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).
02.
Soak the Decal
In order to get the decal to separate from the backing paper, I soaked it in water.
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.
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.)
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.
06.
Fused
That’s what I call a successful fuse. I didn’t shoot any closeups before I slumped it though.
07.
Ready to Slump
I’m using the Square Slumper mold (8635) which is why the piece is designed at 8×8″.
08.
Good Slump
That is one finished plate!
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.
Close-up One
The intricate owls.
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 |