01.
What, No Photo?
It’s true. I forgot to take a picture of the glass before I started cutting it, or even while I was assembling. You’ll have to take my word for it that the 3mm sheets had beautiful rainbow iridescent sheens to them. I used three colors, i.e., the transparent color beneath the iridescent sheen: Steel Blue (001406-0031-F), Pine Green (001231-0031-F), and Light Violet (001428-0031-F). The photo shows a Black iridescent rainbow in the store.
02.
Ready to Fuse
I cut 1.5″x1.5″ squares of each color, then arranged them such that the iridescent rainbow sheen was mixed up. I fired them face down on a primed kiln shelf. Here at the front of the kiln is the one where I mixed up the violet, blue, and green. All are capped with clear glass.
03.
Fused
Those are fully fused plates, face down.
,04.
At the Coldworking Station
The gray blob is 80 grit silicon carbide on top of a thick piece of glass. Sitting on the thick piece near the blob are the four iridescent plates after coldworking all their edges (by grinding them against the thick piece of glass with the grit in between). You can see the coarse texture that 80 grit leaves.
05.
Matte Finish
After the 80 grit, I also used more refined grits to get a matte finish to the edge, finishing with 400 grit.
06.
Texture of the Shelf
Finally a photo where you can see what the rainbow iridescent sheen looks like. It’s also a good time to point out the matte texture of this side of the plate (because it was in contact with the shelf when it was fused and took on its texture). When it’s slumped, below, the matte texture will become slightly more subtle, as a result of being exposed to heat again.
07.
Ready to Slump
With all the edges coldworked, it’s time to slump these plates. I flipped them, with the iridescent side face-up, and the clear glass down.
08.
Slumped
Yep, that’s what they are. I used the Square Slumper 8635.
Results
Final Results
The finished plates are 7.5″ x 7.5″ x 1.5″. I’m really enjoying how each plate (the blue, the violet, the green, and the mix) has its own special vibe . Yet they all share that rainbow iridescent effect, a checkerboard pattern, and the subtle matte finish. I think it was a nice choice for a set of four!
Close-up
A good look at the corner and the texture.
FULL FUSING SCHEDULE (RUN TIME 9:27, 14.9 KWh)*
| SEGMENT | RATE (deg F / hour) | TEMPERATURE (F) | HOLD (hours:minutes) |
| 1 | 250 | 500 | :20 |
| 2 | 250 | 1000 | 0 |
| 3 | AFAP | 1450 | :30 |
| 4 | AFAP | 900 | 1:00 |
| 5 | 100 | 700 | OFF |
SLUMP FUSING SCHEDULE (RUN TIME 7:12, 10.5 KWh)*
| SEGMENT | RATE (deg F / hour) | TEMPERATURE (F) | HOLD (hours:minutes) |
| 1 | 300 | 1180 | :05 |
| 2 | AFAP | 900 | 1:00 |
| 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.