Dec & Xmas Break 2003 Fusing

(click on photos for larger versions)

Star Vase

Composition (8 3/4" across):

Spectrum 96 white; red and blue cathedral. 4 layers - clear, white, clear, top

Firing Schedule:

The slump was as per normal, but topped out at 1485F.

Squiggles

Composition: (9" square):

S96 clear, light amber, red, blue, purple
3 layers. Layers 1 & 2 pre-fused with coloured glass underneath.

Full fuse to 1500F.

Tried an experiment - did both pre-fusings at the same time, via two levels in the kiln: on the floor and on the shelf. The piece on the floor showed all the earmarks of a cooler cook, maybe 40-50F.

Black & White former

Composition (9"x6"):

black, white and clear S96; red stringers

First attempt at using a floral former. Interestingly the large asymmetry in dimensions caused it to fold into a "U" first.

Fuse to 1500F; slump to 1265. Only needed about 1/2 hr.

Red Square Former

Composition (10" square):

S96 red, black; black stringers

2nd attempt with the former mould.

Fuse to 1485F (so as not to mush out the stringers too much); slump to 1265.

pre fuse
post fuse 1, 2. The floral former mould is just visible.

Circles Bowl

Composition (8')

S96 black, clear, white, red opal fine frit, red-yellow dichroic

Full fuse to 1500F; slump to 1250.

pre fuse
post fuse (note that nubbies on the center black circle went away in the full fuse - relief fuse next time!)

Junk Former

Composition (10"):

S96 clear back; shards of cathedral, various colours.

Full fuse to 1500F; slump over floral former to 1265F.

post fuse. Note the little "ear" that fell off in fusing. I sawed it off prior to slump, and lightly ground all the edges.

Wheel Bowl

Composition (8"):

S96 black, clear, cathedral red, blue-green dichroic, black stringers and noodles; Arm & Hammer baking soda.

Black rim, a la Patty Gray; red center circle, clear back.

Relief fuse to 1465F; normal slump schedule.

applying baking soda to back of red center, held on with hair spray
before assembly on the bench. Not quite a true Patty Gray rim, since it self cracked in a 2nd spot. But still pretty good!
after assembly on the bench
after transfer to kiln and final assembly
closeup of center and dirchroic pieces. All dichro have clear caps.

The bowl edge seems to have devitrified slightly. Don't know why. The rim seams show. Drat.

Circle Former

A test to complete experiments on how things slump on the former.

Composition (10"):

S96 clear, yellow, black

Full fuse to 1500. Slump to 1265.

assembly on bench before fusing. Rim has three pieces. Do full fuse to (hopefully) avoid separation seen in Wheel bowl rim.
on the former, in the kiln 1,2

The rim breaks did not 'heal'. I suspect this is due to something I read on the Warm Glass Bulletin board - glass contracts before it can flow. So I suspect that the "Patty Gray perfect rim" depends on the single break, which is essentially held together by spring action of the rest of the rim - ie it has nowhere to contract to. So, if it is not a single break on the rim, they will all show.

There was a small amount of devit on the upper border of the black stripe. Not the lower. Odd.

Making a Pattern Cylinder

The current issue (#181) of Glass Craftsman had an article on making pattern bars using a black iron pipe. I found a 2.5 H x 1.5" ID copper tube instead (finding black iron bigger than 1" seems hard) and tried that. The idea is to make a cylinder of glass that one can slice, something like millefiori, to go in other pieces..

I followed the instructions of lining the inside with fiber paper (cutting to length p*ID; could have been a hair shorter), and using a glue gun to attach a piece of fiber paper on the bottom. I filled the tube with ~1/4" x 2.75" strips of S96 cathedral yellow, blue and red; and clear and black strips.

I did a full fuse to 1500F with the usual annealing cycle.

prepping tube for bar
filled with strips
fused. Lots of crud flaked off the copper

Sky & Water Disk

Another attempt at stack fusing.

Composition (9"):

S96 clear; orange, light blue, blue/green dichro; white opal medium frit

Layers 1 & 2 get full fuse as individual layers. I relief-fused (to 1465F) a clear layer on top and added "sculptural" clear glass over the blue waves and orange sun. Bubbles were from small amounts of baking soda between layers 1 and 2.

Layer 1 has the sun and dichro fish. Note that it bubbled on the kiln shelf.
Layer 2 has the water squiggle and cloud. The cloud was pre-fired on a bed of white opal frit.

Last modified: 01/06/04 18:55:16 -0800