Jumpstart your ideas for using Bullseye textured and iridescent glasses by studying these examples.
Each tile is made from two 4-inch squares of glass, each 3mm thick. The bottom piece of glass used for each tile is described here as the “base” glass. The top one is called the “cap.”
See an overview of suggested projects below. Download the full article for the specific materials we used and visual examples.
Examples
1. Bubble Trapping
Create an even grid of trapped bubbles by using a base of reeded or prismatic textured glass face up and a cap of the same texture face down, crisscrossed at a 90-degree angle. These tiles are shown with the firepolished side up.
2. Powder Pattern
Simply sift a layer of glass powder in a contrasting color over a textured piece of glass. After a full fuse firing, the texture will disappear but the pattern will remain. These tiles are shown with the fire-polished side up.
3. Clear-on-Clear Collage with Irid
Place one of our iridized clear-on-clear collage glasses irid face down on the kiln shelf. Cap it with a dark 3mm piece of glass. After a full firing, the texture will be flat, but the irid pattern will remain. These tiles are shown with the fire-polished side down, kiln shelf side up. Note: Designs like these can be made subtler by choosing a light 3mm glass for the cap.
4. Clear Capped Irids
Iridescent patterns and textures gain intensity and shine when capped with 3mm clear glass. Tiles are shown here with the fire-polished side up. Tile #3 in the row shows a variation: the base glass is a 3mm opal capped with an irid texture, with the irid facing down.
5. Irid textures Face Down
The base is an iridized texture, placed face down on the kiln shelf. The cap can be any 3mm compatible glass. These tiles are shown with the fire-polished side down, kiln shelf side up.
Irids and Shelf Separators
If you plan to fire the irid side of a glass against the kiln shelf, coat the shelf with primer instead of using ThinFire paper, which can cause pitting on some irid coatings. For example, if you were making the tiles in sets 3, 4, and 5 on this chart, you would coat the shelf with primer. If making sets 1 and 2, you could use either shelf primer or ThinFire.
