First Kiln Test

I’ve been so busy playing with the new kiln, that I haven’t had time to post anything here on how it’s going. So here are some pictures of the first few things I put in the kiln to test a full fuse firing schedule.

The first picture is before firing. Most of the pieces are Spectrum 96 Opal Art glass with a clear layer on top. One is a base layer of turquoise glass with a smaller square of the Opal Art glass on top. There is also a small square of red cathedral glass with a bit of dichroic glass. This was some scrap glass that I threw in at the last minute.

Here is the result.

So what did I learn?

• Opal art glass has a slight texture to it that can result in some small bubbles. When I cut the Opal Art glass I also found that scoring on the patterned side of the glass worked better for me than scoring on the smooth side. This is contrary to conventional wisdom.

• Don’t throw things in the kiln at the last minute. If I had thought about it for more than a nanosecond, I would have realized the red pieces were too small.  When they started to heat up they separated or fell off. A second layer on top stacked like bricks probably would have prevented this.

Stay tuned for me kiln experiments!