Small and Functional

After the frustration and disappointment of the clear reactive jewelry pieces, I decided to look to color and function for a quick success.  I wanted something that did not require a second firing to shape or slump, and could add some color when used - the ever useful trivit!

Trivit, using light cyan (center) and tint and aqua blue and white stringer (outer border.)

This solo piece was made using pieces of scrap glass and cutting them to fit, then adding a clear cap.

Trivit, using light cyan (center) and tint and aqua blue and white stringer (outer border.)

Each of the corners has a rubber bumper added to the bottom after firing.  These can be found in a hardware store, such as our wonderful, local ACE store, and helps keep the glass from moving and sliding around when in use.  With the bumpers, the top of the trivit can only be hand wiped and not submersed in water (without replacing the bumpers.)

I have been told not to place fused glass in the diswasher in the past and have never tested any pieces to see if there is loss of integrity or structure if you do. 

Trivit, using light cyan (center) and tint and aqua blue and white stringer (outer border.)

I  was surprised to see that there is a reaction line between the cyan and the aqua blue tint and white streaker glass.  There must be a little French vanilla in that white to create that reaction line where the two meet - curious!

I have come to the conclusion that all glass work is ultimately an experiment!

Dichroic Glass

Another early project using scrap was the construction of a picture frame.  We were fortunate to have access to a variety of small pieces of scrap from a sample catalog.  I decided to include a few dichroic samples in my frame.

Modern-day dichroic glass displays two, three, four or more non-translucent colors.  Dichroic is a composite stacking of layers of glass and micro-layers of metals or oxides (such as titanium, chromium, aluminum, zirconium, magnesium, and/or silica,)   creating the impression of shifting colors depending on the viewing angle.  The effect is actually an example of thin-film optics.  Sometimes a protective layer of quartz is added to the surface of dichroic glass.  The coating can create an effect similar to a gemstone, particularly in the way light waves reflect off the surface. 

Dichroic glass is usually used with fused or stained glass to add decoration or elaboration.  Modern dicro is available "....as a result of materials researched by NASA (and its contractors,) who were creating filters for use in space travel." 

Frame edge #1 - Two dichroic examples, frit, orange stringer, on 2mm plate glass - COE 90

In the 4th century, a small amount of Roman glass has been found that has dichroic characteristics, as well.  This translucent glass contains colloidal gold and silver particles which affects the way the glass disperses light rays.  One full vessel housed in the British Museum, appears green when lit from the front in reflected light, and purple when lit from inside or behind where the light passes through the same glass.....the light is dispersed differently.

When forming glass, the Romans had the skill and capacity to suspend both silver and gold in the molten glass prior to casting, blowing, or forming glass forms.  Did this have something to do with money and power or aesthetic properties?  If history is accurate, the Romans appreciated the creation, display, ownership, cultural incorporation, etc. of art substantially more that most current cultures.  Money and power, both then and now, are powerful forces, however.

Frame edge #2 - Dichroic pieces, frit, yellow stringer, confetti and previously fired button on 2mm plate glass - COE 90

The sides of this frame include many components of glass, including sheet glass in many colors, confetti, stringers, frit, and buttons in addition to the pieces of dichro. 

Frame edge #3 - Small dichroic, confetti, frit, stringers, and button combined with COE 90 2mm glass.

At the time, I had no idea what a wide range of elements we had at our fingertips - OR - how much money some of these "elements" would later cost if I wanted to use bigger pieces of them. 

Frame edge #4 - Dichroic, stringer, frit, and COE 90 2mm glass.

For example, a woman came to the glass studio a couple of weeks ago and wanted to fire a large, flat piece of dichro glass.  It was about 21 inches in diameter and had a multicolor herringbone pattern.  Between the cost of the glass, the clear glass to cap it, and the firing, she had more than $400 in this single piece......whether it fired successfully.......................or not!

Pack up your supplies and try another day!

In each of the examples below, clear reactive glass was used to cap something visually appealing underneath.  Lesson learned

Layers:  Left - clear reactive, thin black, topped with two smaller reactive squares and a white stringer.  Right - thin black, two white stringers, and clear reactive cap.

One of my surprises in the group below was the differences in the corners of each piece.  These four were assembled and fired at the same time.  In the upper left, the corners have pulled in quite a bit and the reactive cap has pulled more that the black underneath.  In the bottom left, the corners pulled less, but the reactive pulled to occupy a smaller space.

In the right, the corners not pull toward the largest mass, but appear to have pulled out, creating peaks....I have not observed this effect in the past and am wondering if this is also a property of the clear reactive when it is larger than a glass it is paired with.

Notice the crimson corners protruding from the piece in the lower right.  It appears as though the clear reactive has not maintained its surface tension and has pulled apart.  I  wonder why the two on the right appear to be so different in shape.

Firing companions - all fired together, yet different attributes appear, particular visible in the corners of each piece.

Whether the earrings were made with crimson, green, or black glass, the reactive cap created the same hazy results for all.

Earring wannabees!

If I need cloudy little buttons with crimson borders in the future, I am prepared.

A study in firing glass - time to call it a day and try again tomorrow!

Note:  the small, round button shapes began as squares.  The larger pieces on the bottom began as equilateral triangles with very rigid sides.

Reactive Cap Mistake

Unfortunately when I don't label my clear reactive glass, I sometimes mistake it for CLEAR glass.  In my
next clear reactive adventure, I planned pendant and earring pairs to make stunning and creative sets.  I had a couple of crimson and gold with some earring choices, a couple of black and white and a stunning bright green with yellow.  As in other jewelry pieces, I started with my color on the bottom, added an enhancement in the middle, and capped the pair with a clear top.  Below are three sets of crimson and gold button earrings. 

Three sets of crimson and gold earrings with clear reactive cap.

These might actually be quite stunning if the cap added on the top would NOT have been clear reactive instead of clear......true clear would have allowed the red and yellow colors to shine through at their intense best.  As you can see, the reactive creates a lovely overcast cloud of translucent white.

Crimson and gold pendant with reactive cap.

Above is the pendant to go with the earrings.  If you look closely, you can see the crimson around the edges and the gold band from the bright yellow stringer, that runs horizontally in the top portion of the shape.  I am not sure what caused the central air bubble, but there is an even better example of this phenomenon I will share.

The crimson and gold reactive cap set

Second crimson and gold pendant with bubble blow out during firing. 

I am not sure why this pendant developed such a large bubble in the middle.  This bubble was so large, in fact, that it burst while the piece was in the kiln.  There was not a reaction between these two pieces of glass that I am aware of, and no glue or moisture was used to assemble the piece.  As you can see in the first crimson and gold pendant, an air bubble formed right in the middle of the piece, as well.  I am very curious about the "explosion" in this piece.  If it were a "keeper," I would grind down the rough edges of the burst, fill the cavern with fine, clear frit, and re-fire the piece.  As it is, trash is trash, unless it is worth the time and firing charge to experiment with repair.......Not this time!

Learning Curve

One of the things that first attracted me to working with glass was the intensity of the transparent colors.  The first piece I made reflects this interest.  It was made using scrap glass from a big bin of discarded bits and pieces.

Scrap project using plate glass, stringers, confetti, and frit from a large bin of discarded pieces - from the top image

Although the colors are not particularly accurate in this image (i.e., the colors on your screen are NOT the colors of the actual glass, you get the idea of the color possibilities I was exploring with this very primitive crab.

Scrap project using plate glass, stringers, confetti, and frit from a large bin of discarded pieces - from the bottom image

This is also the first time I learned an important lesson - glass colors may NOT be what they appear to be.  The three bubbles above the crab appeared to be discarded clear circles in  the heap.  Once fired, I learned that these were clear REACTIVE glass, which looks clear before firing, and turns translucent white after firing.

I have since learned several lessons under the heading of ".....all glass is NOT transparent!"  Solid opalescent sheet glass, for example, may fire the color it appears to be when in a "new" sheet, OR it may become another color.  Pimento red glass coming out of the kiln, for example, begins as a sunny, warm yellow.  Fired canary yellow begins as an unassuming, pale spring green.

Some solid transparent sheets can also surprise you in this before and after transformation triggered by heat.

So, what is the solution to these chameleon-like glass properties?  Keep the code number ON you glass AND keep the company catalog (Bullseye, for example,) within arm's reach!  When you plan to construct with a lovely pumpkin orange (1322,) for example, decide if the magenta color it turns once fired will still make a stunning piece of candy corn for that Halloween decor or will the pale green (1025) feel like a delicate spring stem and leaves in shocking orange.

Recently I made a small pair of button earrings and planned to glue posts on the back and wear them with denim.  The layers of the glass I used started with French vanilla on the bottom, cyan frit in the middle, and 'what I though was a clear cap' on the top.  As you may have guess, the clear cap was really some clear reactive as in the bubbles in the crab above, and so my lovely blue and white buttons were a hazy white - not what I had planned and very disappointing.

I would like to say I learned from this mistake and have been sure not to repeat it, however........

HAPPY PI DAY! (3.14.16)

An Unfurlled Flag

Although each of the individual pieces of the starfish, now turned star, were varying sizes of squares, the smaller of these become very rounded when fired.  Notice that the larger pieces also have rounded corners, but still look very square-like.  This is a basic law of physics in action; when the  molecules of a liquid can move, the surface pulls together to occupy the smallest space possible.  The glass squares did not become spheres because they were lying on a flat surface to more significantly interrupt the surface tension.....gravity has a "hand" in that as well.

To make this image look more like the cells of an actual starfish, I would need to have smaller buttons of glass or be creating the image on a larger background....this helps explain the transition from starfish to star.

I also learned a very valuable lesson with this project.  Notice the pattern underneath the transparent brown topaz glass that look something like a molting snake skin.  This is the fired remains of the piece of paper I had drawn the starfish pattern on and slid underneath the glass to use as a guide for constructing the starfish.  No amount of soap, acetone, or vigorous scrubbing with a stiff bristle brush could remove this pattern.  It's as if something in the paper the pattern was drawn on left a chemical residue or signature etched into the glass - lesson learned!

As of today, I have not slumped this piece of assembled and fused glass into a plate, platter, or bowl.  I just can't decide if I want a companion dish for the sand dollar mini-platter, of if this would work as a cheese tray just fine if it remains flat.  For now, people want to know what state the "star flag" represents....let me know if you have a clever answer!

A Second Rectangle

I began work on a companion plate planning the image to be the same stripes on one end  and a starfish on the other end.  The stripe pattern looks very similar; four French vanilla and four brown topaz, alternating stripes. 

Stripe end of starfish rectangle.

For the starfish, I started by firing a variety of sizes of French vanilla squares.  Once fired, small pieces have rounded corners, and very small pieces actually look like dots (the candy that used to come on big strips of paper,) or buttons. 

Stripe end of sand dollar rectangle.

I placed a drawn pattern underneath the clear brown topaz square of glass, and began assembling the star shape.  In this early stage, the roundish blobs resembled a starfish in the same crude was the cut stringers and ovals resembled a sand dollar.