how do you make frit balls?

[Delberta D]

I saw the example of the opaline striker bowl made out of frit balls. Very cool. How do you make them? also you must use something to measure with so they are uniform in size.Thank You for your help.

[Bonnie C]

Hi Delberta D,

What good timing for your question - here's a current document about Opaline Striker Frit with a few photos of the piece you mentioned. http://www.bullseyeglass.com/pdf/products/Opaline_Frit_What_to_Expect.pdf The document doesn't fully address making frit balls or the bowl, so I've included more info here.

A general process for making frit balls:

1. Start with a primed shelf. Avoid Thinfire for this application.
2. Spread out a layer of -03 frit. Place or move pieces of frit to keep them separate from each other.
3. Fire hot enough to round out the frit, usually 1500°F with a :20 minute hold - the shelf side of the frit ball provides a little flat spot - great for placing on fused surfaces, etc. No need to program for annealing here. See Opaline Striker firing note below.
4. Once they've reached room temperature, collect the frit balls - rinse and dry them to remove primer dust.

Transparent glasses often fire cleanly whereas opalescent styles tend to pick up shelf primer (and then need more attention for cleaning). The good news is that Opaline Striker behaves more like a transparent and comes out quite clean.

Seeing as Opaline Striker turns more opaque with extended heatwork, it's best to make frit balls on the cool side. Fire as fast as possible to 1480°F for :16 minutes and the glass strikes with a pleasing translucent quality.

Then cut a 5.5" circle out of a sheet of 1/8" fiber paper, leaving the border intact as it acts as a dam or fence. Load it up with frit balls (on a primed shelf again). Tack the frit balls together: fire 300 degrees per hour to 1375°F for :10. Slump using mold 8746 in a separate firing (annealing is recommended in both of these firings.) Adapt sizes and slump firing schedules for different molds.

I decided to make frit balls out of the larger chunks of -03, so I did a bit of sorting during that part of the project.

Enjoy!
Bonnie

[Chris J]

Thank you for replying. I also wanted to know.

[Delberta D]

Thank you very much!!! The 03 size frit must be the large size and you must only use 1 piece of frit for each 'frit ball'? I can't wait to try it. (I will have to get some frit first)

[heartandsoul]

Thank you for sharing this technique. I love the look!
Ok....I tried it, and I wasn't so successful....could someone suggest what I should do to make it successful?

I had to order the frit, so while I waited I cut up some opaline and some transparent neo-lavendar irid into some tiny squares and fired them turning them into the little balls. I cut some 1/8" fiber felt/paper for my dam...I did cut this in a paisley shape rather than a circle. I painstakingly assembled the balls into the paisley area (think of the old school game Booby-Trap...lol), and fired with the suggested firing schedule. When I opened the kiln after firing it looked neat until I picked it up...it didn't fused together! arg! I know firing schedules vary from kiln to kiln. (I tried to make a conscious effort to make sure the balls touched each other as I assembled it.)

So my questions: When I try it again, should I use more heat, more time, both? Seems it is a fine line between getting the little balls fused together securely and keeping their shape. Does the shape of the piece matter as far as getting the balls to fit together better?

Any help would be appreciated!
Shirley

[Mary Kay Nitchie]

Hi Shirley,

I think you can make this work. What was the process temperature (the highest temperature) that you used, and how long did you keep the piece at that temperature?

Mary Kay

[heartandsoul]

Hi Mary Kay,
This was my firing schedule for trying to fuse the balls together:
300/1250/30
400/1480/16
full/960/60
100/600/--
full/120/--

I used the suggested firing schedule in the technique for making the balls.
~Shirley

[Mary Kay Nitchie]

Hi Shirley,

Help me understand: you mention that your firing cycle was the recommended cycle, and that you fired to 1480º F for 16 minutes to stick the balls together. However, in Bonnie's cycle above, she recommends 1375º for 10 minutes as the cycle that worked in her kiln.

Did you mean that after firing the frit balls at 1480º F, your second firing was at 1375ºF?

Mary Kay

[heartandsoul]

Whoopsie! I am sorry for the confusion.

Yes, that is what I meant.... "Bonnie's cycle above, she recommends 1375º for 10 minutes as the cycle that worked in her kiln."

[Mary Kay Nitchie]

Whew! That makes more sense. So, using Bonnie's cycle, the frit didn't stick together. Two possibilities to explore:

1) Perhaps the frit layer was too sparse, and as the frit balls heated up, they got a tiny bit taller, and pulled in from their original tiny footprints and therefore did not touch each other at process temperature. In this case, use more frit balls for the area--they could even overlap a little.

2) Perhaps the kiln is not firing as hot as the controller says. One kiln's temperature reading can vary from the next--sometimes by about 50º F! 10 minutes is a reasonable amount of time to leave the piece at process temperature. If you suspect the kiln was not firing as hot as necessary, you could raise the process temperature to 1400º and stay there for 10 minutes. If that didn't work, try again with a process temperature of 1425º.

I hope that one of these suggestions provides a solution.

Mary Kay