Valentine Hearts

Valentines day is fast approaching and if you haven’t got anything for your loved one yet, I’ve got the perfect project for you. These lovely heart shaped suncatchers are a perfect token of love for your Valentine.

They require a little bit of cutting and shaping so will give you a chance to practice your cutting skills.

You will need

• 2 Pieces of Tekta (or other clear glass)
• Paper
• Scissors
• Sharpie or other type of pen for marking glass
• Coarse Frit in a variety of colours that go together
• Copper or nichrome wire
• Cutting tools
• Ribbon for hanging your heart

First draw half a heart shape on a piece of folded paper. Cut out the shape then unfold to check the heart is the shape you want. If not then do a bit of reshaping. We will be using the folded half shape as a template.

Place the half heart shape on the tekta and draw around it with a Sharpie.

Do the same on the second piece of glass but this time reverse the template so the halves join up to make a heart.

Start to carefully cut out your heart. Don’t try to cut it all at once but use slightly curved cuts to work your way around the outline of the heart.

You may find that you are left with little pointy bits where two cuts meet. You can remove these with grozing pliers or you can grind them away. If you choose to grind them you can put a layer of lip balm over the sharpie line to stop the line being washed away.

Do exactly the same for the other side of the heart.

Once you have cut both sides, line them up to make sure they still fit together well. If they don’t then you’ll need to trim and adjust a bit.

Now we are ready for the fun part!

I like to work directly on the kiln shelf for this so it is easier to move the pieces into the kiln once they are finished. Make sure your shelf is kiln-washed or use thinfire paper.

Place the two pieces of the heart together. You can glue them if you like.

Select a range of coarse and medium frit in coordinating colours. I have chosen a range of pinks and purples with a bit of french vanilla as a contrast.

Begin to place the frit onto the heart base. You want to get a good mix of colours so if it helps you to mix the different colours of frit together before you start to apply them to the heart, you can easily do that.

Make sure you put a good thick layer on top of the glass base. We will be fusing these at a full fuse and the little spaces between the frit mean that there isn’t going to be a full second layer of 3mm glass. As the glass melts, the edges of the heart will begin to draw in and they will end up being thicker than the middle. We need to add even more frit in a third layer to even it out or you could add some clear frit to the top if you want. You can then stick them down with glastac or if you have a steady hand, just leave them free. You can always pick up any strays once you get to the kiln.

Place a loop of copper or nichrome wire at the top of each side of the heart. Make sure the edges of the wire are completely covered with frit so that your wire will be properly embedded in the glass once it has been fused. Add much more than is shown in the picture here.

Place into your kiln and fire at a full fuse cycle. I’m using the recommended cycle for Bullseye glass. You can find it in the table below.

This is what it should look like when it is done. You can add some ribbon to the loops so you can hang it up.

Here they are in a variety of different colours. I like the blue best I think.

Here is the finished heart, complete with ribbon.