Bullseye Quick Tip – Frit Balls

The picture Bullseye is using for this quick tip makes me crazy because I absolutely love opaline glass, which is the glass used. So lovely! So I’m just going to paste in the copy from the email and say, “for more information go over to Bullseye’s web site…” Now I’m going to run over to my kiln and make me some opaline frit balls!

Frit balls—easy to make and fun to use!

Spread out pieces of coarse frit (0003) on a primed kiln shelf, leaving space around each piece. Fire hot enough to round out the frits, usually 1500°F (816°C) with a 20-minute hold. There’s no need to anneal. Open the kiln and voila, you’ll find frit balls! Once they’re cool, rinse with glass cleaner and rub dry to remove primer dust. For opalescent styles that pick up primer, do a quick soak in CLR (calcium lime rust remover) before rinsing and drying. When clean, the frit balls are ready to use as design elements or for building larger forms.

The frit balls shown here were made with Opaline Striker frit, which should be fired on the cool side to achieve a pleasing translucent quality: 1480°F (804°C) with a 16-minute hold. Get Opaline Striker frit working notes.

To make the Opaline frit-ball bowl shown above, first create a dam by cutting a 5.5″ hole in a sheet of 1/8″ fiber paper, leaving the border intact. Place the dam on a primed kiln shelf and load it up with about 5 ounces of frit balls. Tack the balls together by firing at a rate of 300°F (167°C) per hour to 1375°F (746°C) for 10 minutes. Slump the piece in a separate firing using mold 8746 . We recommend annealing in both firings.

Learn more
If you’d like to learn more about kilnforming glass, check out these teaching studios in your region:

As if Diwali weren’t colorful and fun enough, The Festival of Lights: A Lift-the-flap Diwali Celebration by Namita Moolani Mehra, illustrated by Darshika Varm, makes it even more fun to read about with flaps and things to lift and pull to see more information or details in the illustrations.

The book is a story about a family getting ready for Diwali and what happens on the different days of the five-day celebration. There’s cleaning, shopping, crafting, food preparation and getting the home altar ready for the big day.

It covers decorating the outside of the house with rangoli, diyas and lanterns, buying sweets to share with family and friends, the sights and scents of the mandir (home temple), getting dressed up in new fancy clothes, the story of Diwali and celebrations with relatives.

Flaps (there are more than 140 in all) give you vocabulary words for different foods and definitions, as well as fun things like what’s inside the shopping basket or where the cat is hanging out. They also help illuminate the story of Diwali, which is the triumph of good over evil as Lord Ram defeated the demon Ravana to save his wife, Sita.

This pretty and colorful book helps kids understand what Diwali is and how it is celebrated, regardless of whether they practice it at home. This would be a nice book to keep in a classroom (it’s rated for kids ages 3-7) or to have at home to teach kids about Diwali even if it’s not something you celebrate. Where I live there are a lot of people from India so we are probably exposed to Diwali more than some other regions of America, but it’s a nice holiday to know about wherever you live.

Combine with the book Diwali and check out some fun lantern crafts and printables for kids to round out your experience.

About the book: 24 pages, hardcover, published 2025 by Wide Eyed Editions. Suggested retail prices $22.99.

Have you read?