Glass Fusing - An art yet to be mastered

My flimsy attempt at glass fusing

As part of our Transformation brief we were given a class on glass fusing, that proved to be less than succesful in my case. The prinicpals of glass are simple or so it seemed. The cutting tool has a small blade sometimes with a oil cartridge included, topped off with a rounded metal sphere on the end. To cut the glass you must hold the blade completely vertical above the glass and move in continuous straight line. Then using the ball, tap the underside of the glass, your cut acts as a breaking point and as you are tapping underneath the glass will start to shard. Once you arrange your glass in the way you like it is ready to go into the kiln. Just a general warning - DO NOT try this at home in your oven, I don't speak from experience, but I speak as a person who has the common sense not to try. The reason I say this is because glass can explode if cooled too quickly.

It seemed that in my first attempt at glass fusing I was just not able to tell the glass what to do. I think it may have had something to do with my abundant lack of straight lines. My advice, use a ruler.