I thought that after reading Kev's post on his fused trays and seeing the oppportunity to recruit some new fusers I would start a thread to answer some questions on fusing and kilns. So ask away when something confuses you and, fusers lets answer what we can.
I started out in 1996 and at the time here in SA about 2 people knew something about fusing and I was'nt one of them. My first kiln {the big one} was built by a retired furnace and boilermaker who used to work for the SA Railways. There was'nt even such a thing as fusible glass.
There was no one to learn from so I had to buy books and discovered the internet with my new computer and modem that connected to the phone line and was so fast that it took about 2 min to download a web page. {oh yeah I had a 2gig hard drive.the very latest
}
Anyway lets kick off with
flip and fire. If you want to fuse strips of contrasting colored glass next to each other like Kev did with his trays first:
1 you have a blank cut to the size you want the finished piece. This is usually clear glass.
2 you then cut the alternating strips of different strips so that when they are assembled the way you want them, they are then the same size as the clear piece
3 the colored pieces are assembled on the kiln shelf and the clear blank is laid on top of the colored pieces and then they are fused together.
4 This fused together blank is then
flipped over and placed on the shelf and the clear becomes the bottom of the blank. It is then
fire polished
which is done at a lower temp then the
fusing temp
It is fire polished to smooth out any imperfections that were picked up in the surface of the colored glass when it was fused with the colored glass against the shelf
The reason for firing upside down is the if you fused the colored strips on top of the clear blank the edges of the alternating colors are inclined to bleed together and you don't have crisp clear lines where the 2 different colors abut each other. When it is done upside down the strips underneath don't creep like they would if they were on top and there is also less chance of them moving during the fusing process.
Hope this is clearer then mud
Ian
PS I have to thank Brad Walker, Gil Reynolds. The Isenbergs and Graham Stone whose book is unfortunately out of print as far as I know. Without them I would have been lost. Oh and any mistakes I make are entirely due to me So if anyone sees anything I have wrong please correct me Thats how we all learn
Ian
