Dots, Dots and More Dots!

I finally dedicated some time to the creation of dots.  In the past when I have needed a small circle or two, I just haven't had one handy.  At the end of one Saturday morning studio session, I had a few extra minutes and so pulled lots of small scraps and cut them into even smaller pieces.  It is the easiest to glue them to a piece of shelf paper so that moving them from a table to a kiln self is painless.

Scraps attached to shelf paper and ready to go into the kiln.

Above is one of the 3" X 4" pieces of shelf paper I filled with small pieces of glass in preparation for creating a dot warehouse - OK, a mini dot warehouse. 

Below you will see the results of my efforts, and if you care to take the time, you can match the pre-kiln pieces to the post-firing dots.  Studying these small pieces in this way is actually a great way better understands the properties of glass when heat is added.

Look above at the row of orange chunks.  You'll notice that those that start rectangular become oval or eliptical in shape while those that start as triangles tend to remain near triangles. 

Orange dots after firing.

This study is a great reminder that, when molten, glass is a fluid and assumes the properties of a fluid.  When molten, the glass molecules pull together to form the smallest shape possible; contact with the paper underneath interferes with the pieces forming pearl-shaped marbles, however.  Gravity wins again.

Medium blue dots after firing.

You can run the same comparison with the blue dots, doing a before and after comparison.

Burgundy dots after firing.

The burgundy dots were from a second 3" X 4" sheet of scrap pieces. 

French vanilla dots after firing.

The French vanilla shapes above also started on the sheet above..if you are comparing, you'll have an added challenge, because all of the "after firing" dots are not here.

Dot party!!!!

Any time I have an inch or two of space on a firing sheet, I pull out my small scrap pieces and plan for a few more dots members.  I am not sure which I learn more from, the before and after study of the dots or the stacking and manipulating of layers......it's all learning!  (Notice what the scrap opalescent pieces did....the glass underneath is black, but the coating on the surface melts at a different temperature and those molecules did NOT pull together to form the smallest shape - interesting, ah?)