Fused Glass "Wavy" Dichroic Heart Pendants

This tutorial describes the full process step-by-step for bending and twisting dichroic glass to create unique dichroic glass pendants from scrap fusing glass. There's over 150 more tutorials like this on my Patreon page for fused glass, blowing glass, and glass equipment design & building DIY. Here's the main list sorted into categories: https://theglassfoundry.com/mark-lauckner-glass-tutorials/

Supplies needed are: scrap pieces of dichroic glass, clear fusing glass, a glass cutter, tile nippers, a small diamond drill, a tile saw, some kiln wash or shelf primer, a kiln shelf or bisque-fired ceramic tile, a glass or pottery kiln and your choice of jewellery findings to mount your pendants.

First you will need some thinly cut strips of 2mm dichroic glass at least the length of the finished pendant heights. The thinner the better, for a more drastic effect. Arranged in a row as long as possible across the kiln shelf. I make my strips about 1-1/2” long and try to go the whole width of the kiln board. Black-backed dichroic works the best for this.

Next you will need to cut a piece of clear glass the same size as the row of thin strips and place it on top. Using 2mm glass for this produces the most dramatic effect! This on its own would produce the typical dichroic result when fired, but in order to make the dichroic strips bend and twist you will have to ad extra clear glass on top of the cover piece.

Next, thin strips of additional clear glass are needed to create a difference in volume across the top surface. This difference is what distorts the dichroic strips below as the levels equalize during the firing. The most dramatic distortion results from placing 3mm strips about 1/4” wide, on top of the 2mm clear strips on a 45 degree angle. An angle is required because the clear strips must be a different orientation than the cut dichroic strips below to produce the curvy effect. The strips must also have at least 1/4” or 3/8” of space between them, so the added volumes don't just flow together but stay a small distance apart.

Now it’s time to fuse it. You will need to do a full-fuse in order to have the extra clear pieces fully melt in and level off across the top surface. I ramp these up around 500/hr because of the size of the 2mm clear cover piece. I prefer to fire these to 1500 and peek in on them until they are flat across the top surface. Then turn them off and let them cool slowly overnight.

What happens here is the extra volume of glass placed on top has to push aside the 2mm volume below in order to sink down in and equalize across the top surface. This results in distorted lines in the thinly cut dichroic strips and can also sink into and expand out the dichroic strips in areas below the extra volume. This creates a 3-dimensional wavy swirl effect in the dichroic coatings below. 

Next you will have to cut these strips into triangles. This results in very little waste. I use a cutting grid I drew with a ruler and a felt pen, just some sort of guide for cutting, so that all the heart pendants wind up being the same general shape.  Then I nip off the two top corners of the triangle with tile nippers to save time when grinding out the rounded heart shape.

Now you will need to cut the groove in the top of the hearts. I use a tile saw for this. The diamond blade is thin enough to make nice triangular grooves in the glass. I mounted a piece of aluminum at a right-angle on the tile saw and stood ip upright with a little trickle of water over the blade. This can be messy so I do it outdoors wearing a raincoat, eye protection and ear protection. Out of all the glasswork I do, this is the least-favourite task! I did a tutorial on how to convert a 7" tile saw to an excellent glass grinder, it's a very easy project that produces a super versatile time-saving glass tool.

After a little grinding or sanding, they are ready for the next firing. They need to be arranged on the kiln board with a little space between them. It is important to watch over this firing carefully. 1350-1400 is required to round off the edges and “fire polish” the glass. Too much time and the groove at the top of the hearts will start to fill in and the bottoms will lose their points. I peek in the kiln and stop the firing when the cut sides become nicely rounded and the V-groove at the top is still distinguishable. These firings can go straight up from room temp, the pieces are small and the risk of thermal shock from rapid heating is minimal, but I still prefer to bring them up at 400f. per hour because of the work already invested in them. 

After an overnight cooling the hearts are ready for drilling or glueing on bails. I prefer to drill them using a Dremel tool with it's drill press and CRL 1.8mm diamond drills, and attach a triangular crimp bail. These “Dremel” drill press units accommodate the name-brand ones as well as all the cheaper “home improvement store” versions too. I have drilled many many hundreds of holes and and have yet to wear out my $29 version. 

The triangular bails for drilled glass I prefer are from House of Orange jewellery supplier but I know other companies offer a variety of them as well. If they are being glued, then I would recommend the pendant bails produced by Annraku. For pendants I was never satisfied with the wide variety of glues available so drilling made them very secure. There is a video version of this tutorial included in my growing library of tutorials, here's a link to the main list. https://theglassfoundry.com/mark-lauckner-glass-tutorials/ where there are now over 150 titles covering fused glass, hot glass (glassblowing) and glass equipment building.