We love to make fused glass pickups! You can pick up two-dimensional tiles using a plunger or rollup technique! We call that making cross-over pieces. We make the color setup in the warm glass studio and the form in the hot shop!

So, if you are a fusers interested in having your work taken in a different direction, come to us. We can incorporate your pattern bars, pot melts, or fused tiles/circles into blown glass pieces. We can do plunger pickups or rollups with your fused pieces and blow them into the form of your selection.

You can also make the glass style in our Cross-Over Tile Workshop and then sign up to have it blown out into a three-dimensional form.

COE 96

We use COE 96 in our studio. Therefore, cross-over pieces will only be successful if the fused piece is also COE 96.

On each tile, indicate which side is outside, and on rollups, indicate which side is the top. Use blue painter’s tape to label and avoid sticky residue.

Rollups

Original Tile Sizes

Roll-ups 8″ x 10″ x 3/8″

Roll-ups 10″ x 12″ x 3/8″

H x W must be within 1/4″, depth between 3/8 – 1/2″

Bevel the short sides in opposing directions to minimize the seam.

Process

The panel will be picked up on the pipe in landscape orientation. The long sides will be top & bottom. Approximately 1/2″ of the long edge will be lost during the process, so remember to keep your pattern in the center. You might even add 1/2″ of clear glass to your piece to avoid losing your color. Please cold work your tile before delivery to the studio.

Design Tips

• • The side fired against the shelf will appear to have straighter lines and a crisper surface on the fused tile. Decide which side you want to have as the outside and mark it as outside.

• • You will lose a small amount of glass in the beveling process. Keep that in mind as you create your design.

• • The top 1/2″ of the panel attaches to the glass collar on the blowpipe and is lost in the process.

• • Design with the seam in mind; you can make it a vertical feature in the rollup’s composition.

Plungers

Original Tile Sizes

Plungers 6″ x 6″ x 3/4″ (this smaller size is better for us)

Plunger 8″ x 8″ x 3/4″

If square, the corners will be trimmed off

Process

The panel (square or round) is picked up on a blowpipe. Square panels get their corner trimmed. As the bubble inflates, the blank gets worked into a vessel shape. Additional COE96 clear glass is added to the outside of the bubble to add mass and make the piece larger. At completion, clear glass from the original gather is cut off. The center of the original blank will become the bottom of the finished piece.

Other Forming Options

Optic Mold

An optic mold is a metal form with a fluted interior. The hot glass bubble is stuffed and blown into the mold to create fluting in the glass. Fluting works best when the glass has a pattern of horizontal or vertical lines, resulting in slight thickness variations in the glass and color blending. Fluting can be done alone or combined with the twist technique. Multiple stuffings of the glass into the optic mold will intensify the effect.

Twist

Twisting the bubble of glass imparts a spiral effect on the pattern. You can specify the desired twist or leave it to the glassblower. When combined with the Optic Mold technique, you can request that it be twisted before and after the glass is formed with the optic mold.

We will try to convert your fused tile into a unique, beautiful glass form. However, the base price for the attempt is $150, whether it is successful or not. The final price depends on the size of the initial rollup or plunger tile, forming options used, final form, and final size of the piece created. This will all be determined before creating the piece.

Happy Creating!