On Edge Construction

I took a class in fused glass this winter. In some ways I'm still debating the usefulness of the class, but I did pick up a couple of new techniques. The first of which was on edge construction.

In on edge construction you cut thin strips of glass, then set them on their edge and place them side by side creating whatever design you want. Most of the information that I got online have you constructing the piece in the kiln or on a kiln shelf. Our instructor wanted to have us construct on a sheet of glass. This was probably more of a practical decision then anything. We couldn't have every student hovering over the kiln trying to put their piece together. What that did do, was make us try to cut 1/4" strips of glass, instead of cutting 3/8th". I think the combination of cutting that thin and the fact that we were using Bullseye glass , which I find to be less forgiving than Spectrum glass, made it a real challenge for me. I will need to make some more projects at home to see how I really feel about this technique.

One of the challenges for me working in a strange studio with limited time is that I don't like designing and working under pressure. Glass is my stress relief tool. We couldn't take glass home to work on any of the projects, so in this case I was trying to cut small and fast. I was able to end up constructing my piece at home, mostly because it never would have gotten done in class otherwise.

I do really love the end result though. I created a section of a curling sheet, which was then fused together. I cold worked the edges to remove jagged areas. Next I cut a stencil of a curler delivering a rock from a picture I found in the cloud and used it to apply powder to the piece, and fused again. I didn't like how clear the piece was so I sandblasted the back of the piece to make it more opaque. Finally, I took my piece and slumped in over a lamp bender mold.

Glass blowing update

I'm finally getting to the point that I am making blown glass pieces that I don't feel embarrassed to show other people. I am continuing to take classes and get in practice time in whenever possible. So without further ado. Here are items from the last 6 months or so.

Slumpfest Project 2: Stamping Glass

Mixing stamping medium and high fire enamel	Erica Biery demonstrated her glass stamping technique for us on the second part of day 1 at SlumpFest. It is a fairly straight forward technique, but has some great looking results. The steps are listed under each picture. Once you have stamped your piece it remains liquid. You could gently rub mica on it, or if you don't like the way it came out you can spray on 91% rubbing alcohol to clean off your glass. When you are ready to make your stamp permanent use the following schedule. Segment Ramp Temp Hold 1 9999° 1300° 1 Once finished be sure to clean up all tools with the rubbing alcohol, you can then let the equipment soak in soapy water for a bit before drying everything off. Leftover stamping enamel, because it remains liquid, can be saved for future use.
Add lavender oil
Apply to rubber stamp with brayer
Press stamp on glass and pull off carefully
You can also place a sticker on the glass and dab the enamel over it with a makeup sponge
Peel off sticker carefully and you have a reverse stamp

Slumpfest Project 1: Promising start, unwanted results

Glass picked out	To start off Erica Biery's class we had a bit of a warm up on the Morton portable glass system. I did learn that my kit is missing a number of newer items that make life a bit easier when cutting geometrical shapes. No worries, I had ordered the beetle bits system the week before. I can use either at this point. The project was to be a salad bowl using some stamped glass that she and Jen Walkovich had prepared the day before. We were due to learn stamping later in the day. So I picked out a couple stamped pieces and a matching glass that Spectrum Glass had kindly donated to the class and started cutting away. I just went ahead and did various sizes. The salad bowl project works as a mosaic analog. After cutting my pieces I cut a black border for my 12" X 12" glass and started to place my pieces on it upside down. The reason to place everything upside down was that it would keep the stamped glass pieces looking a bit sharper. We were working at a hectic pace, everyone was sharing a cutting system and there were a lot of pieces to cut. As they said, "This isn't your masterpiece, its just to show the technique." Once I arranged everything as best as I could we tacked it down with some cheap hairspray in drops. Next we took some fine black frit and filled in the empty spaces. This took a little work to make sure we didn't have any stray pieces where we didn't want them. Then to preserve it all we sprayed the hairspray over the whole piece. I transported mine home to fuse. I had to fix a few areas that shifted, but it worked well enough. I did a full fuse, then flipped the piece and did another full fuse. I had some really nice results. I little spare frit where I didn't want it, but it was nice enough. Then I did my slump fuse. I'd not slumped something with such sharp sides before so I thought I was doing a good thing adjusting my slump schedule. As you can see in the last picture, it slumpped itself down the sides of the mold. *Sigh*. I'm not sure if there is any saving grace here, but I may try to do a full fuse to flatten it and see what comes out of it. Here is the disastrous schedule I used. My Schedule: Segment Ramp Temp Hold 1 200° 250° 15 2 250° 1050° 30 3 150° 1225° 15 4 400° 950° 60 5 200° 800° 10 I had based it off of a new slump schedule I saw published by spectrum: Segment Ramp Temp Hold 1 250° 250° 15 2 250° 1050° 30 3 150° 1225° 10 4 400° 950° 60 5 200° 800° 10 6 300° 100° 0 Next time I will go with what was my normal slump schedule, that I had gotten from Spectrum a while back. Segment Ramp Temp Hold 1 150° 300° 15 2 300° 1235° 15 3 AFAP 950° 60 4 150° 800° 10
All cut
Arraigned and tacked
Applying frit
Nice results after flip fuse
Rut Roh!

Do you have any Hunny?

We have had 2 little girls visiting with us all the past week, ages 6 moths and 3 years. The 3 year old has a big stuffed Eeyore that she likes to sleep with. We also read pooh stories, and she loves when I sing the Tigger song. So Friday night, I decided I'd like to make a little project for them before they head home on Monday.

I used some blue glass and white iridized glass I had on hand to cut out a honey pot. I then cut a lid shape from the blue and a small handle for the lid from adventurine black. Luckily I had some black stringer on hand. I nipped off small pieces, stole my wife's tweezers and spelled out HUNNY in block letters. I dropped Bullseye GlasTac firing glue on it to keep it in place and left it to dry.

Saturday I added a piece of wire between 2 layers, so that it could be hung then I set it to contour fuse at 1400. It ended up a little more flat than I was going for, but the letters are still raised. Next time I will try a temperature closer to a tack, perhaps that will give me what I wanted. For a first run, I'm happy.

SlumpFest2103

Last weekend I had the opportunity to attend SlumpFest2013 held at Slumpy's in Belmont, NC. It was a hard drive down after work on Friday and then back home Sunday after having classes for the day. I had surgery for a hernia scheduled for Monday morning so I couldn't take an extra day to make it easier on me. The surgery went well and I'm recovering now.

Slumpy's is located in a 100 year old former textile building. It was absolutely huge! We got to be there for the ribbon cutting ceremony to the new showroom, which was nicely put together with many example pieces to look at.

I got to learn two main techniques, glass stamping and crackle glass. I will outline those processes in my next two blog posts. For now here are some highlights from the store.

SlumpFest Participants and Staff

Slumpy's owners ribbon cutting

Left over signage from the textile mill

This is only a fraction of the space they have available

Kiln casted face

Kiln casted torso

Molds with example pieces

Houston, we have a problem, and its name is Brian

Today's kiln opening is bound to provide a number of lessons for me. Once I can figure them out.

I purchased a ColourDeVerre pattern fuser mold a couple months back and decided to try it out yesterday. I broke out the frit and started filling the piece with fine frit. My wife came down after a bit and helped out spreading frit around while we tried to figure out the best way to make sure each little detail was filled with enough frit to do the job. Finally, I cut a clear piece to cap off the mold and placed it in the kiln. I used the recommended firing schedule:

Segment	Ramp	Tempurate	Hold
1	100ºF/55ºC	300ºF/150ºC	30 min
2	150ºF/85ºC	1250ºF/675ºC	30 min
3	150ºF/85ºC	1400ºF/760-765ºC	5 min
4	AFAP	960ºF/515ºC	60 min
5	100ºF/60ºC	600ºF/315ºC	Off, No Venting

I was more than a little surprised when I opened the kiln and found this.

My impressions as to what went wrong are as follows:

Bubble:

The directions say the fill weight is between 900-1,000 grams of glass. Note to self, if I'm going to mess with frit buy an electronic scale just for glass. I did not measure the fill weight, I winged it. We went with what looked to be full. I'm not sure how much more full we could have gotten it. Each of the little channels were holding as much as they possibly could. The edge could have used some more frit, but I figured I could cut it off if it didn't work for me. In any case, the bubble is most likely not enough glass. I am kicking myself for not having taken a loading the kiln picture.

Cracked Glass:

It could be that the firing schedule just was not right, but I doubt it would be that off. It could be possible that the firing schedule was thrown by insufficient glass in the mold. The cracked glass could also have to do with the next issue.

Glass Stuck to the Mold:

The company only recommends preparing the mold with MR-97. I tend to take instructions like that as a push to sell more product. In truth, I don't know if they have any affiliation with it whatsoever. I used my normal kiln wash and then to be extra careful sprayed on High Temp 1800, which also uses boron nitrate as its mechanism. I figured with both kiln wash and boron nitrate I was golden. Not so much, apparently.

We had also tried to use a straight edge to run across the top to make sure the lines were distinct. It is possible that this scrapped off the release agent from the mold causing it to stick.

Take Away:

There are too many issues with this piece to say what exactly happened. It is highly likely that had I followed directions to the letter, I would have come out smelling of roses. 

I have a tendency to wing it and see what happens, but with items like this, I should be much more conservative. $65 mold gone with the wind.