Why are glass people so God dammed cheap?
Glass and glass working accessories to create glass artwork is stupid expensive! A sheet of 12 x 12 glass ranges in price from $5 – $25 depending on the chemicals used in making it, red being the most expensive. Yes, you can get it at that shithole Hobby Lobby, but you are paying a lot for subgrade quality glass that the company couldn’t distribute any other way because of the low quality. And yes! It breaks horribly and often. You get the shit you pay for!
A free standing kiln costs anywhere between $500 – $3000 dollars. That is just the kiln and maybe a shelf. A shelf will cost $5 and up, depending on the size and shape the kiln is. Molds for fusing glass in can range between $12 – $100. Kiln paper costs $25 a sheet/$150 a roll. None of this includes the glass, which, for fusing, is more expensive, and comes in a large variety of ways; sheet, stringers, noodles, frit – of which there are 4 types, cut outs and others. These range between $8 – $45 and usually need to be bought in each color. Depending on the glass brand and COE you are using, there can be over 150 colors.
Just to get set up with stained glass, expect to pay around $500. That’s to get you fairly well stocked and making pieces. The fox piece you’ve seen in some of my pictures, that piece cost $100 just for the glass. That doesn’t include the lead, the copper tape, the Flux, and the patina.
To get up and running adequately with fused glass, expect to invest at least $1,000. The majority of that is going to be towards your kiln, the shelf, the kiln paper and kiln wash. That doesn’t include the glass. You can expect to invest another $500 – $800 in the glass and all its forms.
Glass is expensive as fuck. I charge far less than I should for my work for the expense I put in it. I literally have over $5000 in supplies in my home, right now, and I *still* don’t have everything I could use and need. I just can’t invest any more at this point in time.
So it really pisses me off when I see glass people bitch about how much it costs. Too expensive for you?! Then stop. It isn’t a hobby you should be participating in then because it ain’t gonna get any fucking cheaper any time soon.
Goddess of Foxes 