More experimentation

I was really pleased with the boat.

This was done on program 1 forming at 804 C. The stringer has doubled in width and the shapes have stayed fairly true.

The heart on top of the cover glass moved apart like continental drift. It would be better to put it on the cat with a glass paint outline perhaps. Where the pieces touch for the head and ears there was a distinct line left. I thought they would blend more like the lines between the blue and the yellow. The size is too big. 4 cm x 5cm. 3cm x 4cm might be OK.

The top row is program 1 (804). The bottom row is program 3 (825).
In the top row we like the red and white button and the crystal button. In the bottom row we like the green button and the eye. The stringers are 3 times wider and would probably look better at 804 C. The white glass square held it shape at 825 C. It seems much harder to melt than the other colours.

We have been making lots of 9 patch pendants to see which colours look best.

Making buttons

We seem to have a good firing schedule with a bubble squeeze, an equalizing step and after forming a fast cool and a slow cool before turning off to cool completely overnight. It is the same as the original program 1 but we turn off at 371 C.

We did another batch of buttons once we decided we liked them.

I have started making some designs to fit on small pieces without getting too small. Though my sailing boat was pretty tiny. It is 2cm square.

It is in the kiln now, cooling down. I am very excited that it seems to have kept all its details after fusing.

I made this cat using glue to hold it in place and some glassline paint for the face. I will fuse it tomorrow. I am experimenting with the heart on top of the overlay layer. I am hoping it won't cause too much distortion  on the vertical edges. The bit of extra volume in that one place may cause a bit of a bulge to the left and right of the heart.

Here are some drawings I made.

Dichroic Earrings

We love the dichroic earrings. Clear dichroic and dichroic on black both give wonderful affects with different coloured bases or tops.

We are wondering if they are meant to have a weird looking ring of foil around the edge. Even the black or dark ones have it but it is less noticeable. Today we tried a hotter firing to see if it had an effect.

We have been tossing around some ideas for using what we make. Sets of the 1cm buttons fit in the button holes of bought shirts so it would be nice to replace the plain buttons with coloured dichroic buttons.
We have been thinking about what shapes to cut out to put on buttons like applique and how we will apply them.
Earrings are the simplest option. We have ordered some clear plastic posts to go on the clear earrings. The steel posts showed through quite a bit.
We also bought the domain name glassapplique.com and plan to set up an online shop. It is all quite a good adventure.

More buttons test

This was done on program 1 full fuse.

Neville tried 3 layers of 2mm all one colour with the corners all skew. The plan was to make a circle but there were little bumps all around.

The dichro buttons had the corners ground off one set and the other three were just squares set square.

The little earrings had 3mm cover set skew. They did not turn out circular.

The black blob was a white base with 4 little black squares with a narrow space between them and a clear top. The black squares just melded together.

We plan to test the earrings with the 3mm top square on and the dichro ones as squares placed squarely and the top a bit bigger than the dichro base.

Test firing on contour fuse

Program 2 Contour fuse (in google docs)

Segment	Rate C/Hour	Temp C	Hold	See notes
1	139	566	30 min	reduces bubbles
2	139	677	20 min	equalizes temps
3	167	720	10 mins
4	AFAP	510	60 mins	anneal 1
5	111	427	10	anneal 2
6	167	38	0	cool down

Focusing was difficult but this black and white with stringers came out barely polished. The white still has point corners and the stringers are still quite round. Everything was stuck together well. It looks a bit like plastic. This was formed at 720 C for 10 mins.

Neville did some fine cat shapes and they held their shape well but got some devit on the cut edges and the layers were too separate to look good.

We plan to try forming at 750 C for 10 mins for another test.

Program 1 - Full Fuse

From page 21 Kiln Formed Glass

Segment	Rate C/Hour	Temp C	Hold
1	222	677	30 min
2	333	804	10 min
3	AFAP	516	30 mins
4	83	371	0
5	AFAP	21	0

This program seems to work OK. The only changes we might make will be to add in some more segments.

Dichroic samples, buttons

Scrap dichroic 1.5cm square with a clear top. Offset squares did not make a nice circle. Probably a bit too big.
Program 1, full fuse

Scrap dichroic. 1.5cm square off set on a black base square. Maybe we got this upside down. The foil seems to be on top.
Program 1, full fuse

dichroic scraps cut in a 1.5 cm square layered on a black base. Maybe we got the dichroic upside down. The large squares off set did not make a circle.
Program 1, full fuse firing

scrap dichroic in 1.5cm square with clear top. Layered squarely.
Perhaps the top could overlap a bit more so the line around the edge does not happen.
Program 1, full fuse

Dud, button, magnet, brooch

3cm square with 3 layers. Clear base, coloured centre, clear top.
These colours were not a good choice.
Bullseye thin
Green - 0126 Yellow - 0120
Program 1, full fuse
This one will be a fridge magnet

Blue and almond buttons

2cm square. 3 layers of 2mm thick glass. Clear base, coloured layer, clear top.
Program 1, full fuse firing
Bullseye thin
Blue - 0114 Almond - 0137

Red and white buttons

2cm square. 3 layers of 2mm thick. Clear base, coloured checks, clear top
Fired on program 1 full fuse
Bullseye thin
red - 0124 white - 0013