frit madness

i made frit yesterday.



with a set of stainless steel restaurant melted butter cups, some cold water and a pair of mashers - it's frit time.

flame the end of a rod into a small ball of molten glass, mash it into a lollipop, reheat lightly and plunge it into the cup of cold water. after a second in the water, viola! the lollipop end of glass will fracture into a million wee bits of frit.



the frit is a fairly large size (about a #3). you can control the size a little bit. it seems the hotter the glass when it hits the water - the smaller the frit. so, by not reheating the 'lollipop' after mashing you get a coarser frit when directly plunged into the cup of water. conversely, when you reheat the 'lollipop' to a blazing yellow (but not back to a ball) and plunge it the frit is a little smaller. it also seems to depend on what color the glass is. dark silver plum made a much finer frit than opaque uranium yellow.

i made opaque uranium yellow, dark silver plum, opalino nile green, rubino oro, alabastro pink, a blend of yellows and ochers, a blend of blues, copper red green and translucent yellow.