COE90 Transparent Frit

COE90 transparent frit is fusing-compatible glass sold in granular and powder forms that lets light through after firing, giving you saturated color washes over a base layer or clean pops of color inside clear casts. This category at Art Glass Supplies is stocked with Bullseye Glass Company transparent and transparent tint frits, formulated to fuse with other Bullseye COE90 sheet, stringer, and rod in the same kiln load.

What's in this category

The color range covers clears and crystal clear, warm ambers and bronzes, reds, pinks, plums, and fuchsia, blues from aqua and aquamarine through deep royal and indigo, and greens including kelly, fern, leaf, chartreuse, and emerald. Bullseye's transparent tints (softer, more diluted shades like aqua blue, light amber, green tea, gray, juniper blue, and erbium pink) are grouped here as well. You will also find specialty options such as aventurine blue and aventurine green with internal sparkle, and a clear iridescent rainbow for surface shimmer. An assorted Bullseye frit sampler pack is included for makers who want to try several colors at once.

Choosing a grade

Frit is sold in a range of grain sizes from powder to coarse. Powder gives smooth, painterly color washes that work well for shading, sifting through stencils, and detail; fine reads as a soft grain; medium and coarse stay as distinct particles, useful for texture, mosaic-style fills, frit casting, and pate de verre. Transparents in lighter values often look almost colorless as powder and gain saturation as the grain coarsens, so the same color can do very different work depending on grade.

COE90 compatibility

Bullseye frit in this category is COE90 and intended for use within the Bullseye-compatible COE90 system, so you can combine these frits with Bullseye sheet, stringers, rods, and other COE90 frit in the same firing. Do not mix with COE96 or COE104 glass; the expansion rates are different and the piece can crack on cooling.

Firing and uses

Transparent frit is used for color fields and accents in fused panels, jewelry cabs, sushi plates, dishes, and bowls; for filling carved lines and stencil details on a base layer; for frit casting in open-face molds; and for pate de verre. Because the color is transparent, whatever sits underneath shows through, so a frit color over white or opal reads brighter and more opaque than the same frit over clear or black. Fire to a standard Bullseye tack or full-fuse schedule appropriate to your piece thickness, and use a thin kiln wash or shelf paper to protect your shelf from any frit that migrates off the glass.