16TH JANUARY 2010

Flower Bowl Update . . I thought I might have gotten more done on Thursday evening . . unfortunately all I managed to do was cut and shape the white "petals" for the bowl. So . . had a good day in the studio today . . got everything ready for the first firing in the kiln to fuse the glass . . and went for it this evening!

White petals cut, trimmed and shaped. Centre circle marked out and centre circle cut. I did remove all the marker marks before assembling the pieces for fusing.

French Vanilla Petals cut and shaped and positioned over white Petals on the underside. Centre circle positioned. As you can see, the French Vanilla petals have been set slightly shorter than the white ones. This is so that when the glass fuses the FV will drop short of the edge of the white and react with it to produce a grey outline . . she says . . hopefully!

All on the kiln shelf and in the kiln ready for the first firing - a full fuse at 1500F / 815C - around 8 - 12 hours total time . . and and should be cool enough by mid-day on Sunday to start adding the decoration layers and fusing those into the design.

13th JANUARY 2010

New Project finally underway . . a Flower Bowl . . having chosen the design by a friends, family, colleagues and fellow Crafteroo . . er's vote - design No.1! Need to get a move on with this piece now . . it has to be finished by Friday morning 22nd Jan as it's going to be a Birthday Present!

Made a start on glass cutting for the bowl by cutting 3 glass circles and then splitting two of them for the flower "petals". The third circle is the main "base" of the bowl upon which the petals will be set.

So . . the next job is sizing, shaping and positioning the "petals" on the base for it's first full fuse firing. Then after that the design will be applied in layers with a full fuse firing between each one and then finally a slump firing to give the bowl it's final shape. I'll keep you posted on progress :o)

1ST JANUARY 2010

I've been working on this one all over Christmas and it came out of the kiln for the final time on New Years morning - 15 inch diameter by 4 inch deep.

24 DECEMBER 2009

After 6 days and 5 nights of labouring over sharp glass and a hot kiln I finally finished this bowl at 5.00 am on 24th December . . just in time to wrap it up and give it to a very good friend for Christmas!! Snapped the photogs at work before last minute wrapping!

New Basket Bowl - Rescued!!!

Remember my failure with the Coral Orange Basket Bowl earlier this month???
Well . . I set it aside for a week or so . . couldn't bring myself to chuck it in the scrap bin! Then I had a bright idea . . I get about 1 a month! :o) . . so I got back to work on it and managed to rescue the bowl . . fused it up some more, deep slumped it, polished it and finally etched it!
I'm dead chuffed! . . its turned out fine! See my Flickr photostream for some pics of it!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cooking-with-glass/

Today's Tip

Don't buy expensive Mullite dams for containing your work whilst firing! Consider buying a small kiln shelf and cutting it into strips using the guide fence on your diamond bladed ring saw or tile saw! Approx 3.5 cm wide strips are great for most work pieces. When set on edge during firing they are 3.5 cm high.
A small 6" x 6" kiln shelf will cost you around £7.50 and give 5 strips (thats £1.50 per strip/dam), whereas a set of four 6" mullite dams (Hot Damz) will cost you around £13.00 and thats £3.25 per dam . . more than twice the price!

New Basket Bowl On It's Way?? Total Failure!!

Total failure isn't the word for for it really . . it's completely buggered! Several of the glass "tines" or "spokes" have cracked and broken off and the centre area has cracked. It's just not repairable/recoverable . . so I'll have to post it up to "experience", put the glass in my scrap bin and give it another go!
On a brighter note, my new piece of kit finally arrived on Saturday . . so I'll be setting it up today and getting on with making good use of it!