01.
Test Time
Before making an entire plate, I wanted to do a little test first. Based on the diameter of the glass rods that’ll be used to create the short cylinders on every “brick”, I decided on a size for the rectangles. These are just some colors I had laying around.
02.
Ready to Tack Fuse
After taking the rectangles to a full fuse, I nipped some glass rods to create the short cylinders. Here they’re on the fully fused base ready for a tack fuse.
03.
Test Complete
A few pairs of earrings snuck onto the shelf and the LEGO test is complete. The rectangles are a good size given the diameter of the glass rods. The tack fuse has left the cylinders a bit irregular. The rectangles and cylinders aren’t even all matching colors, but the principle is proved.
04.
Start Assembling
I’ve carefully chosen these colors, trying to stay as close to LEGO colors as possible, while still using glass that is food safe, and glass that is also available in both 3mm sheets and rods.
05.
All the Bricks in Place
The final design of the bricks is done. Below the rectangles is a single layer of solid white glass.
06.
Ready to Fuse
The plate is on a primed kiln shelf and ready for a full fuse. Below is the result.
07.
Little Cylinders
The matching glass rods have been nipped into small sections and glued onto the rectangles. You can also see that I’ve cold-worked the edges of the base piece to make them rounded and even (using a lapidary grinder).
08.
Ready to Tack Fuse
It’s time to tack fuse the piece so that the little cylinders melt just a bit and fuse with the rectangles below, while still retaining a cylinder shape. Below is the finished tack fuse.
09.
Let’s Make a Plate
But what good is a big tile of LEGO? Let’s make a nicely slumped and contoured plate. See the results below.
Results
Final Result
People who have seen this piece in progress have immediately guessed what it was–and that’s all I can hope to have achieved. Pretty chuffed.
Close-up
Couldn’t resist a close-up.
TACK FUSING SCHEDULE (RUN TIME 9.39 HRS, 14.9 kWH)*
| SEGMENT | RATE (deg F / hour) | TEMPERATURE (F) | HOLD (hours:minutes) |
| 1 | 250 | 1325 | :20 |
| 2 | AFAP | 900 | 1:30 |
| 3 | 100 | 700 | OFF |
FULL FUSING SCHEDULE (RUN TIME 6:53, 13.0 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 9:31, 14.6 kWH)*
| SEGMENT | RATE (deg F / hour) | TEMPERATURE (F) | HOLD (hours:minutes) |
| 1 | 250 | 1225 | :45 |
| 2 | AFAP | 900 | 1:30 |
| 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.