#pattern bar

[cupcake-mimosa]

Photos taken May 28, 2016

The tack fuse of the large piece was completed successfully. Layering the kiln paper on top of thicker fiberfrax helped improve the air flow, which prevented the additional gaps on the underside from forming into bubbles. Instead, the underside smoothed out into a more finished state.

I also managed to sneak a few things into a kiln someone else was using: a few more pattern bar slices, and some blue and green strips for a new piece I planned.

[cupcake-mimosa]

Photos taken May 26, 2016

I put the large blue, green, and gray piece into the kiln for a tack fuse. The elements being tack fused on are some pattern bar slices that have already been rounded out by a full fuse. In order to reduce the chance of additional bubbles forming from the gaps on the underside of the piece, I layered kiln paper and fiberfrax to allow air to flow more easily under the piece.

[cupcake-mimosa]

Photos taken May 19, 2016

The full fusing completed successfully. The pattern bar slices smoothed out nicely, and the orange and red set had similar results to its complement.

[cupcake-mimosa]

Photos taken May 17, 2016

I assembled a complementary set of the previous orange and red pieces. I often make complementary sets like this because it is a useful way to avoid wasting glass when implementing a binary design. I also put some pattern bar slices in the kiln at the same time to smooth them out for use as components.

When loading these pieces into the kiln, I noticed a small height difference between the orange and red glass. Both sheets I used were marked as 3mm, so I was surprised that there would be a noticeable difference. Even small air pockets can cause problems, so this was slightly worrying.

[cupcake-mimosa]

Photos taken May 7, 2016

The full fuse of the blue, grey, and green piece completed with an unexpected result. A large bubble formed and popped in the piece, leaving a hole. I have determined likely causes of this outcome, though, and am more likely to avoid it in future firings of similar pieces. The pattern bar slices look nice.

I threw together a few test components using small squares of clear glass and various types of frit. Although some of the test components look nice, I don’t think I will use them in anything I am currently working on.

I spent some time arranging the orange and red-orange glass shapes to ensure they fit together neatly. Although not all of the cuts were completely clean, both types of glass tended to break the same way, so the pieces fit together well.

[cupcake-mimosa]

Photos taken May 6, 2016

The blue, grey, and green piece was put in the kiln for a full fuse. I put in a few of the pattern bar slices to see how they would turn out after a full fuse.

I spent time cutting shapes for a planned set of pieces. I drew lines at four different angles from two fixed points in order to divide the square into three pieces. I used these patterns to cut two different colors of glass, orange and red-orange. By using alternating colors of glass in each piece, I will be able to make eight square pieces.

[cupcake-mimosa]

Photo taken April 12, 2016

I finally managed to finish sawing slices from the four pattern bars I constructed. The third bar had some problems since the sawblade was getting dull, but I replaced the blade before cutting the fourth bar.

[cupcake-mimosa]

Photos taken March 23 and 26, 2016

The pattern bars fused successfully. After cleaning off the leftover fiber paper, I removed the rough edges on the grinder and started cutting slices. I managed to finish cutting slices from one of the four bars. There is a lot more cutting in my future.

By putting the slices into water after cutting them, I can keep residue from the saw from drying onto the surface of the slice, which helps keep the slices clean.