Encoded

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.

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.

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.

04.

Glass Be Dammed

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

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.

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.

07.

Second Fuse

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