Glass Fusing Techniques results

New Experimental Fusing Techniques After Fusing

Well after fusing my experiments I learned many things:

Left blue pieces

1. Don't use aluminum foil for an inclusion unless this is the look you are going for. It cannot withstand the heat and it flows and breaks up. It also turns brown or dark depending on top color of glass.

2. Bubbles using baking soda worked well but some of the aluminum flowed into the larger bubbles making them darker. I did not put baking soda over the aluminum foil area. Just in the blue area.

Right clear glass with inclusions

1. The Flexiglass brownish border worked fine. The color was supposed to be black cherry but turned out more brown.

2. The black line paint on top layer worked fine. Could have used the thicker tip to apply.

3. I put the baking soda solution in the area surrounding the copper wire but not in the area of the Flexiglass. The wire spiral created air caps even though I flattened the wire with a hammer. A large bubble surrounds the spiral now that it's been fired. The surface of both the blue and clear tiles are not flat the large bubbles are raised somewhat. I used 1/2 tsp baking soda in 1/4 cup water on both colors of tiles. I think I should have followed directions I read about that used 1 tsp soda per cup of water. Maybe bubbles would have been smaller.

4. The copper wire dulls and turns more brownish. I new that would happen.

From these experiments I discovered I probable won't use aluminum foil again and that I will probably experiment more with baking soda. I will also experiment more with the Flexiglass-glass. You can cut it nicely with a sharp exactly blade but you have to be gentle with the Flexiglass-glass. You can cut curves easily. I like the copper wire inclusions and might work more with that. I am wondering if you can put the wire on top of the top glass layer? Will it sink into the glass or not? Let me know if you have tried that.

 

I think I will still try and slump these just to see if the large bubbles will flatten out any. I will let you know what happens.

After Slumping

Ok the photos below are after slumping. They slumped just fine but the large bubbles did not flatten out. This was my first slumping with my new BobbieGlo Kiln. I used the pre programmed schedule and it seemed to work great.

M

This photo I used a fill flash and it shows the texture and bubbles more.

This photo has no flash and shows less detail.

This is a small pendant I put in with the first firing. It has the Flexiglass curve and pieces of copper tape that I removed the adhesive from. The glass has a little texture on the back because I placed it directly on the kiln floor that had sifted kiln powder on it. If you want to create texture to the back of your glass the kiln powder is a good way to do that.

I am firing the 2 blue plates now. We will see how they turn out later.

These is the blue ones after slumping. No change in the bubbles or aluminum foil.

 

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