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Glass 101 - Using Our Frit Blends

Glass artists of all levels choose our Frit Heaven 96 COE frit blends for beautiful, consistent results. And if you haven’t tried our 33 COE Boro frit yet, you’ll be impressed by how easy these blends are to use, even if you’re new to this type of glass.

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Protect Yourself

Safety glasses are always a plus in your glassworking studio, helping to shield your eyes from exploding glass and allow variations in the flame to be seen more easily. Make sure you ventilate your work area and if necessary, use a safety mask to avoid inhaling any dust or glass particles.

COE Compatibility

Use only boro 33 COE glass with the boro blends for compatibility. The boro blends may not be used with our 96 frit blends.


Start with a neutral flame to maintain consistency and vibrancy in your work, wind a base layer of 33 clear, then roll in boro frit until saturated, then encase in 33 clear. Encasing is optional but recommended. Keep your kiln at 1050 degrees until the last bead goes in and hold for one hour.

Depending on the brand of clear or color that you use, you’ll have a lot of control of your color outcome at the annealing range of 1035°F to 1065°F. If you take the glass to a white heat/very liquid state, the crystals will melt and the glass will unstrike. Glass Alchemy recommends flame striking for silver colors and kiln striking for ruby colors.

Kiln striking for ruby colors rather than flame striking is to ensure even heating at the proper temperatures. This prevents your reds from turning “livery” brown red instead of the vibrant red you want.. Reds should look clear or very slightly pink when they go in the kiln. If you’re using colors that need to kiln strike, ramp kiln to 1125º F for 20 minutes.

Then ramp down at 200 degrees/hour. Please note: This annealing schedule is a guide. Your own kiln, glass type or the size of glass being worked may require different calculations.

Safety First

Always use special eyewear designed for borosilicate glassworking. Our favorite: Phillips Green ACE 3.0 Lens Glasses. They provide all the same protection as the regular soft glass ACE lens, but with the added brightness reduction of a shade 3 welder's tint for boro flameworking.

Proper ventilation is critical in your flameworking studio - especially with boro glass! Avoid any food or beverages in your studio to avoid ingesting the colorants in the glass. You may also choose to use a safety mask to prevent the inhalation of dust particles.