How do I make my pieces of fused and slumped glass?

 There are several stages:

  • First a design! That's the most difficult part. And there's plenty of experimentation.
  • Once I have a design, I must cut all the individual elements (glass pieces). Each piece of colour in a fused/slumped item is a separate piece of glass. Some of my works have over 100 pieces!
  • I have to hand clean all the pieces and then tack glue them into position.
  • For fusing, I put the assembled items in the kiln for about 22 hours, up to about 800 degrees Celcius.
  • I then take the fused pieces out, clean them, inspect them and  put them back in the kiln for slumping. I place each one on its  mold. This process takes about the same time and temperature as the fusing.  So, each piece has nearly two days in the kiln.
  • I then take out the finished glass and inspect it again. If it's OK with no major flaws, then another wash, my logo sticker and it's ready to sell.
  • So I need to cover the costs of all my materials and equipment. The glass is special for the purpose and imported from USA. Then ther are the 'overheads': the electricity bill(!)  and all the usuals like transport, phone, web site, etc etc.
  • And I want to make some money for my efforts and so do the shops who promotoe, display and sell for me!