Patent Application
20080115534
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
This invention relates to making fused glass objects used as decorative art, architectural glass, wall tiles, and objects to be further processed into stained glass or slumped glass objects.
Artistic and decorative glass objects can be made by fusing (melting together) glass pieces of various colors. To make such decorative objects pieces of glass are placed together, often overlapping, and fused into a single usually relatively flat glass object in a kiln.
Glass fused into such decorative objects can be used as stand alone artistic pieces, elements of stained glass objects such as church windows or glass lamp shades, architectural tiles and other objects. After fusing the resulting glass object are sometimes slumped (heated to softening and shaped by gravity) into a shaped mold to make plates, bowls and other 3 dimensional shaped objects. Fused glass objects are also used as components for other glass projects. Two books by Boyce Lindstrom “Kiln Fired Glass” and “Advanced Fusing Techniques provide a good overview of current glass fusing and related techniques.
The glass used to make fused glass objects typically consist of shapes cut from flat glass sheets. Sometimes rod of various diameters (often called noodles or stringers), or frit (broken up small pieces of glass available in various grits) are also used. Obtaining predictable results with these elements requires skill and experience since the pieces of glass are deformed by gravity and surface tension as they are melted together.
The glass pieces used to make fused glass objects should be of matching COE (coefficient of expansion) to prevent the buildup of stresses from differential contraction as the glass cools after the pieces are melted together. This is particularly important on larger fused pieces. Using glass components with insufficiently matched COE can result in high level of stress and pieces that fracture when cooling or are handled. COE matched clear and colored glass is available commercially in flat glass sheets, rods and frit.
Melted glass tends to even out to a thickness of about 6 mm. At this thickness the forces of gravity spreading out the glass are approximately balanced cohesive forces. Consequently, glass fused to about this thickness will exhibit less unpredictable distortion.
Creating fused glass objects is a two stage process. The first step is layout. Layout includes cutting the glass pieces into shapes and arranging these pieces in a pattern. The second step is fusing. Fusing heats the glass arrangement in a kiln to a sufficient temperature to melt the glass together. The two processes, arranging and fusing, require different skills and are sometimes done by different people. The results depend on both the layout and the temperature profile used to fuse it.
Current methods of making fused glass objects have several disadvantages. These include:
(a) Considerable skill is required to cut glass shapes and arrange them so as to obtain reasonably predictable results for anything except very simple patterns. This makes it difficult for novice or even experienced glass craftsmen to obtain the results they plan.
(b) Cutting glass and working with cut glass requires care and involves an element of danger. Cut and broken glass pieces have sharp edges that can cause serious cuts. Working with frit and cutting glass present the additional danger from small airborne particle that can cause lung and eye damage.
(c) Care must be exercised in moving a laid out pattern of glass pieces from the place where they are arranged to the kiln or to a temporary storage location. The pieces of glass can easily shift changing their arrangement when bumped or tipped. An adhesive that evaporates in the kiln can be used to hold the pieces in place. This, however, introduces additional layout steps and makes it difficult to change layout or correct an error.
(d) The infinite variety of potential cut glass shapes, the infinite possible arrangement of the pieces, and the dependence of the result on the temperature profile used in fusing the glass make it extremely difficult to produce CAD (computer aided design) software to aid in the design of fused glass objects.
(e) Producing fused glass objects having regular mosaic patterns is difficult and time consuming because it requires precision cutting and placing of many glass pieces. This is particularly true of larger mosaic patterns composed of small mosaic elements.
(f) For other than very simple designs making multiple fused objects with the same design is difficult and labor intensive. Making accurate multiple copies of complex fused glass designs is almost impossible.
(g) The variety of shaped pieces used in making fused glass objects make it difficult to assemble fused glass arrangements with robotic tools. Robotic equipment to cut even relatively simple shapes is very expensive. Designing robotic systems to manipulate a wide variety of shapes is very difficult. Furthermore, the sharp cut glass edges and chips can cut the soft suction cups normally used by robots to handle smooth flat objects.
The objectives of the inventions are:
In the drawings, closely related figures have the same number but different alphabetic suffixes.
Note that reference numbers ending in 0 refer to entire object. Other final digits refer to parts of objects. The initial digit(s) indicate the Fig. number where it first appears.
The preferred embodiment consists of a set of six glass preform designs (10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 600 that can be used in combinations to create a wide variety of decorative fused glass objects with predictable results. These glass preforms fall into two categories base sheet preforms (
The base sheet preforms are relatively flat sheets of glass having patterns of indentahons. They are made with glass having the same specified COE (coefficient of expansion). Three base sheet preforms are employed in the preferred embodiment. Each has a repeating pattern of indentations. The three base sheet preforms are:
Color design preforms are made in standard shapes that are COE compatible with the base sheet preform glass. They are made of glass in a variety of colors. These colors could include water clear, transparent colors, translucent colors, and opaque colors. Color design preforms for the preferred embodiment have three shapes:
The indentations 11 in the hexagonal grid base sheet 10 and rectangular grid base sheet 20 preforms are intended for the positioning of ball preforms 40. The center to center spacing in both the hexagonal grid pattern (
A parallel trough base sheet 30 (
This embodiment enables the creation of fused glass objects having elements from one or more of the following groups of pattern:
Examples follow illustrating some of the potential uses of these preforms to create designs or parts of designs in fused glass objects. Note that hatching patterns are used to represent different colors of glass unless indicated otherwise.
The preforms are used in the following way:
The ball preforms 40 are placed in the indentations of the hexagonal grid base sheet 10 in the color arrangement desired in the fused glass mosaic object to be made.
The combination of the hexagonal base sheet and ball preforms as arranged above is heated in a kiln to fuse all these preforms together into a single relatively flat decorative glass object (
Using the same preforms proceed as in example 1.1 above except using somewhat less heating (lower peak temperature or shorter duration at high temperature) in the kiln. The balls when heated somewhat less do not flatten out completely but retain a domed form 81 (
When viewing a scene through such a fused glass object each small lens shows a miniature inverted image of the scene colored by the color of the glass. The resulting array of small images colored by the various glass elements can be quite striking
Since adjacent ball preforms of the same color fuse together seamlessly, grouping ball preforms of the same color together in the layout results in larger mosaic elements.
Using the same glass preform shapes as above, a hexagonal grid base sheet 10 and ball preforms 40, patterns with different shaped mosaic elements can be made by using “missing ball patterns” (leaving selected indentations empty in the layout process). Regular patterns of triangle, diamond, and pentagon shapes can be made in this manner. In the figures the smaller circles 11 are the empty indentations not covered by ball preforms.
Sections of missing ball patterns layouts and the mosaic pattern created by fusing these arrangements together are shown in:
Missing ball techniques can also be used with rectangular grid base sheets.
This example illustrates how multiple base sheets can be use in a fused glass project. It uses four identical square shaped, rectangular grid base sheet approximately 25 mm on a side (
Each of the four rectangular pattern base sheets are filled with balls as illustrated in
These base sheets with their color design preforms are then positioned together in the kiln as shown in
Note that the base sheet preforms fuse together with their neighboring base sheets where they abut as well as with the color design preforms. This fusing together of base sheets opens a wide range of possibilities to the fused glass designer.
Standard project base sheets have a fixed outline and patterns of indentations. They give the user the choice of colors to be used in each indentation. Standard project base sheets are intended for use in classes or popular projects requiring a standard shape like the panes for a standard stained glass lamp shade. They eliminate the need for cutting glass.
The example standard base sheet illustrated in
A small hexagonal grid raised edge base sheet is shown in
Base sheet preforms designed to fit together along their edges so as to continue the pattern of indentation will be called base sheet tiles. A base sheet tile with a rectangular grid indentation pattern have straight edges as shown in
Since base sheet tiles will fuse together if abutted in the kiln, such tiles could be used abutting one another, instead of a single larger base sheet to make a fused glass object.
If standard base sheet tiles, after adding the color design preforms are constrained along their edges by edge molds during fusing, they will maintain their perimeter shape. Such fused tiles could be arranged after fusing abutting each other to form large mosaic designs. This facilitates making fused glass designs larger than the size of the available kiln for fusing them. This would facilitate, for example, making a glass mosaic design of small mosaic elements covering an entire wall.
Often fused glass designs are desired with larger shaped element. Since the predictability of melted glass flow depends on the distance it must flow, making predictable large mosaic patterns, that are not combinations of the smaller patterns, requires a different approach. Larger mosaic shapes can be achieved by using flat color glass preforms with the approximate outlines of shapes desired and a base sheet with indentations into which these color design preforms can be placed. The indentations being of the same shape as the color design preforms and slightly larger. Indentations can also be made so as to position more than one color design preform.
Such preforms can be made for any shapes that can form mosaic patterns. The artist Escher used a wide variety of such shapes in his artwork.
Mosaic patterns have a different visual impact when the elements are separated by a “grouting” like contrasting color in the fused glass. The effect is most striking when the elements are back lighted and the grouting is opaque. Grouting effects can be achieved by using a preform with coloring pigment or by printing the coloring pigment on the base sheet preform.
A section of a rectangular grid grouting preform 260 is shown in
The arrangement of the grouting preform over a rectangular grid base sheet is shown in
Thin metallic preforms could also be used with or without the carrier. Metallic preforms could also provide the additional benefits of wired glass.
Using a design sheet and colored inks, paints or pencils one can plan a fused glass design by coloring in the shapes on the design sheet. This can then be used in the layout process to place the color design preforms in the layout needed to the achieve the design. An overlay sheet can be used to make the layout more visually correct.
A layout overlay sheet is shown in
If a design sheet with the correct scale is placed under a clear base sheet, with or without a layout overlay, the colors to be placed in each indentation will show through the base sheet. This can make layout easier and reduce layout errors.
Design sheets along with predictability of fused results using preforms makes it possible to separate the design and manufacturing processes. The design can be done in one location and layout and fusing done at a different location.
Accordingly, the reader will see the coordinated preforms of this invention can provide additional possibilities for the advanced fused glass artist as well as open the field of fused glass design to a wider range of novices. Using these preforms offers advantages in that
Although the descriptions above contain many specificities, these should not be construed as to limiting the scope of the invention but merely providing illustrations of some of the presently preferred embodiments of this invention and their use. For example, the patterns of indentations in base sheets could be modified in a variety of ways to create other patterns, and a variety of different shapes of color preforms and matching indentations in base sheets could be used. Substituting a different shape for the ball preform, or a different extruded shape for the rod preform would yield substantially the same results. Truncated extruded shapes, with or without rounded ends, as well as ovoids and balls with a flattened side would all work well in place of ball preforms. Most would even form lense shapes as in example 1.2.
The term colored glass as used above includes water clear glass, as well as transparent, translucent, and opaque glass in white, black and other colors. Base sheet could be made with clear or colored glass.
