If you ask about baking glass on social media, the answers will sound scary and ominous, giving you the impression that glass might somehow not be safe in the oven.

While glass can shatter when stressed, it’s actually quite rare that glass will shatter when you bake polymer clay on it. The caution you hear people express greatly outpaces the actual likelihood that your project will fly apart into a million pieces.

Here’s the deal. All glass, even the ordinary non-tempered stuff, was created with extreme heat. Our mild polymer clay temperatures won’t harm the glass at all. If you really, really want to, you can load it into a cool oven and leave the item in there until it cools. But I don’t personally do it and I don’t think it’s necessary.

What you don’t want to do is subject hot glass to sudden cool temperature. Don’t put hot glass under cold water. That will shatter! (Ask me how I know. Yes, I was moving fast and didn’t think.)

Any kind of glass from glasses and jars to incandescent light bulbs and vases are very useful for polymer clayers. You can cover the glass with clay. You can use the glass as a form to make domes or bowls.

Next time you’re at a thrift shop, look for interesting glass shapes that you might be able to use with polymer clay.