I first saw the fiberglass used on a vase pictured in the July 2000 issue of The China Decorator. The artist was Joyce Taylor who gave credit to Carlos Spina. I give them both credit. I also did some experimenting of my own to complete this project.

Purchase fiberglass fabric at an automotive or boat supply store. It comes in a couple different weaves (fine or coarse), use either one -- just a matter of preference.
The package I purchased contained a couple of yards of fabric for about $8.00. It is the finer weave. Wear gloves if you might be sensitive.

First fire:

Use a china ornament -- the glass ornaments will not survive in the first fire!
Cut the fiberglass in the shape you desire -- it will stretch and mold to the ornament rather easily.
For an adhesive I used white glue (Elmer's), an all-purpose household glue. (Carlos' instructions called for using a sticky medium such as grounding medium. This was not available to me so I used the glue, reasoning that whatever I used would fire off anyway.)

Brush the glue full strength onto the ornament and apply the fiberglass. You can brush more glue on the edges to get them to lay down.

Be careful to wipe off the areas you are going to paint your design -- the little fibers will act like little scratches if fired on. You may be able to sand them off after it is fired, but it will be hard to apply paint smoothly.

Fire to cone 010. (1686F or 919C) (A complete chart of cones and their temperatures can be seen on the PPIO web site in the library.)

When cool, the fiberglass should be melted into the glaze with no sharp edges. It can be fired again hotter if you think it needs it.

The rest of the ornament was painted in the regular china fashion and fired several times at 018 (1386F or 752C).

Put liquid bright gold over the fiberglass. I added base for gold around the edge of the fiberglass in tiny dots and swirls. I had intended to put gold over the base for gold, but decided I liked it white.

Other lusters might look nice over the fiberglass instead of gold, especially dark lusters.

I fired the ornament about seven times, mostly for the portrait. I had no trouble with the fiberglass being fired many times.