Fusing Glass

When purchasing a kiln for glass fusing, it is important that you purchase a kiln that has all the necessary items to accomplish this technique.

I have recently been asked to help an art teacher at a local school. Although she knows a little about glass fusing, she wants to teach this craft to her students. After a long discussion with her, I went to the class to see what supplies they had already purchased.

The district had purchased a kiln for around $800. They had also purchased other supplies for the class. I went to the school to see what kiln she was planning on using to teach these 200 plus students.

The kiln she had purchase was about medium size, but was not suited for teaching glass fusing. If you have never purchased a kiln, or done glass fusing, you might think that any kiln would work, right? Let me enlighten you by using this particular kiln to demonstrate what is needed to accomplish glass fusing.

One of the most important items you need in glass fusing is to have the ability to know what the temperature of your glass is during the firing process. To read the temperature inside a kiln, you need a pyrometer. What is a pyrometer? A pyrometer tells you the temperature of the air inside the kiln. It does not touch the glass, so you can't read the temperature of the glass, but it does tell you the temperature of the air inside the kiln. This temperature gives you a general idea of the temperature of your glass. If you have are unable to tell what the temperature is inside the kiln, you will not know what is happening to your glass.