Yin/Yang glass clay

I did 2 firing yesterday, one successful and the other....

The first firing I did was supposed to be a slump. It was a water scene that I was going to slump over the bottom of a bowl mold, instead of into it. I put the piece in the kiln and fired like I had done a few times before:
Lo for 20 minutes. Every 10 minutes after, I turned it up a level. At 60 minutes, the temp in the kiln was at 1000 so I turned it to HI. I peeked into the kiln (through the peep hole) to see if I could tell where the glass temp was (red hot or not). When I saw the glass, it looked like it had fallen off the mold so I decided to open up the kiln. To my disappointed surprise, the piece was broken into several pieces. So I turned off the kiln and waited for it to cool. I can either start over or just forget this piece. I don't want to admit this, but I am disappointed that this cracked so I'm not taking a picture.

Onto the next firing. It is for the group competition - Theme is Butterflies or other garden insects.
So here are 2 possibilities to enter...


Yin/Yang - Woodland Brown/Green and Brown Streaky
Dragonfly - Powder Blue made into glass clay.
Wings - Irid ripple



Yin/Yang - Translucent Purple/ Soft Yellow Opal, Deep Red
Dragonfly - Gold Purple powder made into clay
Wings - Clear Herringbone ripple with PearlEx brushed on top
Uroboros marigold powder

Next on the list:
-Pick on to enter
-Post on on etsy
-Start the next one of sunset/sunrise

NOTE: The glass clay doesn't soften out like I thought it would. Any defects are still visible so they must be smoothed out before firing. Of course now that I say this, anything I intend to stay will soften out and disappear.
-Finish the Song competition
-Get ideas on what to make/enter for the Fair

Paris in the fall

Onto the second firings because the powder pulls together trying to become a certain thickness and creating gaps.

Once these are fired a second time, I'll know if I have to do a third. I'm hoping it won't be required since that's more time, I'll lose some of the texture, and it's recommended 3 firings max (though I've fired some things more than that).

Now I have an idea on how I want this displayed, but I might be DQed from the competition. I'll pose the question to the group and see what they say, but I'm envisioning all 4 tiles framed separately but considered as one piece.

I'm going to the thrift store to see if I can find some frames that are identical and I can alter. I'll need several frames to do this so they are going to have to be the same frames. Luckily there's a good thrift store walking distance from me. No carbon footprint to get them (if I can find them there) and recycling ;) Yeah!

I LOVE PARIS Encore2

Summer after first firing
Winter after first firing
Spring after first firing
Fall before fired
So the next step is:
-Fire Fall tile
-Add more powder to the other fired tiles
-Figure out how I'm going to arrange the tiles, how I want to see this displayed, etc.

NOTE: The Winter tile seems to be dark and shows up the best when light is shining through the back.

Song title competition and I LOVE PARIS

The competition is to create a piece inspired from a song title so I started thinking of singers, bands, songs, etc. that I liked. Most were hard for me to conceptualize as a glass piece.

John Denver's Rocky Mountain High...
John Denver's Eagle and the Hawk...
Bette Midler's The Rose...
Eagles' Desperado...and the list goes on.

I am admittedly a Francophile. So when I found out that a friend is stranded in Paris right now (boo hoo, right?), I started thinking there must be songs about Paris, with Paris in the title...Bingo!

Cole Porter wrote "I Love Paris" sung by Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole (and I'm sure others too).

So the chorus of:
I love Paris in the springtime
I love Paris in the Fall
I love Paris in the summer when it sizzles
I love Paris in the winter when it drizzles
made me think of a piece showing an iconic Paris thing in the four seasons.
I started by drawing the Eiffel Tower with black Liquid Stringer onto 4 separate clear tiles and let them dry before adding the powder frit.

Winter before firingSpring before firing

I have Winter in the kiln right now. I want to see how it turns out and if the clouds look good, I'll add a top layer of white to Spring for depth and interest.

Now I wish I had a bigger kiln so I can fire more than one tile at a time but since space is limited, I should just be happy that I have a kiln.

FIRST GLASS CLAY PC

-Image stamped is a bit too subtle but I don't know if that's because of the dark color clay or the stamp itself.
-BE Midnight Blue used to make the clay (with some silver pixie dust used on the stamp first)

Firing:
Starting Temp 80 deg
AFAP to 1370 and hold 10 min

Lo
At 10 min, temp=330
HI 32 min, temp=1370
Hold and off
Total kiln time 43 min.

I was using Barry Kaiser's tutes for making and firing the clay.

Accepting the unexpected...Again

The canary yellow swirls were done with the LS I made and put into a squeeze bottle. I traced a swirls onto a commercial wax paper (it's actually the wrapping from some graham crackers) and let the LS dry before placing on top of BE black.

I see the potential of this method. The LS was not a smooth finish, but I might be able to solve this by holding at 1450 longer. I was hoping for an enamel-like finish. I might be able to get this effect if I play around with the thickness of the LS swirls or designs, the length I hold at 1450, etc.

I didn't hold the temp at 1000 degrees and maybe that's why it bubbled. I also didn't add any chads, which also may have helped.



Here I tried to make my own glass bale, fusing directly onto a finished piece. Mistake!
First- I forgot about the rule that the glass wants to be at a specific thickness. So when this was fired, some stayed and some parts shrunk.
Second-I didn't have the cap piece wide enough (see the exposed fiber paper).
Third-I fired this design down, which created an added texture, which I didn't want. Even though I fired on fiber paper, it just doesn't produce a smooth, shiny finish.

More learning lessons ;)

Firing schedule - Starting temp 69 deg
Lo
At 47 min, temp = 570, increase to L2
At 1:15, temp = 775, increase to L3
At 2:00, temp = 1040, increase to L4 (no hold)
At 2:17, temp = 1235, increast to L5
At 2:50, temp = 1450. Held for 34 min.
At 3:24, turned off kiln to cool overnight.

3 firing - slump

Manual Firing Schedule
Starting Temp 85
Lo
After 20 min, temp=400, up to L2
30 min, temp=540, up to L3
40 min, temp=685, up to L4
50 min, temp=838, up to L5
60 min, temp=990, turn to HI
1:12, temp=1350 and draped fully.
Flash cooled until temp read 1200 deg.
Put lid back on and turn kiln off.

I didn't keep an eye on the kiln after turning to HI. I was surprised that it got that hot in 12 minutes and that it was draped to where I wanted it to be.

This is a stainless steel tea cup mold. Even the circles seem to end up more square-like.

2nd firing

The stringer didn't flatten out, which I was surprised. I took the temp up to 1450, but I didn't hold it.


The texture stayed where I applied the second layer of stringer. Next phase is to slump.

Manual Firing Schedule:
Note: Starting temp in kiln - 85 deg

Lo for 60 min.
At 60 min, temp=670, turned up to L2
At 1:30, temp=900, turn up to L3
At 2:00, temp=1050, turn up to L4
At 2:20, temp=1240, turn up to L5
At 2:30, temp=1330, turn up to L6
At 2:42, temp=1450
Turn kiln off and let cool overnight.

Second phase of the liquid stringer

Gecko after being fired.


You can see where the green has pulled away from the black outline. I filled in the space with more green, went over some of the lines that were too light with the black stringer, and let dry fully.



Now I have to wait until it is out of the kiln, after the second firing. I also added some of the details to the ladybugs.

I'm hoping the green doesn't pull away from the black outline again.

Alto Relif

I am so thrilled that I got Honorable Mention on this piece.


Piece Installed

Yes this is a re-post but I'm so thrilled. The ravens, my BFs favorite bird because they are intelligent, a spiritual symbol in some cultures, and mate for life are the perfect symbol for our home. The clear vs black is also sort of a yin/yang thing.

Liquid Stringer test

I mixed up 2 colors of liquid stringer: BE Red and BE Jade Green. I tried to write with these 2 samples, but the edges softened and spread. I don't know the why it is doing this. Maybe the CMC wasn't thick enough. Or maybe because I added some water when mixing in order to be a smoother consistancy. I didn't add much water, though. If I didn't add the water, the consistancy was like an overly-dry cake mix.

My technique for the leaves is this:
I used the Liquid Stringer I bought as the outline for the leaves. I drew this over a heating pad so it would dry out quicker. One dry (or started to dry out), I filled in the space with the jade green LS I made. I filled it farely heavy-handed, but didn't take it all the way to the edge. I let it bleed over to the outline before adding more.

As for the ladybugs, I drew 3 but only added the head with the black LS to one. I'm planning on firing once to see how it turns out. After it's fired, I'll add the head and dots to the ladybugs.





Here I cut out a gecko with a saw and used the LS I made to add some detail. I didn't let this dry before placing in the kiln. My intention is to fire at a slower pace in the beginning.