COE96 Frit

COE96 frit is fusing glass sold in granular and powder forms for adding color, shading, and texture to kiln work that uses the 96 coefficient of expansion. This category gathers COE96 frit from the major 96 mills, with both opalescent and transparent colors plus pre-formed frit balls for accents and inclusions. Use it for powder shading, frit painting, pot melts, jewelry inclusions, and filling stencils on compatible COE96 sheet glass.

What COE96 frit is

Frit is fusing glass sold as granules and powder in graded sizes from powder up through coarse. COE96 refers to the coefficient of expansion of the glass, which must match the sheet, stringer, and other elements in the same firing so the finished piece cools with reduced compatibility risk when the glass and firing schedule are appropriate. Frit lets you build color, gradients, and detail that would be hard to cut from sheet, and it melts smoothly when fired to a full fuse.

What is in this category at AGS

The COE96 frit selection here is led by Oceanside Glass and Tile, Wissmach Glass Company, Youghiogheny Glass, and CBS Dichroic, with opalescent, transparent, and dichroic colors across blues, greens, reds, oranges, purples, neutrals, and blacks. Browse by type using COE96 Opalescent Frit for solid, light-blocking colors, COE96 Transparent Frit for see-through jewel tones, and COE96 Frit Balls for ready-made spheres that hold their shape through a tack or contour fuse.

Opalescent vs. transparent, and choosing a color

Opalescent frit reads as a solid color and is the choice when you want coverage over a base, crisp letterforms or shapes in a stencil, or a painterly look that does not let light pass through. Transparent frit keeps light moving through the piece and is the right pick for stacked layers, cabochons, jewelry, and any work where backlight matters. Many makers keep both on hand in the same hue, since a transparent over an opalescent base produces depth that neither delivers alone.

COE compatibility and firing notes

Everything in this category shares the COE96 coefficient, so it expands and contracts at the same rate as COE96 sheet, stringers, noodles, and dichroic from the same system. Do not mix with COE90, float/window glass, or any other glass that is not tested compatible with COE96 in the same piece. Powder fires almost like paint, fine and medium grades melt into smooth fields of color, and coarse grades retain visible texture and individual grains through a tack fuse. Frit balls hold their round profile at tack temperatures and slump slightly at full fuse, which is useful for controlled dots and bubbles.

Common uses

COE96 frit shows up in fused jewelry, plates and bowls, sun catchers, panels, pattern bars, and pot melts. It is the workhorse for adding signatures, gradients, sky and water effects, and fine line detail to fused work, and the frit balls drop in cleanly as eyes, berries, bubbles, and decorative borders on tack-fused pieces.