I enjoy fusing small glass pieces, but sometimes, I am disappointed in my lack of control when shaping the glass. So, I am always happy when I can come up with new shapes and ideas for fusing the glass in my small microwave kiln.

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And I am happy to have two new earring designs to share using a simple glass dot shape.

Glass dots are one of the easiest shapes to fuse. However, when using recycled bottle glass, getting all the dots the same size can be problematic, but I often incorporate the different sizes into my finished designs. It is also a good idea to fuse extra pieces of glass so you can select the desired size for your jewelry pieces.

So, this post will start with lots of recycled fused glass dots. You may want to start here if you are new to fusing glass or making glass dots.

Earring Style # 1 – Triple Dots With Variations

Step 1 – Design

The first step is to design your earrings. As you will see, this style has many variations, so the first step is to select the glass pieces you want to use and determine how many tiers or sections each earring will have. The earrings I am demonstrating will have three sections, and I will use six yellow dots of similar size.

Step 2 – Making The Jewelry Bails

The key to this style is the two types of jewelry bails. They are made from 20-gauge wire using round-tipped jewelry pliers.

The first jewelry bail is the connecting bail. You will need this style for the top and any sections in the middle.

The second bail is used for the bottom section. Please see the video tutorial for detailed instructions on making these jewelry bails.

Step 3 – Assembling Earrings

To assemble the earrings, I used the “tail” on the connecting bails and round-tipped jewelry pliers to make a loop and attach a second bail. Next, I used two pairs of needle-nose pliers to attach the earring hook with a jump ring. Once the pieces were together, I glued on the stones with clear E6000 glue.

That is the basic design, but you can make all different lengths, play around with different colored glass pieces, use different sizes of glass, and even leave some of the wire bails exposed to make all kinds of different variations

Here are some of mine.

Earring Style # 2 – Partial Fused Flowers

Step 1 – Fusing

I used five small dots for each earring to make the flower shape. The key is to place the dots in the kiln so that they are touching and will fuse together into the flower shape without losing the shape of the individual dots.

To achieve this “partial” fuse, you will want to check your kiln more frequently and heat it more slowly to avoid having the glass fuse into a smooth blob. You can see in the photo above that the glass still has its shape. The photo below shows fusing that has gone too far. The best way to achieve the correct amount of fusing is to practice, take notes, and know your kiln.

Step 2 – Making The Jewelry Bail

For this earring style, I used the 20 gauge wire to make a third style of bail, as shown below. Again, you can check the video for more detailed instructions on how to make this jewelry bail.

Step 3 – Assembly

To finish the earrings, I used E6000 glue to attach the glass pieces to the jewelry bails and a jump ring to attach the earring hooks.

Sometimes, I get carried away and make a few too many of something, and then I get to offer it to you. If you would like to see all the styles I made or find other upcycled projects for sale, you can visit my eBay Store.

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Happy Upcycling,

Cindy