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01.

Owls

After the success of the eyeglasses decal, I wanted to try a denser design, but didn’t have a photo that I wanted to use. I’m also interested to see if the decal will have enough contrast against a darker color, hence the Robin’s Egg Blue (Bullseye 000161). 

Decals and Glass
02.

Soak the Decal

In order to get the decal to separate from the backing paper, I soaked it in water.

Soak Decal
 03.

Looks Good When It’s Black

I slid the decal off the backing paper and onto the glass (8×8″), then gently smoothed out the water with a rubber squeegee and rolled up towel. It looks great and super-high contrasty in black against the blue.

Decal on Glass
04.

Powder

In order to prevent bubbles, I sifted on a couple passes of fine clear glass powder. I can assure you that, without powder, you most definitely get bubbles.

As with the first decal project, I printed the decal on my laser writer, but with a special cartridge (a ceramic transfer magnetic toner cartridge purchased from AAA toner.)

 

Powder Over Decal
Powder Closeup
05.

Into the Kiln

Once capped with an 8×8″ piece of clear glass, everything went into the kiln to be fused.

I’ll have a separate post for the smaller music coasters.

 

Ready to Fuse
06.

Fused

That’s what I call a successful fuse. I didn’t shoot any closeups before I slumped it though.

Fused
07.

Ready to Slump

I’m using the Square Slumper mold (8635) which is why the piece is designed at 8×8″.

Ready to Slump
08.

Good Slump

That is one finished plate!

Slumped
Results

Final Result

As expected, the decal has faded from black to a reddish sepia color. It’s also got a nice gradient (darker at the center and lighter at the edges), as with the eyeglasses plate. The gradient is not a result of its placement in the kiln, since I know the heating pattern of the GL-22 and both decal projects had a similar gradient and were placed in different kiln spots. I don’t know what produces the gradient, but I’m happy to have it.

Final Result

Close-up One

The intricate owls.

Close-up
Always With the Grapes

FULL FUSING SCHEDULE (RUN TIME 9:31, 15.5 KWh)

SEGMENT RATE (deg F / hour) TEMPERATURE (F) HOLD (hours:minutes)
1 300 1125 :15
2 100 1225 :15
3 AFAP 1490 :10
4 AFAP 900 1:00
5 100 700 OFF

SLUMP FUSING SCHEDULE (RUN TIME 7:19, 11.1 kWH)

SEGMENT RATE (deg F / hour) TEMPERATURE (F) HOLD (hours:minutes)
1 150 1000 :00
2 100 1200 0
3 AFAP 950 1:30
4 100 725 OFF