Select Page
01.

Some Planning Needed

This long platter is going to have 262 strips of glass in it, in four colors, in a complicated pattern. A diagram to help guide the placement comes in super handy.

Complicated Pattern
02.

Layout Almost Complete

Once the first handful of rows are laid down, the rest are much easier. The pencil lines, drawn directly on the ThinFire shelf paper (which keeps the glass from sticking to the shelf) helped a lot. The project is constructed with three dams (with ceramic fiber between the glass and the dams) to keep everything from moving and keep it nice and square.

Layup Almost Complete
03.

Gaps

Looking from the top, you can see that the pattern calls for gaps where there is no glass. When it melts, it will flow into these empty spaces. You can also see how the red and yellow glass is taller than the white. That’s also deliberate, so that they flow over the white. Note also the clear glass to the right. It’s a striker and will change to orange during fusing.

Gaps
04.

Glass Be Dammed

Now that all the pieces are in place, the last dam is arranged.

Glass Be Dammed
05.

Into the Kiln

This strip cut project is ready to fuse.

Below you see the fused piece. Note the orange glass at the left and right which has attained its color after reaching the full fuse temperature.

 

Ready to Fuse
Fused
06.

Take a Powder

Some of the red glasses (though not all) are not food safe because of the cadmium (more than 0.5%) that they contain. I put a layer of clear powder on the fused piece to create a layer of clear glass on top of the red and fuse it a second time. It’s imperceptible in the finished product and gives me peace of mind.

I neglected to mention that I also coldworked this piece after the first fusing to remove the rough edges left by the ceramic fiber separator. I used the large lapidary grinding wheel at Bullseye Glass’s Pasadena studio.

 

Take a Powder
07.

Second Fuse

Ready to fuse again. Below, the second fuse is complete.

Ready to Fuse Again
Second Fuse Complete
08.

Ready to Slump

This piece of glass (5×14″) is as long a project as the rectangular slumping mold can hold.

Below you see it slumped. As pretty as the flat piece was, there’s something about seeing it take on a curved shape that is so pleasing to the eye, even dynamic.

 

Ready to Slump
Slumped
Results

Final Result

I adore the vibrant palette of this piece, like a summer sunset encoded. Next, the other seasons!

Finished

Close-up

You can see how the taller colored strips of glass have flowed over the white just enough to leave a thin white line showing. It’s a wonderful effect that turns small rectangles of glass into something that looks organic.

Corner Close-up
Always With the Grapes

FULL FUSING SCHEDULE (RUN TIME 11:57, 20.5 KWH)*

SEGMENT RATE (deg F / hour) TEMPERATURE (F) HOLD (hours:minutes)
1 250 1225 :30
2 250 1500 :15
3 AFAP 900 2:00
4 100 700 OFF

FULL FUSING SCHEDULE FOR POWDER (RUN TIME 10:26, 17. KWH)*

SEGMENT RATE (deg F / hour) TEMPERATURE (F) HOLD (hours:minutes)
1 250 1250 :45
2 600 1450 :20
3 AFAP 900 1:00
4 100 700 OFF

SLUMP FUSING SCHEDULE (RUN TIME 10:43, 15.0 kWH)*

SEGMENT RATE (deg F / hour) TEMPERATURE (F) HOLD (hours:minutes)
1 200 1250 :15
2 AFAP 900 2:00
3 100 700 OFF

* The firing schedules may be designed for other projects that were fired with this one. Everything was fired in a Paragon GL-22AD.