01.
Green, White, Gray
There are 435 pieces of glass in this project. It sounds like a lot, but it didn’t take that long to cut using a strip cutting system.
02.
Under Construction
The beauty of the plaid design depends on the taller pieces of glass (the green) flowing over the shorter pieces (the white and gray) when the glass flows at fusing temperature. The green are the tallest, the white the shortest, and the gray are in the middle. Here is the plaid pattern being laid out.
03.
Ready for Fusing
Dams lined with 1/8″thick fiber paper keep the glass aligned and tight while it’s under construction, but their real purpose is to keep the glass from flowing too far when it fuses since the overall thickness of the project is greater than 6mm.
04.
Top View
On the bottom left of this blurry photo is this project. Like the yellow and gray piece next to it, the green has indeed flowed over the white and gray. It creates a sense of movement and makes the white lines thin, hopefully mimicking a textile.
05.
Coldworking
The edges were rough after bing next to the fiber paper. I wanted to make them smooth but also thought they would look nice rounded. I used a lapidary grinder at Bullseye’s Open Studio in Pasadena to do that, starting with the 60 grit wheel to shape the edge, and then going through three other grits (up to 600) to give it the smooth matte finish that I knew would fire-polish during the slump. When it comes to working a straight edge, this is my favorite tool.
06.
Into the Kiln
Here’s the coldworked piece in the back of the kiln ready to be slumped.
07.
Slumped
Here it is slumped on the Square Slumper A mold (8635).
Results
Final Result
Although the coldworking was time consuming, the round and polished edges are well worth it. The gray pieces of glass almost turn milky because of the white glass behind them. I totally dig this plate.
FULL FUSING SCHEDULE (RUN TIME 9:42)*
| SEGMENT | RATE (deg F / hour) | TEMPERATURE (F) | HOLD (hours:minutes) |
| 1 | 350 | 1225 | :30 |
| 2 | 600 | 1500 | :15 |
| 3 | AFAP | 900 | 2:00 |
| 4 | 100 | 700 | OFF |
SLUMP FUSING SCHEDULE (RUN TIME 11:02)*
| SEGMENT | RATE (deg F / hour) | TEMPERATURE (F) | HOLD (hours:minutes) |
| 1 | 200 | 1250 | :30 |
| 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.