01.
Diagram and All the Glass
I drew this project in Illustrator first. I knew the dimensions of my slumping mold but then wanted to make sure that at least an octave of keys would fit. I also wanted to leave a small gap between the strips of white glass that would be the white keys so that they’d be separated by a black line.
02.
White Keys Done
I’m using the liquid version of GlassTac (the red glue) for this project because I needed to be able to slide the white keys around until the gaps between were identical. I created the gaps by eye.
03.
Layup Done
Then I added the black keys.
04.
View from the Side
The drops of glue on top don’t bother me since I know they’ll burn off clean. I elevate the entire piece on small pieces of dams that I’ve cut with a tile saw. Elevating it makes it easier to pick up once it’s complete.
05.
Ready to Fuse
Loaded into the kiln with a couple of other projects. This was a long fuse because of the Patty Gray mold at bottom right.
06.
Fused
It looks good from here!
07.
Wavy Edge
Because the glass was thicker where the black keys were stacked, the glass flowed farther, giving the back of the keyboard a wavy edge. But since a regular keyboard doesn’t look like that, I decided to remove the wobbles.
07.
Loose Grit
The wavy-edge keyboard is peeking in at top right. The shiny gray slurry is 80 grit silicon carbide mixed with water. It’s on a 1/4″ thick plate of glass, which rests on two black rubber mats (with holes). The whole thing is on a piece of plywood between two sawhorses. As with the 2mm stringer bowl, I used successive grit slurries (80 grit, then 120, then 400) to change the shape of the edge and remove any scratches.
07.
Straight Edge
By the time the 400 grit was done, the edge had a smooth matte finish. When the piece is slumped it’ll fire polish to a gloss.
07.
Ready to Slump
Here’s the fused keyboard ready to slump. I’m using the Rectangular Slumper mold (8925). Looks like a good fit.
07.
Glossy Straight Edge
Per the usual, I’ve forgotten to take a picture of the slumped piece still in the mold. But here you can see that the straight edge that had a 400 grit matte finish is now glossy.
Results
Final Result
I’m very pleased about the softly rounded edges of the front of this keyboard platter, and also the gentle curve of the entire piece. Something about this piece makes me smile every time I look at it. I think I’ll have to make more.
FULL FUSING SCHEDULE (RUN TIME 12:55)*
| SEGMENT | RATE (deg F / hour) | TEMPERATURE (F) | HOLD (hours:minutes) |
| 1 | 200 | 1000 | :15 |
| 2 | 300 | 1225 | :30 |
| 3 | 350 | 1470 | :20 |
| 4 | AFAP | 950 | 2:00 |
| 5 | 100 | 700 | OFF |
SLUMP FUSING SCHEDULE (RUN TIME 9:47)*
| SEGMENT | RATE (deg F / hour) | TEMPERATURE (F) | HOLD (hours:minutes) |
| 1 | 300 | 1200 | :30 |
| 2 | 300 | 1225 | 1:30 |
| 3 | AFAP | 900 | 1:00 |
| 4 | 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.