Future Kitchen Remodel - Glass Tiles

[Scott Coffelt]

Awhile back I mentioned and posted some pics of a glass clock I built in a class. I have since been working on my skills and have begun to make my own glass 2x2 and 1/2x8 and soon 1x10 tiles for my kitchen remodel which will include chrome glass tiles with the tiles above used throughout for accents. Anyways, it's too bad I can never get the quality of the picture good enough to show the true depth of stuff but anyways. These tiles started off as several pieces of glass that were heated to about 1400-1450 degrees. The local glass shop is really impressed so far with my work in only about 5-6 months. I will soon be working towards selling these to local designers and such, and maybe at some art shows.

Anyways, I think it is great art to learn and eventually tie into actually WW projects (i.e., knobs, accents, etc.)

[Jim Becker]

Those are wonderful, Scott. We considered using some glass tiles in our kitchen renovation last year, but things ended up going a different direction. They really do add a huge amount of depth, however. Bravo on these unique designs!

[Scott Coffelt]

They can be expensive too. The local design store wants $40 each, I figure I got about $5 per piece in glass and about 15 minutes per in actual time. I can ony do 6 at a time. If I had a larger kiln I could fire more and thus reduce the time. In addition, the local store gets only a small amount of styles, whereas mine are completely customizeable. Anyways, I am looking forward to the day when the tiles are actually in place, so I can take a after shot.

[Jay Knoll]

Scott

Way to go, they are wonderful. If you had been around perhaps we would have used them in our remodel,but then again if we had, we wouldn't have used the granite!

Can you give us any more details on how you make them.

Jay

[Chris Padilla]

Looks nice, Scott. Look forward to their install! :)

[Scott Coffelt]

Jay,

The glass I use is called System 96 COE. I start off with a piece of black glass that is just under 2x2. I then cut various sizes of glass (usually a dichroic type) that I lay out in a pattern. Depending on the final look desired, I top with a piece of clear glass. The pieces are then cleaned thoroughly with glass cleaner and carefully placed in a glass kiln. I build the layers back up and then begin the firing process. I slowly bring the temperature up to 1000 degrees and check for cracking, I actually had my first crack on the last batch, you can tell by the slightly odd shape of one of them. If cracked, in this case I used a tool align the pieces close together. I then continue bringing up the temp slowly until the glass begins to slump (bend) and then try and hold the temp constent until the desired liquid state. Once the desired result it reached, the lid of the kiln is opened, the power is turned off and the glass is cooled quickly to 1000 degrees. The lid goes back on and can not be opened until the temp gauge registers at near 0 (usually about 8 hours later). The glass can then be removed and cleaned up and polished with a soft cloth. I try to begin this in the evening so the cool time happens over night. In the morning it's like christmas and I get to open up a present.

The installation is done as all glass tile, a special mastic is used and careful attention is made to not scratch the glass with grout. Once installed, then can be maintain farely easily, but you still want to avoid scratchy cleaners like comet. That's about it, sounds simple but takes some practice to really build the depth of the glass patterns. The tough thing is trying to figure out what the dichrioc glass will look like after firing, becuase it changes quite a bit.