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......................................