Striker Glass

What is fusible striker glass?  There is a range of glass that appears colorless to the eye, but ‘strike’ or mature to a different and intended color when fired in the kiln to the right temperature and for the correct time.

These glasses are identified both by their inventory number and by a sticker that proclaims Striker.  Once the piece of glass is used and there are scraps, it is important to identify these colorless pieces with the correct striker color or they may unexpectedly add color where none is needed or wanted.

I tested some of my striker glass to show this and here are the results.  The original glass is on the left and the kiln-fired striker color is on the right. 

You can see that sometimes there is a great variation in the color upon firing.  From the top down, a pale streaked red turns into a Christmas red; a pale blue fires to a very dark pink; a pale yellow turns into a marigold yellow; another pale yellow turns into light orange; an orange glass becomes garnet red; and a glass that appears clear fires to a light coral.

In doing this test, I also found that some of my scrap pieces were mis-labeled as to the striker color, so I learned something about glass this week also.  I am now working to make sure all of my striker scraps are correctly identified!

If there is a particular item, color or design for an object that springs to mind for you and you want to know if we can create it, get in touch and we will see what we can do. Contact us by emailing here or contact us on Facebook.