Recycle Bottle Glass Into Jewelry With Your Microwave

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Did you know you could fuse glass in your microwave? Well, you can!

All you need is the Fuseworks microwave kiln some kiln paper and some glass. I have used recycled bottle glass for all of my projects but if you buy the kiln kit it comes with some glass pieces to get you started.

Today I want to introduce you to some of the designs that you can make using this kiln. I have had a lot of fun making jewelry and even though I am terrible at cutting glass some of my projects have turned out pretty well.

• Fuseworks Microwave Kiln Kit
• Glass Wheel Cutters
• Glass Scoring Tool
• Glass (I like to use empty bottles)
• Jewelry Findings (Earring hooks, Jewelry Chain, Jump Rings, etc)
• Gloves
• Eye Protection
• Sharpening Stone

You can make all kinds of shapes and designs. You can even make beads and imprinted shapes with this kiln. It is simple to use and it is fun to play with.

For the purposes of this post, I am not going to go into a lot of detail about jewelry making as I am not the best at wiring and designing jewelry but I do want to share how easy it is to make your own fused glass pieces.

As I mentioned I like to use recycled glass so my color selection is a little more limited but there are some pretty blues, greens, and yellows to be found. So this is where I started.

As I mentioned I am not very good at cutting glass. But the nice thing about fusing the glass is that most of those sharp edges melt into shiny smooth surfaces. There aren't too many rules to designing your glass piece. You do have to keep the pieces small to fit in the kiln properly and you want to be sure to use kiln paper under your glass to protect the kiln. Other than that you can fuse tiny pieces or stack pieces together to make new shapes. You can mix colors and as I mentioned before you can even make beads and fun imprinted shapes. I recommend doing a couple of tests so you get familiar with how the glass reacts when it is fused.

This picture shows the four steps from cut to finished jewelry. The earrings are on the top row and the pendant is on the bottom row.

1 - Cut pieces quantity and size

2 - Stacked pieces prepared for fusing

3 - Pieces after fusing

4 - Finished Jewelry Pieces

This example shows small glass pieces arranged to make a circular shape.

Here you can see how to build a triangular shape.

This example shows an example of mixing colors.

As I mentioned you need to make sure to use the kiln paper under each piece before fusing to protect the kiln. But you can also do some fun things with the kiln paper as well.

To make fused glass beads I cut thin long strips of kiln paper and eight small square pieces of glass.

Before fusing the pieces are stacked with the kiln paper sandwiched in between the two layers of glass. For rounded beads make sure the corners of the squares or offset. For more square-shaped beads align the corners on the top and bottom piece of glass.

Once the pieces are fused the kiln paper is easy to remove and leaves a channel to string the glass together.

Another fun way to use the kiln paper is to make a pattern in the glass.

To do this just cut your desired shape out of the kiln paper. Then layer the glass on top. And fuse in the kiln.

Using the kiln is very simple. It only has two pieces a base and lid. Most microwaves fuse in 3 to 4 minutes. The directions suggest checking the process once or twice during fusing.

The fuseworks kiln comes with heat-resistant gloves and you want to make sure that you are using them when you handle the kiln. It gets extremely hot. Once the pieces are fused you need to let them cool off inside the kiln for 45 minutes to an hour before handling them.

As you may have noticed the fusing process smooths out a lot of the sharp edges but you still may be left with some sharp and pointy spots. These can be filed down with a sanding block or knife sharpening stone.

The last step is to make your glass pieces into whatever jewelry you desire.

You can find these pieces in my eBay store here. Or get yourself a kiln and make some of your own.

Happy Upcycling,

Cindy