On the subject of fused glass and bails

I’d like to start off by saying I understand if this position seems unreasonable or offensive to those of you who work with fused glass, as it amounts to saying, “change your industry standard if you want to be part of this team.” I have enormous admiration and respect for those of you who create fused glass – I love it, I buy it.

With that said, a major goal of this team is to create a pool of jewelry artists that buyers can purchase from with confidence that the items they are buying are of excellent quality and will stand the test of time. If as a team we don’t have a specific appeal to buyers that will lead them to trust and purchase from our team, we’ll just be a club of jewelry buddies – which is fun, but doesn’t help sell jewelry!

A large number of fused glass artists use silver or gold plated bails. Plated metals simply do not meet that standard, so we will not be adding fused metal artists who use plated bails and other plated components in their work.

We realize that there are cost and availability barriers to using solid silver or gold bails. As far as cost is concerned – the glass you work with is already quite costly, and if I were a glassworker I would gladly pay extra for solid metals in order to bring the bail up to the overall cost and quality of the rest of the piece. I’d also look at it as a rare opportunity to set my work apart from the crowd.

As a buyer of fused glass, I have seen many, many stunning pendants I would have purchased had the bail been made of solid metal. Perhaps I am not the only buyer making that choice?

My understanding is that solid metal bails suitable for fused glass are very difficult to find, so here are a few ideas. First of all, Rio Grande does sell them. They are not the easiest company to purchase from, not are they the cheapest, but they do sell them. They also sell Attack, a product which can be used to remove the plated bails in order to replace them with sterling.

Second, the bails are something that would be very simple for most metalworkers to make. I’ll be suggesting that the well regarded handmade supply store Prolifique here on etsy begin making them. CAGEY team member onegarnetgirl has offered to make them on request.

And of course, you can always convo your favorite metalworker and ask them to create something for you…how about your own, exclusive signature solid sterling bail design as a way to stand out from the crowd?

Brass might be a good, affordable metal to use in lieu of gold; talk to your metalworker about finding some nice yellow brass to create bails for your gold-toned pieces if your budget doesn’t quite run to solid gold!