Channels for Jewellery

There are many ways to attach jewellery to the wearer.

One of these is to create a channel in the glass to allow a chain or jump ring to be placed through the piece. This is done by stacking the glass around a narrow strip of thick fibre paper – 2mm or 3mm – thick enough to allow the chain or wire to pass through.

Channel formed with 2 layers and fibre paper

This can be built with layers of thin fusing glass. These are normally 1.5mm to 2mm thick. Volume control is important, as enough thickness of glass is required to stop it contracting. The piece might be constructed with a 3mm base, and several thin layers to make a total thickness of 6mmm to 9mm.

For the channel, cut a narrow piece of thin layer about 6mm to 8mm for the top. Then cut another short enough to leave a channel of the desired width. Fill that channel with fibre paper. Then continue to build the upper layers. These layers should be around 6mm to keep the glass around the channel from drawing in.

Pendant formed in the manner described above