What you will learn:

● Strip cutting● Cross Pendant - no glue on bail no drilling but

with a hole nonetheless.● Pendant● Clock - no drilling

What you need:

● Glass cutting tools● Several pieces of glass with the same COE to

cut strips● Kiln shelf prepared with release or thin fire

paper● 1 Clock work and hands● A small piece of fiber paper – pre-fired ¼”

grinding bit

Strip-ConstructionThe Glass Strip Challenge

Design, Fabrication and Text by Petra Kaiser

Ever since there was glass fusing there has been designing withstrips. I'm sure you have done your share of glass-stripdesigns. In this series of "strip-tease projects" we will show youhow to shape strips into various shapes which we willthen use to create interesting pendants, baskets andsculptures.

No, we will not weave - you might have seen those beautifulwoven pieces by William Zweifel (if not look him up online -they are amazing). Of course I have tried to do some weavingbut in order to shape those strips for weaving you have tofire them to full fuse temperature and no matter which releaseI tried, the cleaning of those pre-fused glass strips wastedious. Therefore I have great admiration for all the glassweavers out there. You might have guessed it; our pieceswill need less cleaning effort.

"Where do your ideas come from?" my friend asked yesterdayand for once I actually knew the answer. And here is why!Whenever I have room in the kiln I take some scrap glass andturn it into pre-fused design elements which I keep inmarked jars. When the time comes to create I pour thecontents of those jars on a tray. And there it was - the newidea right in front of me on the tray.

If you don’t want to work with straight strips, you can al-ways shape them. We use Kaiser Lee Board to shape curves,waves and more.

Petra Kaiser ©

This is all you need for our clock project and 56 glass strips3” long in various colors.

Glass drilling is not as difficult as it sounds and I havedescribed it at length in my book “Introduction to GlassFusing” but today I will introduce you to a method ofcreating a clock without having to drill it. Since there is nodrill bit in the size of the clock shaft we have to use the ¼”grinder bit anyway. With the strip technique it is easy to fusethe glass with a center hole.

After you have cut your 56 strips, 3” long and ¼” wide – use opaque glass; it will hide the clock works. For this project itis more efficient to use a kiln shelf prepared with shelf paper. Use one that is bigger than the final project to leave room forcreative changes.

I’m using thinned down white school glue and a paint brush to adhere the strips to the paper. This way they won’t movearound or fall on their side. The little square pieces around the perimeter of the shelf are there to weigh down the paper –preventing it from rolling up and in addition they will create nice little round nuggets which I could use in future project.

After firing all you need todo is to adjust the holewith the ¼ grinding bit onyour grinder and mountthe hands.

Ramp Up 600°F - 316°C 1000°F - 540°C 10

Target Up Afap - Full -9999 1430°F - 780°C 10

Anneal Soak Afap - Full -9999 950°F - 510°C 10

Anneal Cool 100° - 38°C 700° - 370°C 0

Petra Kaiser ©

In today’s tutorial I would like to introduce you toworking with straight strips: using them in jewelry; aclock with nodrilling required and some chimes for the wind chimes.The challenge is to cut those 1/4" wide strips. There areseveralstrip cutters out there (which shows the popularity ofglass stripping). I believe it was Steven Immerman -anotherfamous glass artist using lots of strips - who said that thedesign will look more interesting if the strips are notexactly thesame width. Since the strips even look better when theyare not exactly the same size we do not have to put anypressure on the students. It is a great way to teach themfree hand glass scoring.

Ok here is one more credit I have to give - Rudi Gritsch also akiln forming glass artist - shows in his DVD a trick on how tocut strips -it really helps breaking those narrow strips.

Score a series of 8 strips, and then breakoff the glass in the order shown in the graphic below.

The on edge design technique is good for manyassemblies. After trying many ways to fuse a nice cross-pendants , this one has become my favorite technique for thisparticular pendant. You can also use it for bigger crosses aswell.

Start with 3 strips 2.5” long and cut off two ¼” pieces fromthe center strip. Discard one of them and set them side byside on the shelf with the little piece of fiber paper in theopening – otherwise your hole will close. The side pieces aretwo pieces, 1 ¼” long and two pieces 1” long. Place one ofeach size to the left and right of your center set up – standingon side again. You will be amazed how nicely they will fusetogether. To decorate the cross we used some glass powderpaint and a few tiny pieces of dichroic.

Here are two moresamples with theon edge technique.You can finish thependants with acord or use somejump rings or awire wrapped bail.

For the strip design technique it is best to glue theassemblies to a piece of shelf paper (Papyrus™ orThinFire™). This way it will be easier for you to set it up ona kiln shelf for firing.

Schedule A - Small Pieces - 1st Full Fuse

Ramp Up 1800°F - 980°C 1000°F - 540°C 10

Target Up Afap - Full -9999 1430°F - 780°C 10

Anneal Soak Afap - Full -9999 950°F - 510°C 10

Anneal Cool – – 0

When you set up your jewelry pieces for firing make sure yougive the pieces plenty of room to expand. If you place themto close chances are, they will fuse together. (See picture)

Petra Kaiser ©

In today’s tutorial I would like to introduce you to working with straight strips: using them in jewelry; a clock with nodrilling required and some chimes for the wind chimes. The challenge is to cut those 1/4" wide strips. There are severalstrip cutters out there (which shows the popularity of glass stripping). I believe it was Steven Immerman - anotherfamous glass artist using lots of strips - who said that the design will look more interesting if the strips are not exactly thesame width. So, for me free hand scoring seems to work best. I place the glass on my Morton cutting board and score itusing the boxes as measurement. If it is opaque I will use the Morton ruler and cutting bar.

Ok here is one more credit I have to give - Rudi Gritschalso a kiln forming glass artist - shows in his DVD a trickon how to cut strips -it really helps breaking thosenarrow strips. Score a series of 8 strips, and then breakoff the glass in the following order.

Let’s start with making the chimes. Here I will introduce you to the technique that is used in the pendants as well. AgainI'm using a little piece of KL-board covered with shelf paper as my kiln shelf. It is ideal for those strip constructions andeasy to carry and place into the kiln for firing.

If you would lay those strips side by side chances are, they will not fuse together. But by standing them on the side, sideby side, there is enough glass to fuse the pieces together. They offer a great opportunity to work with open spaces or asthey say in the world of art "negative space".

You will find that it is easier to cut strips from a shorter piece than from a longer - so if you need strips at a certain lengthcut the glass piece to this length first before you start to trip it.

Petra Kaiser ©

Glass is such an interesting material and has many more aspects to offer then“just” art. Students can create from none functional to functional a huge varietyof art pieces and products.

In some schools they use it from product design to product description to costcalculation, to business skills all the way up to a web based store front.

Here are a few more samples:

I’m sure you will be able to use this techniqueto create many wonderful designs of your own.Have fun and keepCreating.

Petra Kaiser ©

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