This week's top 5's!

Top 5 Starter glass fusing tips!-

1.Never throw your scrap away! Whether it's mishapes, mistake or odds and ends...guaranteed you'll find something exciting to do with it as you grow in confidence!

2. Don't try fusing your picture frames! Remember COE, you can't just fuse any old glass. You must fuse like for like, ie 90COE, 104COE...whilst small explosion in your kiln can be exciting they can arrouse suspition amongth your neighbours.

3. Just because you want to be thin, doesn't mean your fused glass wants to be! Fused glass naturally wants to be around 6mm thick so fusing glass thicker than this will cause your project to spread over your kiln shelf, fusing projects thinner than 6mm will cause the project to contract into the centre of the piece...and like me, it's not pretty.

4. Chill out and stop rushing! Don't try and be smart and try and belt out pieces like a demented chicken. Firing your pieces as fast as possible then flinging the kiln door open is not to be advised! Smaller pieces can be fired quickly and cool quickly but you do run the risk of cracks appearing as you're cutting out the annealing part of the firing were the glass gets it's strength...plus the glass will probably be full of bubbles.

5. Cooking the books. Just because you're got a kiln doesn't mean you can do every fused glass project! Some kilns have the heating element at the top, some around the sides, some have the element on the back wall. Making fused glass bangles for example requires the heating element to be around the sides of the kiln...this is because you need to work in the kiln when it's hot. A top heating element would chargrill you as you work. Do a bit of research!

Top 5 thing's I wish I knew before I started glass fusing

1. That i'd need either 1, to buy elastoplasts in bulk, 2, shares in elastoplast...cut glass is sharp, duh!

2. That I'd need to explain what glass fusing is at least once a day and make the answer short as the glazed expression on the enquirer's face sets in at 3.1 secs

3. That friends and family can start to lose patience when they constantly walk on shards of broken glass....but what is this, Middle Earth?...put some damn shoes on!

4. That scrapbooking is a far more popular craft and easier to put away when you're done..although some scrapbookers are a little..er....touched....Where's the photo album!

5. That i'm not a charity despite my the best efforts of others...stopping making that face when you see a pile of glass jewellery, i'm not Daddy Warbucks you're not going to warm my heart!

TTFN