp 1- 1100 Hold 1–10 Minutes
- Rate 2–350 Temp 2–1250 Hold 2–15 Minutes
- Rate 3–9999 Temp 3–960 Hold 3–60 Minutes
• The Color Magic TM non-fired color projects featured in this tutorial were applied according to the manufacturer’s instructions on the reverse side of the project, or the textured side. When applying these colors allow the product to dry thoroughly before applying a 2nd layer.
• If a wire inclusion “U” hook is desired to aid in hanging the textured project, the wire must be capable of surviving the firing temperatures (nichrome and bare copper wires work nicely) and must be placed between two layers of glass. A clear noodle piece placed under the wire on the tile with a subsequent top layer of glass will work.
• To create a contrasting decorative border with a wire inclusion, the strip of glass should be placed on the tile first, the wire positioned and then a larger piece of glass should be placed over the on the tile first.
• Double Thick Clear fusible glass by Spectrum is an excellent choice to use on the texture tiles. The double thickness helps prevent “shriveling” when taken to a full fuse, no air bubbles will be present and the glass can be painted on the reverse
More images are available in the downloadable pdf. Click here for a downloadable pdf version.
