What Is Glass Slumping?
Are you the type who loves a good cutting edge design? Do you live for the eccentric and funky? Is your house full of unique finds? If so, then you don’t just settle for the ordinary when you do your shopping. From furniture to artwork, wallpapering and décor, you embrace the wild, vivid, and bold.
At CBD Glass, we totally understand where you’re coming from. We’re a Canadian glass manufacturer that specializes in customized designs. If you like colorful, big, and everything in between, call us. We want our customers to be satisfied with their glass accent pieces above all else.
That’s why one of the services we offer is glass slumping. What is glass slumping, you ask? Allow us to explain.
Glass slumping, sometimes called glass fusing, allows us to heat up glass to a high enough temperature that it becomes malleable. The glass can then be shaped in completely creative ways. Do you want a circular glass accent piece? Great! How about a triangular one? We’ve got this. Do you want something else entirely? Let us know.
To be safe, we do this work with a kiln. We heat up the glass to very high temperatures, typically between 1,100 and 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit. As the glass is heated, we may connect it to another piece of glass, especially for large designs.
To get a specific shape, we may use a metal, sand, or ceramic mold in which to fit the melting glass. So how do we know when the glass is ready? It’ll turn almost orange. That’s when the glass is most malleable. It may now slump over, hence the name slumping. The soak stage occurs at this point, which is when we shape the glass. The temperature of the glass doesn’t really deviate, allowing for the best in malleability.
So how does the glass come off the mold once we’re done with it? There’s a release agent we can use that lets the glass come right off. However, some of these agents can be toxic, especially if they contain boron nitride. That’s one huge reason you should leave a job like this to us, the professionals.
We will shape the glass and make it bigger than what you asked for. This is because glass condenses as its temperature lowers, so it will eventually be the original dimensions you requested. If fusing two different types of glass, there are sometimes compatibility issues. If they’re not compatible, the structural integrity of the glass is threatened.
However, we encourage our customers not to worry. We always make sure the types of glass we use for a project are compatible.
After the glass is taken off the mold, we let it sit and return to its original size. Once the glass item is ready to go, we package it and ship it out to you, our customer. Slumping is just one of the cool features we offer at CBD Glass. Contact us today to learn more about our customizable glass items.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slumping
http://www.glass-fusing-made-easy.com/fusing-and-slumping.html