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01.

Cutting Pieces

Firstly, an isometric cube is not an easy thing to draw. Suffice it to say that there are square roots and 30 degree angles involved. Hence the straight edge and a right triangle for the cutting. I simply cut strips of the various colors, then used the right angle to draw a 30 degree angle line across them.

Cutting Cube Pieces
 02.

Make It Square

The irony of such an exacting geometric design is the fact that the end product isn’t actually square (recall the square roots from step 1). It’s a little taller than wide. By the way, I’m using Cream Opalescent (000420-0030), Woodland Brown (000203-0030), and Dusty Blue (000208-0030). I felt that transparent glass wouldn’t really give me that 3-D feel that is the isometric cube pattern’s appeal.

Get It Square
03.

Assembly Complete

I had to pick through different brown, blue, and cream diamonds that I’d cut, and also do a bit of grinding (with a wet grinder), to get the tiles to match up and lay as close to one another as possible.

All Assembled
04.

Ready to Fuse

I used a large piece of the cream glass to back the entire piece then used GlasTac to glue the diamonds down before moving them to the kiln shelf (lined with ThinFire paper).

Below you can see the piece fused.

 

Ready to Fuse
Fused
  05.

Ready to Slump

Unfortunately I forgot to photograph the coldworking. I used increasing silicon carbide grits (from 80 to 400) at my coldworking station to make all four edges straight. The little diamonds that make up the cubes had small gaps at the edges where they came together, which then became wobbly after fusing.

I’m using the Square Slumper A 8739, coated with primer. The slumped piece is below.

 

Ready to Slump
Slumped
Results

Final Result

Isometric cubes are totally groovy. I think that’s why I chose a sort of retro color palette. This was an exacting little project (9.25″ x 9.5″ x .75″) which is why it was so fun!

Isometric Cubes

Close-up

A look at the corner, but also you can see the straight edge produced by the coldworking.

Corner Close-up
Always With the Fruit

FULL FUSING SCHEDULE (RUN TIME 6:42, 12.4 KWh)*

SEGMENT RATE (deg F / hour) TEMPERATURE (F) HOLD (hours:minutes)
1 600 1000 0
2 600 1490 :10
3 AFAP 900 1:00
4 100 700 OFF

SLUMP FUSING SCHEDULE (RUN TIME 7:05, 10.3 KWh)*

SEGMENT RATE (deg F / hour) TEMPERATURE (F) HOLD (hours:minutes)
1 300 1160 :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.