Monday, February 9, 2009

I do it my way! Free tutorial!

Making frit that is!

For the non glass people reading this blog, frit is crushed glass that is rolled into a molten glass bead for the purposes of decoration, texture, or background. Most of the time I buy or trade for my frit, but some of my favorite blends have come from my lovely little nubs of glass.

Here's how I make my frit.


Always wear a mask. It's not good to inhale fine particles of glass.
That's my handy dandy frit maker. I purchased all the parts at Mutch Hardware.

Here are the pieces of it.


These are my glass nubs that I use. They really are nubs!
This is my frit sifter. I can sift the frit into different sizes. A friend sent this to me about 2 years ago, and I love it!
The nubs I've chosen for frit.
Now they are in my frit maker.
I begin to pound the glass.

Here's what comes out of the frit maker. I put it into the frit sorter and shake.
After shaking the frit sorter, here are my two favorite sizes of frit. I have some more pounding to do to finish the batch, but in the end, I will have enough frit for quite a few beads, and best of all, I was able to use my nubs--Again!

7 comments:

angelinabeadalina said...

Hey, that frit sorter is great! Thanks for showing your fritmaking setup, too, Mallory! Looks like it works really well.

P.S. Okay, so this is silly, but the picture of you in the mask made me think about it. Every darn time I have to wear a mask, I am miserable because I can't get it to rest just right on my face or when I do, then I end up fogging up my safety glasses. Is that weird, or what?

rosebud101 said...

Ang, I'm the same way with a mask. I hate to wear it and for the same reasons! I'd love to work with enamels more, but b/c you need a mask when you do, I rarely use them. Since I wear my dydies as well as reading glasses when I torch, the mask distorts my vision. I've come up with some very interesting beads, though.

Sue Choppers-Wife said...

thanks for sharing with us non-glassies :)

Unknown said...

this looks like it works much better than the big hammer and papertowel I have been using ... lol

have a great week.

Vanessa @ See Vanessa Craft said...

Interesting! I love seeing how things are made.

Pretty Things said...

I'm so glad I read this. My lampwork studio is being finished (as I write, in fact!) and learning things like "wear a mask" -- those are the sorts of things you just don't read about in books. Thanks!

Julie said...

Very cool, Mallory! I like your frit sorter, too! I hate wearing masks as well...they make me sleepy.