Pyramid Casting Mold 8948

Using Bullseye Mold Tips: Pyramid Casting Mold which offers the following firing schedule:

200dph.......................................1225 degrees........................hold 1 hour for frit, 2 hours for billet
600dph........................................1525 degrees.......................Hold 2 hours.  Instructions here are to visually inspect after 20 mins but I was unable to visually inspect for a number of reasons.
Full.............................................900 degrees..........................hold 1 hour
6 dph...........................................800 degrees..........................-0-
12 dph..........................................700 degrees..........................-0-
41 dph............................................70 degrees..........................-0-








So It came out okay, like the Bullseye tip sheet said "expect matte sides" and matte it was.  So looking around the internet I found a firing schedule for fire polishing the pyramid.  I am currently fire polishing it at the following schedule:

• Fire Polishing: Because this piece is thick we need to proceed with caution. Firing too rapidly will cause your piece to crack. It is better to err on the side of caution! Place your piece into the kiln on a prepared kiln shelf. Using the SC2, I fire at Speed 2 or 200 degrees per hour to 1365 and hold for 10 minutes, then lower the temp as fast as possible to 960 and hold for 4 hours to anneal, then allow the kiln to cool to room temperature as fast as possible. This will take several hours.

DO NOT PEEK. DO NOT CRASH COOL. DO NOT OPEN THE KILN UNTIL THE TEMP IS 200 DEGREES OR BELOW. BE PATIENT OR YOUR PIECE WILL CRACK.

I got this firing schedule from a U Got Glass in Frankfort, Maine project sheet for a hemispheric paper weight.  We will see how it comes out.  Other times I have fire polished a piece I have not noticed any real difference, but hopefully the pyramid will be more shiny.  Additionally I have prepared another filled pyramid mold.  This time in contrast to the first where I used mostly all fine frit, I used hand made clear frit which includes all the various categories of frit, fine, medium coarse, and extra coarse.  Within all that clear frit I placed two shades of opaque blue and one shade of transparent green squares.  I placed two layers of the squares lying horizontally and one layer standing up on the outer layer of the pyramid, these will be towards the bottom once fired.  It will be interesting to see if one can see through the clear frit, if the colored opaque that in lying horizontally can be see at all and if the transparent green that is standing up on the outer surface of the pyramid closer to the bottom can be seen better.    

What flattened this out?  Former pyramid shape is now a flattened square, with a slightly raised center nodule.   Not much.  What happened?  Is it because I held it a 900 degrees for  3 hours.  Because I dont think that 1365 degrees is too hot and the hold at 1365 was only for 10 minutes.  Yet perhaps 1365 degrees was too hot.  I found a list of temperatures that put fire polishing between 1300 and 1325 degrees.  So next time I will lower the temperature significantly.
So I will try again to make another pyramid

So I heated the pyramid to 1520 instead of 1525 because even 5 degrees is supposed to make a difference and tomorrow I will try to fire polish it even though the first time I did that it flattened out.  This time I will take it to 1300 and hold it at 900 degrees for 2 hours, I will follow the schedule:

200dph.................................1300 degrees........................hold 10 mins
Full.........................................900 degrees                        hold 2 hours
off

And it came out.  See....

The second picture is after firepolishing.

CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS

Christmas trees:  I made a few trees of various sizes, all lined with clear glass and covered with decorations. First I fired the triangular base using the Panel Fuse Schedule on the Colour de Verre instructions for a panel on which you place a snowflake.  I followed the following schedule:

300 dph...............................1265 degrees.........................30 minutes
300 dph................................1435 degrees.........................10 mins
Full.........................................900 degrees.........................60 mins
100 dph...................................600 degrees.........................off

This schedule worked well edges were smooth.  Then I covered it with some pieces of a snowflake that I had previously fused along with millefiore and used the Tack Fuse Schedule to tack fuse it on the panel:

250dph........................1215 degrees.......................30 minutes
250dph........................1315 degrees........................10 minutes
FULL............................900 degrees........................60 minutes
100dph...........................700 degrees........................off

And that worked except I tried to attach a bottom piece to it that did not connect.  I don't think that the edges were straight but I figured if the glass melted enough it would have attached better to that piece.

So now I am trying to make snowflakes and I put several together and then realized I did not have a firing schedule, so I put together a blank in which I used 2mm as well as 3mm glass.  So then this piece will be thinner than the piece I will ultimately do.  But there are several pieces of 1 1/2" squares that I have placed on each other and have fired it with the following schedule:

500 dph.......................1000 degrees................................15 minutes
Full .............................1400 degrees................................10 minutes
Full...............................900 degrees..................................1 hour
100 dph........................ 700 degrees......................................Off

Along with the blank snowflake I placed a small christmas tree ornament that I draped over a base piece and refired that at the above schedule.  We shall see how that works out.

Some of the squares in the ornament looks a little pulled on the sides.  That may have happened with the 22mm squares only.  No it is with the squares, at least some of the squares that overlap the other squares.   For this one I am going to try to not bring it up so high and hold it for less time.  So up to 1375 degrees and hold for 5 minutes only.  I will put only one in there and see how that works.  I will only use 3 mm clear glass squares for this experiment.

350dph.........................................1150 degrees......................................15 mins
450dph..........................................1375 degrees......................................5 mins
Full                                                 900 degrees.......................................1 hour
100dph............................................700 degrees......................................off

So now I think I have it. I will try one with colored glass at following schedule:

400dph..........................................1000 degrees........................10 mins
600dph...........................................1350 degrees.........................5 mins
Full..................................................900 degrees.........................60 mins
100 dph............................................700 degrees..........................off

More Christmas trees:

So I prefused the panel using the firing schedule from Colour de Verre Snowflake panel firing schedule and that works fine to put two pieces together.  Then I added cut up rod pieces and a base for the tree.  On the other tree I also added stringer along with cut up rod pieces and a base for the tree.  And I fused them using Bullseye tack fuse basic firing schedule as follows: 

300dph.....................................1000 degrees..............................hold 15 mins
600dph......................................1425 degrees..............................hold 10 mins
Full.............................................900 degrees..............................hold 1 hour
100dph........................................700 degrees..............................hold 1 min
off

And that worked.  Now I will try to drill a hold in two layers of glass using an 1/8 " drill bit and here we go. 

Now snowmen ornaments.  Got an easy idea off of the Delphi Glass catalog, "artist Kim Heenan" and did it my way  as you can see from the 2 pictures above. Used 3 piece of white glass, the head 1 inch square, the torso 1 1/2" square and the lower body 2" square, something like that.  Rod for eyes and buttons, stringer for nose and mouth.   I put fiber ropes behind their head and so their heads will have lumps.  I will fire them with the same schedule I used on the snowflakes:

400dph...........................1000 degrees.....................hold 10 mins
600dph...........................1350 degrees.....................hold 5 mins
Full..................................900 degrees......................hold 1 hour
100 dph...........................700 degrees......................hold 1 min
off