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