Vintage Citrus Fused Glass Coasters

How to bring a taste of the 70s to your next summer garden party

Beautiful citrus coasters ready to go into the fusion kiln, where all glass materials, including the tile, enamel paint, and frit will fuse into a single, smooth surface.

This weekend I taught a group of enthused workshop guests how to make a set of four, vintage-style, citrus-themed drink coasters. Our process was glass fusion, and we had a blast! If you’re curious about the fused glass process, read on for tips and inspiration. Students and Paid Subscribers have access to these class notes (and to all of my class notes)— if you’d like access, too, please subscribe!

Coasters by Seth. Seth started the process by tracing the design with a Sharpie marker— this disappears later in the process. Enamel paints and speckled frit are used to create a bright, cheerful-looking set of coasters..

Materials

To make a citrusy fused glass coaster set you’ll need these materials:

• Citrus pattern (included at the end)

• Glass of about 3 mm thickness, cut to 4 x 4 inch squares (4 pieces each of white and clear glass)*

• Sharpie pens

• Glass fusion paints like Color Line from Delphi

• Paint brushes (about 1 cm flat and some fine, round brushes)

• White Elmer’s glue

• Fine grade glass frit

• Toothpicks

• Cotton swabs

* Call local arts centers to see if fused glass workshops can be hosted, then gather a few friends to reserve a private lesson using these plans. For the sake of interest, glass in this project needs to be between COE 90 and 96– COE means “coefficient of expansion,” the rate at which the glass expands and contracts in the kiln. Don’t worry— the studio tech will take care of this for you!

Step 1: Arrange your glass

Place your four pieces of white glass on the table in a 2x2 grid pattern. Rotate the pieces (which may be cut slightly out of square) until they snuggly fit together.

It was important to Kim that her four pieces of glass fit snugly together in the middle. She created her own beautiful lime color with yellow and aquamarine glass enamel paint

Step 2: Trace

Using the included citrus pattern, trace the design with a black Sharpie onto the four pieces of glass. The Sharpie should demarcate areas of the citrus wheel that will be white— in the kiln the Sharpie will burn away. Caution— certain metallic Sharpies will not burn away! A light table or window may be useful for tracing.

Judy filled in her tracing with solid black in one section as a reminder to not put any enamel paint there. These sections will become pure white again once the marker burns away in the kiln.

Step 3: Paint

Using glass enamel paints such as Color Line from Delphi, paint in the sections of your citrus fruit. I had success using a flat brush about 3/8 inch wide (one centimeter), and a finer brush to get around the tight areas.