Trying Colour de Verre Moulds for Jewellery

[print-me]

For some time I have been meaning to try a Colour de Verre mould for small fused glass jewellery pieces. Well, I finally made the time and you may, or may not, be surprised to find that using the moulds is not quite as simple as thought.

I have a few of these moulds but decided to try the oval and heart jewellery set moulds first. Each of these is a set of three moulds that makes a pair of earrings and a pendant for a necklace.

In principal, all I needed to do was prepare the moulds with mould release, fill with frit and fuse in my glass kiln. Of course, simple is never simple.

Before starting I did do some research online and watched a couple of videos about applying Primo Primer kiln wash to small moulds, so I felt quite confident.

Using a soft artists brush and Primo Primer kiln wash I started preparing the moulds by applying the first coat. All went well. After drying I applied the next coat. That’s when things started to go wrong. As I applied each coat the finish washed surface developed some texture. Each coat seemed to lift the lower coat and it flowed down the sides of the mould causing runs. After a number of coats I let it dry and then tried to lightly rub the surface to even out the surface. With some time I managed to get a reasonable surface.

All the glass frit I use is Bullseye COE 90. In the oval moulds I placed transparent Deep Royal Blue (1114) and transparent Yellow (1120). My choice of colour was an attempt to create a piece with colouring like parti coloured sapphires.

In the heart shaped moulds I placed transparent Cyan and transparent Neo Lavender Shift (1442).

These were then fired in my glass kiln using the firing schedule below.

Once cooled I tried to get the pieces out of the mould. While I had to give the smaller earring molds a little tap on the table to remove the pieces, everything did finally come out of the moulds.

Then I noticed the next problem. All of the pieces had rough edges from contact with the mould. I have no doubt the glass had fused fully, so I had to assume the problem was due to the kiln wash. You can see in the photos that each piece has at least one or two little jagged protrusions. These would need some cold working to make presentable.

In summary, I have to say that using these moulds sort of worked, but the rough finish from the moulds put a serious damper on using these in future. I will need to solve this problem, possibly with a different mould release, such as a boron nitride spray like MR-97.

Regards the final colours, they worked out as I expected, with the ovals looking something like parti coloured sapphire, sort of:)

Anyway, you should give it a go. If you have MR-97 boron nitride spray I suggest using it as I am sure you will have a better result.

Happy fusing.

Firing Schedule

Full Fuse – Colour de Verre Moulds

Please be aware that all kilns fire differently and this schedule may not produce the same results in your kiln.

Segment	Rate (C/hr)	Target (C)	Hold (mns)
1. Release	120	593	5
2. Bubble Squeeze	120	738	20
3. Process	177	790	10
4. Anneal	Full	516	60
5. Cool	83	370	1