Pocket vase continued............................

Pocket vase upside down.  it worked out with a few concerns.  There is a line apparently on the top piece of glass where it meets the bottom piece and begins to rise up to form the pocket.  It looks like a crack but is consistent around the whole piece so could it perhaps me the natural occurence of the glass going around the fiber paper?  And as I thought, the glass did not evenly meet the bottom glass when it came down.  So some parts of the four sides worked well but others did not.  I suppose this could be taken care of by grinding or some other sort of cold work.  And also I would prefer the corners to be rounded.  So the corners should be rounded before it is put into the kiln.  Also, I was thinking to make the top piece bigger than the bottom but that would not work because I did not take the temperature up high enough to round out the corners.

So next I am going to do a part sheet with some sort of design on it, then cut out the pieces for the pocket vase.  Round the corners using the grinder and then cut out the fiber paper.  2 layers of 1/8th inch worked fine and fuse it using the same firing schedule.

I created a part sheet with stringer squizzles on top and I added a prefired small blue bead.  It came out tack fused, it might have been better if I full fused it, and I placed it on the bottom of my pocket vase and fused a plain layer of blue transparent glass on top.  I used the following firing schedule:
300dph..........................1000 degrees...........................hold 20 min
300 dph..........................1250 degrees..........................hold 20 mins
full ...................................900 degrees......................... hold 1 hour
100 dph.............................700 degrees..........................hold 1 hour 20 mins

I used one layer of 1/8th fiber paper instead of 2 layers that I used the first time, but this time when I ran water through it it dripped from the bottom.  The bottom layer of glass has swirly stringers tack fused on it along with a few strategically placed beads.  When the plain top piece was fused over, it appears that the glass may have risen to get over the stringers and the beads and that allowed some air to get in, so the water had places to run through.

The only things to do is to start from the beginning without anything on the surface of the glass, using the same length and one layer of fiber paper and the same firing schedule as I used above.  Put in the wires straighter and go from there. 

This time I full fused the pocket vase:
300 dph.............................................1000 degrees......................................hold 20 mins
300 dph..............................................1250 degrees.....................................hold 20 mins
600 dph...............................................1460 degrees.....................................hold 20 mins
Full......................................................900 degrees.......................................hold 1 hour
100 dph................................................700 degrees.......................................off

Full fusing helped, no water dripping from the bottom or corners.  This time it was a real hassle to get the fiber paper out.  Maybe next time I will do what was suggested to wrap the fiber paper in thin fire paper, and I am planning to use not two layers of fiber paper which may have been 1/16th thick but use thinner paper.  In an case, make the fiber paper space less thick.  Use some pretty glass.  I still have the glass with stringers and dots.  I dont see any reason tht the stringers and dots on the top of the glass will interfere with the fusing together of the two pieces.  So I will put clear on the bottom and use the decorative glass on top.  Also try to shape the fiber paper like a long nosed triangle and try again.

I have tried it two more times with a processing temperature of 1445 and the result was still too fused and then 1425 still fused and then 1415 and the water slowly dripped through.  Now I will go back to 1425 and hold only for 5 minutes.  the tops piece will not need to fully cover the bottom piece, but it should be close and I will use two layers of fiber paper wrapped with thin fire paper.

Many experiments after the above one but now by george, I think I've got it.  I used a rectangular piece of clear glass measuring 4 1/4 inches wide by 6 inches tall.   That worked well for what I choose to do.  On the left side I placed a yellow flower with a curved stringer for its stem, growing out of a piece of grass (blue and green frit).  On the right side I placed the pocket for the bud.  The piece of the glass that I draped over the fiber paper on the right side was something like 2 1/8th wide by  4 inches tall and the fiber paper pack that I put beneath it was smaller that that, perhaps the width was do one inch to 1 and 1/8th inch wide.  I am not sure because when I was putting it together I started changing somethings depending on how it layed out of the 1 layer of clear glass beneath it.  Since the pocket itself was placed over three layers of fiber paper wrapped in thin fire paper I had to account enough glass to fuse over it and make a mound.  It seems to have worked so I hope these measurements are close enough.  Remember to always look at it and determine whether or not the glass is correctly placed.  Picture coming.  I also used the following firing schedule:

300 dph......................................................1000 degrees......................hold 15 mins
300 dph.......................................................1250 degrees.....................hold 15 mins
600 dph.......................................................1425 degrees......................hold 10 mins
Full................................................................900 degrees......................hold 1 hour
100 dph .........................................................700 degree........................hold 1 min
off......................................

Impasse

I am at some sort of an impasse, not knowing which way to go, with so many choices.  And for some of these choice I go halfway and then don't finish.  Is this my ADHD, am I so unable to finish tasks?  Yes, that partially seems to be the case.  For example, I have done several pot and screen melts and I now have a wet tile saw, but I have not completed a full piece yet that incorporates a piece of the screen and pot melt.  I did do one, incorporating that with black glass and that somewhat turned me off; the black glass was a little too extreme for my taste so perhaps that was the reason.  In order to incorporate a piece of screen melt into a larger piece, you need to have the right color around, and I did not have the right color around.  To get that color you have to be able to recognize it in a catalog and order it or go all the way to Manchester, and bring your chunk with you and match it.  Also, most of the screen melts come out thicker than 1/4 " and so in order to correctly put it in a piece I would probably have to layer 2 1/2 to 3 pieces of glass.   I now know that I could fire polish the piece and then it would flatten to 1/4" inch, although, in some cases this fire polishing causes devitrification.  The only way around that is to sand blast it which I cannot do, not having the machine, or cover it with a thin layer of fine clear frit and fuse it again.  If that works, I would still have to incorporate that into another piece, fuse that piece and then slump it, meaning two more firings.  I don't know, I haven't done that yet, but will it devitrify after all those firings;  would the glass even survive all those firings?  That would make 4 total firings.  And it is difficult to cut the outside piece correctly, making sure that everything fits and is in line.  So what should I do, I have one piece from a screen melt that has some devitrification on it and I dont want to do anything with it. 

I have also been cutting curvy squiggles in glass and found that pretty hard to do but I did do some and are not quite determined what to do with that, so now for both I am going to put them aside.  I originally thought I could cover the squiggles with some decorative stuff and hang them in a screen melt.  But that is problematic, how should I hang them with bails, or drill holes, and drilling holes takes some work.  My drill does not work very fast and I am not so committed to that piece yet, so for this also I have to set it aside and think more about it.

It came to me to try out pocket vases.  I could use my clear glass, which I have quite a lot of, but this will take a lot.  I will have to open the kiln while it is draping and watch the progress.  But i feel like it is worth a try and I also seem to like to try new things.  Okay, so first I will put away all the other things I have been working on and remain unfinished.  I have a lot of those kind of things and I want to finish things in the future.  Then I will gather materials for the pocket vases.  Here we go.  Pocket vases seem to be more complicated than they appear.  When the top piece of glass drapes over the fiber paper what will happen?  If I want to include or create a design in the top piece of glass should i do that first.  Well yes I should and then cut it into 2 pieces for a pocket vase.  Also is the firing schedule I am using for this pocket vase going to work.  I used the following firing schedule:

300 dph............................1025 degrees .......................................hold 20 mins.
300 dph.............................1245 degrees ......................................hold 15 mins
full......................................900 degrees ......................................hold 1 hour
100 dph..............................700 degrees........................................hold 2 hours
off

Well now I am going to look at Bullseye tip sheet on part sheets and making some on clear glass that I think will look nice in a pocket vase. 

I have this mold.  Isn't it beautiful and now I need instructions on how to fill it with frit, powder and how to fire.  Can I add glass to it?  How is the middle done?  How exactly do I fire it?

This is the mold.  Actually this is not the exact mold,  this is the exact mold

It is flatter than the one above





It is flatter than the one above.  I prefired  2 pieces of blank glass into an 8 inch circle, then I covered the center of the mold with black powder.  I layered over the black power red fine frit which I enclosed in a circle of green frit.  I placed the prefired panel over it and are currently firing it at the following schedule

275 dph............................1225 degrees...........................hold 1 hour
300dph..............................1330 degrees..........................hold 10 mins
300 dph..............................1465 degrees.........................hold 5 mins
full......................................900 degrees...........................hold 1 hour

Will the piece take the outside shape of the mold or did I have to precut that.  I think I already proved to myself that the slump stage would be successful in fixing the outer shape but I am looking at it again for this in what is a complex or multi pointed shape. I hope it does take the shape.  I filled the center part of the sunflower but in the next try I will use different colors and from this time I should know if the amount of frit that I used is correct or not.

It did not take the shape of the outside edges.  some of the ends raised a bit and another broke off.  I have to understand slumping molds better. 



Irid glass

 Irid  clear fired face down and capped with royal blue.