#pattern bar

I also managed to sneak a few things into a kiln someone else was using: a few more pattern bar slices, and some blue and green strips for a new piece I planned.

I put the large blue, green, and gray piece into the kiln for a tack fuse. The elements being tack fused on are some pattern bar slices that have already been rounded out by a full fuse. In order to reduce the chance of additional bubbles forming from the gaps on the underside of the piece, I layered kiln paper and fiberfrax to allow air to flow more easily under the piece.

The full fusing completed successfully. The pattern bar slices smoothed out nicely, and the orange and red set had similar results to its complement.

When loading these pieces into the kiln, I noticed a small height difference between the orange and red glass. Both sheets I used were marked as 3mm, so I was surprised that there would be a noticeable difference. Even small air pockets can cause problems, so this was slightly worrying.

I spent some time arranging the orange and red-orange glass shapes to ensure they fit together neatly. Although not all of the cuts were completely clean, both types of glass tended to break the same way, so the pieces fit together well.

I spent time cutting shapes for a planned set of pieces. I drew lines at four different angles from two fixed points in order to divide the square into three pieces. I used these patterns to cut two different colors of glass, orange and red-orange. By using alternating colors of glass in each piece, I will be able to make eight square pieces.

I finally managed to finish sawing slices from the four pattern bars I constructed. The third bar had some problems since the sawblade was getting dull, but I replaced the blade before cutting the fourth bar.

By putting the slices into water after cutting them, I can keep residue from the saw from drying onto the surface of the slice, which helps keep the slices clean.