Wannabe Eshler piece

BE Black 6mm
BE White 3mm
Glassline black, diluted and used a kemper tool to draw it on.

3/29/09 - fired to slump
Starting temp 68 deg
Turn on Lo
45 min. Temp at 528 deg turn up to Level 2
2 hours into firing time, 829 deg turn up to Level 3
2:30 hours, 960 deg, turn up to Level 3.5
At 2:40, temp at 1000 deg. Hold for 20 minutes, turning down to 2.5 to hold at this temp.
3:00 turn up to Level 3.5 When temp gets to 1250, hold 20 min.
4:45 Vent and turn off/Lo.
5:30 turn off at 950 deg.

Above = this schedule

400 dph to 1000.
Hold at 1000 deg for 10 min
Ramp up 200 dph to 1250. Hold 20 minutes
Cooled down to 950 deg. Hold 45 min


I didn't do the first firing. This was done in class. But I did slump it at home. When I slumped, the white devit. It's not showing up clearly in the pic. But I'm considering keeping it the way it is because it gives the white a parchment-like look.

I used the lap grinder to smooth out the edges, but I'm not getting the glossy finish on the edge. So I'm going to have to fire polish this piece.

I didn't do the firing on this.
This was made with BE Turquoise and BE frits & powders: black, white and red. This was originally supposed to be just a bowl. It started with layers of color that was supposed to be water and koi. I didn't like the results, so I flipped the piece over and just added the koi. When I slumped the bowl, it bubbled. We did a second slump, hoping the bubble would go away. It went down, but was still there. So I decided to make a fountain out of it.

I was thinking about what the actual fountain would be. I bought a low, ceramic pot that was going to be the base. But the colors didn't work well together. Then my boyfriend brought home a resin pot (no drainage holes) that was going to get tossed. Perfect! And the bowl just BARELY fit inside.

Dilema...how was I going to get the bowl to stay up towards the surface? Solution...I cut 2" PVC pipe to hold it up. On the bottom of the pot and on the bottom of the bowl, using Gorilla Glue, I glued on 2 endcaps. I also cut a whole through the endcap that was being glued to the bowl so the tubing can go through. I also cut a whole in the 2" pipe, also for the tubing, so it can connect to the pump which sits outside the 2" PVC, on the bottom of the pot.

Theme-anything to do with the beach or ocean

Entry of the April contest.
1 pc BE Irid
1 pc Uroboros machine roll
kelp from torchworked BE
Urchin from BE strings with strings formed -torchwork
BE Crystal clear powder and Med Frit used to create bubbles.

First Firing 4/9/09
Starting temp 70 deg
Level 1.5 up to 1185 deg. Hold 15 min.
Ramp to level 5. 4:15 minutes into fusing, 1475 deg- hold for 20 minutes.
Turn to Lo
At 435 deg-turned off kiln

Results-spikes along edges, thermoshock on way down-corner broke

Second Firing
Added a back layer of Uroboros machine rolled glass. Topped this glass with a fairly thick layer of BE midnight blue powder with a medium of water/gum arabic. Then I added the result of the first fused piece, including the corner that broke off. I dammed up the sides because of the thickness. I let this dry overnight before starting the second firing.

1-Don't want to lose bubbles by trying to rapidly fire and only have a short hold at 1450 deg
2-Don't want thermal shock on the way down so I did a slower decrease in temp on the way down AKA more time on the way down.
Starting temp 64 deg
Turn on to Lo
@ 2:21 into firing time, 765 Deg-increase to Level 1
@ 1000 deg Hold 60 minutes
@ 4:41 into firing time, 1010 deg-increase to Level 3
@ 5:06 into firing time-increase to Level 3.5
@ 1150 deg-hold 10 minutes
@ 5:15-increase to Level 4
@ 5:20, 1250 deg-increase to Level 4.5
@ 6:30 temp reached 1450 deg. Held for 30 min.
Turned down to Lo
@ 10:15 into firing time-1000 deg
Turned kiln off