#40 Paul Tarlow

#41 Anitra Watley Allen

Now that all my glass emissaries have been labeled, bagged, boxed and shipped all the things that I would have, could have and should have done to make them better come to mind. They will be strewn all over the country, well the world for that matter, conjure them perfect I would; but the deadline for their transport had arrived, and I have no more time to give them. So I send my ambassadors off into this world
with as much finishing as I could give them at this instant. I pray that they’ll make me the proud if I ever meet them again. There is much I would have done differently to save time and some things wouldn’t have done it all. A superior learning curve was obtained during this endeavor. For instance:
• There is a vast gradient of temperatures in my kiln from top to bottom
• Skills to reduce and combat devitrification were acquired
• Discovery of the fact that I must be crazy was encountered more than once
• Small matter how careful one is in cutting glass one will still bleed on it
• Inclusions find air bubbles irresistible
• Not all copper wire is created equally
• Glass is a lot like hard candy
• In the same way that first cousins really should not marry, clay artists should stay away from glass photo
• There’s always a piece of expensive equipment one could use to do the job easier if not better and faster
• The more you learn the more there is to learn
• CMC leaves a residue
• One can not over clean glass
• Prototypes are easier than production

So therefore my time was not wasted.

Introduction:
Glass log: Jan. 6, 2006 I've taken on a rather large and unprofitable glass project. I am exchanging “mag-glass/Magless” (refrigerator magnets without magnets, made of glass) with 125 other glass artists from around country (and a few from the world at-large). The deadline is February 14 (actually to 17th, but it needs to be delivered by then); that seems so far
away in November when I signed up; but now it's just next month. Yesterday the second stage of this project was completed; and that was making the clay molds in
which to form the “mag-glass”.

It takes 2 or 3 days to dry before the trays is ready for the bisque firing. Bisque firing at 1800° Fahrenheit, cone 06, is run after the clay is completely dry. The clay mold trays take 2 or 3 days to totally dry ready for bisque firing at 1800° Fahrenheit, (cone 06). Surprisingly enough, I am not in full panic mode yet but I am starting to be concerned about the
time left.

Glass log: Jan.07, 2006
“What is the point of this magnet business?” a fellow clay artist asked me. Well I should obtain 125 glass pieces in this exchange. Well as lease in presumption. It seems at lease five people never get it done. I should recieve some one hundred plus maglesses. Let me send you to last year’s exchange, http://www.warmglass.org/magnet/2005_Section_One.htm. You will notice some of these are made with pride and great expertise while others are done on a wish and a prayer. Various ones have well equipped glass shops while others who get by with the bare necessities. The last few years have yielded a charming assortment of glass pieces. I desire to have a collection of glass boggles like this. This could be a grand teaching tool. “Ahhhhhh,”says my friend, knowingly. “There is no money in it” Why then am I doing this, one might as? Well… to tell the truth, I’m not sure. I am not certain why I am playing with glass to begin with; after all, I am a clay artist. I will have this to show for the winter of 2006, maybe? Yes, I’m having fun with it but it is costing me time and resources without justification; it is sort of like a vacation. I’d been keeping the time I’m wasting here a secret from my spouse. Yes it is a wayward little magless secret. The four trays I made for my glass are drying now and I will bisque today or Monday. 4 trays of 16 cavities each means I’ll have 64 pieces in the first full fuse firing. I could not help myself on the last two trays I carved grooves into the bulb bottoms; I’m sorry now for all other the magless won’t be exactly the same. I’d plan on making extras in case of breakage and seconds. It is very hard for me to produce the same design without change. I have the same problem making cookies.

Glass log: January 10, 2006.
The bisque firing for tray molds ran yesterday; the iln is cooling; it is around 500° now. This afternoon, the kiln can be unloaded and six or seven layers of kiln primer will need to be painted on to these forms. There's plenty to do during the wait because now 150 of those wire dolls need to be made. Certainly they won't all be made before the kiln cools. The wrapping of these dolls has become much quicker now that a couple of dozen have been made. The prototype took a nice bit of time, but once the sequence of wrapping was figured out they can be done mindlessly while watching television. I however will sit on the patio and enjoy watching the quail, the bunnies and the neighbor’s horses once the sun burns the chill off this morning’s air. The wire used for the dolls was obtained from an electronic salvage supplier. It is copper wire even though it appears silvery, most likely it has a tinned coat, probably lead. After embedding in glass, it turns a reddish copper color. After wrapping these little figures, I flattened them on an anvil with a hammer; the flattened wire doll embeds easier between glass layers. I get quite a little rhythm section going as I flattened my wire dolls, which scares most of the critters away, all but the flies that is.

Glass log: 1/17/06
After a week of preparation and cutting glass the first batch of glass for my magnet/magglass were fired to cone 014. They are truly awful; they look more like tubes than bulbs, very misshapen. They have many unsightly bumps and bulges and points; in short they are deformed. I also noticed some devitrification. Oh well, I'll rework them; I can't have them looking that crude. I must have taken the kiln up too slowly.

Perhaps I should mention that I’m using Bullseye glass CEO 90. The kiln is a small Paragon, ceramic kiln; it has nearly one cubic foot capacity. It's a manual kiln, just a sitter and a timer; there's neither computer interface, nor fire mate. I turn the kiln from low to medium to high at single hour intervals. It has no elements on either the floor or the lid, only in the walls. The trays are stacked with 1 inch between levels. After firing the color of the copper wire varies from white to copper to black; whatever was used to tin coat that wire is giving some odd results, there is a remote possibility that it is a metal other than copper. Glass log: 1/18/06 First thing this morning after grooming was for me to go out to the studio and flip the switch on the kiln. That's right, lot 2 is firing as I write this. It will probably take four hours to come to temperature; that's about 1500° Fahrenheit. I'll let it soak this photo 8. Very disappointing this first batch, I'll washed and fire them on their reverse side. photo 6 before (left) and after.

After firing the color of the copper wire varies from white to copper to black; whatever was used to tin coat that wire is giving some odd results, there is a remote possibility that it is a metal other than copper.

Glass log: 1/18/06
First thing this morning after grooming was for me to go out to the studio and flip the switch on the kiln. That's right, lot 2 is firing as I write this. It will probably take four hours to come to temperature; that's about 1500° Fahrenheit. I'll let it soak this time at temperature for about 10 minutes before a crash cooling it to 1000°F. I've read, in theory, if I let it sit at temperature it should level out nicely.

Glass must be cooled, very slowly from 1000° back to room temperature; the hardest thing for me to do is wait the 24 hours it takes to cool. I learned this the hard way. Once I opened a kiln early; that mistake caused cracks. Now I trust a Pyrometer.

Results of firing:

The copper wire from my old battery cable has a blue/green halo around it, possibly from battery acid. Few figures were made from this wire, but it's an interesting side effect that I may try more of. The figures that I dipped in the ceramic pigment have an attractive patina. The iridescent glass highlights embedded between layers is hardly noticeable unless you're looking for it.

Glass log: January 22, 2006
Unloading today’s kiln, which was fired at cone 015 I’ve found borax solution also works well on the devitrification, but one must be very careful in its application. If any of the solution drips onto the reverse side of the glass there is a problem with kiln wash sticking to one’s work, ensuing in the need to rock tumble it. It is best to spray on the borax solution, but of course that takes another piece of equipment; that is a sprayer plus the compressor to run it. Also I’ve read sandblasting the surface and firing will solve all devitrification problems providing of course, that one has a sand blaster. The floor of the kiln is much colder than the rest the kiln. Therefore, the bottom inch or so of the kiln is not suited for full fuse. The top of the kiln near the lid is also too cool for a full fuse.

Glass log: 2/07/06
Busy, busy, busy and yet, so far from being done. Here I am coming close to that February 14 deadline and I'm only one third of the way there. My magless secret is out of the bag as the hubby took vacation days this week; he notice my attentions were elsewhere. “Honey” I said, “I’ve got a deadline.” He is disenchanted now, but just wait until I dazzled him with the most intriguing refrigerator magnets collection in all of Arizona!

The glass pieces were developing a cloudy haze from being fired multiple times. The scummy haze is called devitrification; I understand it is a growth of microscopic crystals on the surface of the glass; it's the mark of a true amateur, which I just happen to be. To counteract the spots of scummy surface I've purchased a rock tumbler and tumble the glass pieces, overnight. After tumbling, the result is an evenly frosted surface.

Luckily the rock tumbler was on sale, only 20 bucks! An artist friend loaned me her tumbler, which hadn't been used for 20 years; but it had all the carbide grits with it. The loan tumbler was a much better make than the Chinese one that I bought. Between the two tumblers I was able to get 50 of them ground off and fire polished. They're bit of all right! My Chinese rock tumbler has busted to drive belts, and is now out of commission while the 20- year-old American-made one is still going strong.

Conclusions:
On the whole this was a most expensive, laborious, time-consuming project; Speaking of time, it took the entire day just to put them into little plastic bags with labels on them. It is factual “that every good idea is 1% inspiration 99% perspiration”. It helps to know that there are at least 125
other people in this as foolish as I am.

If I were to do it again, I’d probably use float glass and metal oxides rather than that costly Bullseye art glass. I’d also want a partner, preferably one with greater expertise; and a better-equipped studio plus a shoulder to cry on. However, I feel now that I shall not do this again.

A helpful discovery I shall pass on is that latex exam gloves can reduce the amount of glass sliver cuts on one’s hands as well as keeping one’s hands warm in a chilly studio.The last pieces out lost the angst those first worked and reworked ones had. As a process became a little more streamlined the work became more relaxed and refined.

Cone 014 seem to be the best firing temperature for full fuse in the belly of my ceramic kiln; that is 1525 degrees F or 830 C. This temperature allows me to fire polish on the floor of the kiln and to hard tack fire at the top of the kiln. It does little to crash vent the kiln to stop devitrification. It may even be hard on the kiln and the furniture. When using cones soaking after the cone bends does minuscule to shape. The soft diffused surface of the rock tumbled glass was preferred but I had to stay the course of harder fire polished look.

Thanks be to God, that I was healthy enough, wealthy enough and spiritually inclined to finish this project. Now that it’s all over I can shout out loud, Glory, Glory Hallelujah!

#42 Kent Allen

What I learned:
Perfecting the Magless will take more time than originally estimated.
Punching out over 252 butterflies is a tedious task.
I originally started the project trying to fuse a penny between a layer solid background color and a clear layer. I quickly learned that not all pennies are created equal. Here's a Penny's History

• The composition was pure copper from 1793 to 1837
• From 1857, the cent was 88 percent copper and 12 percent nickel, giving the coin a whitish appearance.
• The cent was again bronze (95 percent copper, and five percent tin and zinc) from 1864 to 1962.
(Note: In 1943, the coin's composition was changed to zinc-coated steel. This change was only for the year 1943 and was due to the critical use of copper for the war effort. However, a limited number of copper pennies were minted that year.
• In 1962, the cent's tin content, which was quite small, was removed. That made the metal composition of the cent 95 percent copper and 5 percent zinc.
• The alloy remained 95 percent copper and 5 percent zinc until 1982, when the composition was changed to 97.5 percent zinc and 2.5 percent copper (copper-plated zinc). Cents of both compositions appeared in that year.

I found that new pennies melt into what is best described as small zinc BB’s. I then tried 1962 to 1981 vintage, the pennies didn’t melt, but got a lot of bubbles. I tried, 2 months every weekend 2 firings every Saturday and Sunday, to eliminate the bubbles with different soak, ramp times, temperatures, glass etc. No matter how slow the ramp down and soak temperatures of the penny fusing schedule, all of the pennies would crack the base layer. I could never eliminate the
bubbles completely.

Time and patience running thin, I switched over to pure copper butterflies, no bubbles. For this set of Magless, I used Spectrum System 96 Hi-Fire Iridescent Black #I/1009SF as the background and Spectrum System 96 Clear Smooth Cathedral #100SFS as the clear cap.

Fusing Schedule:

#44 Barbara Elmore

Ok, from the beginning, I took a class with Brad Walker a few months ago, and one of the things I brought for an experiment was some brass steel woolish stuff. Made by Mr. Clean, If you are careful, you can punch out one end, and un-crochet it. If you roll it out, it looks like chain-maille (not sure if that is the word, think of jousting in Medieval times and the stuff that covered their arms).

Wrapped the brass around a Bullseye clear iridized glass in a cross hatch pattern, with plain Bullseye glass on the top and the bottom. Did this in a pattern bar size, 6 x 10 or so, and ramped up very slowly, did a bubble squeeze and held at 1450 for 30 minutes.

Everything looked OK.

Then I cranked up the Taurus #3 and the blade went flying. No words of wisdom from Gemini. So, we took off and went to Harbor Freight (about 80 miles away) and bought a wet tile saw, that was luckilly on sale, for $59.00 or so.

Sliced up the pattern bars into a 1 x 1 1/2 rectangles, hand polished the edges with three different diamond pads, put a Borax overspray on them and pretty much
followed the same temps and time, but at a lower top temperature, 1350, so I wouldn't round out the sides, and keep it rather crisp, with less of a hold.

Wrong.

The wrapped middle layer of iridized clear glass, covered with the copper wire, albeight very, very, small gauge, wouldn't let the whole thing completely fuse. The edges were, well, yucky. 40% went into the trash, 60% are included, but with
apologies

What I have learned? 3 layers of glass is too much without thinking ahead to how the glass will behave (or absolutely NOT behave) when it isn't damed.. Looks like a tire with bubbles, everywhere they could form.

Places (like big, big zits) in the top of the cab popped off and landed on the other side of the kiln. Cabs moved, and moved a LOT, to meet with other cabs even tho I had spaced them well and they were not wet, nor was anything else in the kiln.

Did the best that I could, and tried to figure out what to do next. Today is Tuesday, the rest are drying, and I'll be lucky if they make it to Texas by Friday.

This second phase has been made individually, as was the prototype. The sandwich is made up of graduated pieces of glass. The bottom layer is approximately 2 and 3/4 inches. The middle is made up of a slightly smaller piece, of maybe 2 1/2 inches of iridized glass wrapped in copper, and the top is the largest piece ( 2 13/16" or a bit more) so that it can cover and drape down over (hopefully) the rough edges of the copper in the middle.

Final schedule: for a square 3 layers thick ,and 2 and 13/16 or a bit more at its widest.
1. 300 dph to 1000, hold 10 minutes
2. 200 dph to 1250, hold 15 minutes
3. 400 dph to 1475, hold 30 minutes
4. 500 dph to 960, hold 35 minutes
5. 250 dph to 700, hold 10 minutes.
6. Off, and let cool to room temperature overnight.

I have tweaked and tweaked this schedule and still don't understand where the things are blowing up and moving all over the kiln!

I really wanted more of the blue color from the copper, but mostly got red and purple. In some cases, where I was doing the pattern bar thing, the colors were all over the place, blues on the outside (that kind of "leaked" into the clear glass),
then the purples and reds and golds as you got to the center. Maybe I didn't hold long enough on the way up?

The colors of the copper have been mystifying......................Some stayed a copperish purple, some a copperish gold, and some turned a beautiful blue/green.

Funny thing, tho, all these colors were sometimes in the same pattern bar, with holds to even the temp, and holds to minimize the bubbles. Go figure. The one I did in Brad Walker's class was great. The top layer was cut larger so that it could come down and cover the sides to hide the mesh, colors were great, no problem.

I guess it's one of those things that needs to be done individually, and I will finish this up tomorrow or when I can open the kiln.

#45 Cecilia Davis-Taylor

#46 Robert Krug

#48 Tim Smith

#49 Kelly Alge

#50 Linda Hattershide

#51 Tony Smith

#52 David Wingo

#53 Darlene Palmer

How-to for "Dichroic Flats"

Rectangular BE black base, a slightly smaller piece of Wasser metallic antique copper, and a small piece of dichroic balloon glass. All pieces glued together. A drop of turquoise Glassline paint is added to each corner. Then after allowing the glue to dry overnight, each piece is turned upside down on the kiln shelf and fused at 500 degrees to 960, then fast as possible to 1450. No hold. Open door to fast cool to 1050, then left overnight.

What I Learned....
The idea was to make the dichroic side of the magless as flat as possible and have the Glassline paint dots in the corners end up on the sides. In order to have each piece of glass be centered, they needed to be glued and left to dry overnight. The first couple of test pieces didn’t have enough glue and fell apart when turned over. Learning my lesson, I added more glue and left overnight again. This time they remained together and fired correctly.

#54 Marsha Toms

My maglesses are miniature pot melts done in very tiny clay pots. The glass I used was about ¾ clear mixed with yellow, adventurine green, and cobalt (I think) blue. I enlarged the holes on the pots and stacked the glass inside horizontally. Fired to 1700 degrees for 30 minutes. I was able to fire about 10 at a time and I was able to keep reusing the pots. I hope you enjoy

#55 Michelle Gotthold

My magless is a 1.5" square of bullseye opal (many are curious colors) topped by a 1" square of white. The white square was sprinkled with Thompson enamels then covered with clear frit. All was brought to a full fuse. What really surprised me was how much difference there was in how the different colored bases "beaded up" -- I know different colors absorb heat differently, but I was surprised by just how much! The steel blue pieces fused so much they were almost more round than square while the red and powder blue pieces were closer to tack fused than full. (I re-fused the tack fused pieces so they would flatten out more.) I also learned that I can only do one full fuse with opals on a shelf before changing the kiln wash -- one whole batch came out with needling and rough edges when I tried to get a second firing on one shelf.

#56 Linda Hassur

I started trying to cut out strips that were straight enough to fuse together. I soon realized this was going to be a big job. I had a "Silberschnitt Roll up pad with parallel cutter" that I hadn't used but a couple times. I got it out and that was the answer. You can cut straight thin strips that are very accurate. I cut out strips of all colors of opaque 90COE BE glass. I used BE opaque white for the
bottom piece and placed the colored strips on top of it. My kiln will only hold a 10X12 inch piece of glass so that was the size I fired. Unfortunately, my kiln started "spitting" small pieces of kiln brick from the top elements. So it ended up taking a lot more time since I had to drill these pieces out and refire. I also had problems with devit on some of the colors so used overglaze for that problem.

I cut the large piece of glass into strips about the length of each heart. I used a pattern that I traced onto these strips. I used a Pilot thinline pen for this purpose. I roughed out the shapes using a glass cutter and breaking pliers. I then applied Chapstick on the pen lines so I could keep the pattern visible during the grinding process. On pieces that were too much to grind, I used a glass saw to get
the shape more accurate. I then did a lot of grinding. I used a small grinding head to shape out the tops of the hearts. They were then fired again and sometimes again and again because of devit. I just kept using either Spray A or clear overglaze on the hearts and fired again.

I was pleased with the way they turned out. To me they resemble striped hard candy.

#57 Katy Wills

Little Keyboards

Cut base pieces and add stringer to be the spaces between fuse (1380). Add the keys and fuse again (1330).

Next time, I would fuse the bases upside down so that the doesn't move. I lost a few pieces firing the way I did.

#58 Patti Rohwer-Nutter

Mine were pretty simple - I was initially inspired by African Kiffa beads. In Northwest Africa, women grind bottles to make powder, make a paste with gum arabic and/or spit, and then make beads decorated with intricate patterns of powdered glass. The beads are then fused on sand in a can on top of a charcoal fire. (See http://www.lapidaryjournal.com/feature/june00str.cfm).

I used Bullseye powder mixed with distilled water and different amounts of gum arabic, Klyr-Fire and/or clear mucilage (just what I happed to have on hand). All three binders worked equally well, but black powder mixed with mucilage makes a
thick goo that feels like a mixture of silly putty and snot!

Shaped "biscuits" out of a stiff powder mix, let dry for an hour or so. Drizzed or dotted different slurries of powder, dried under a hot lamp for 8-12 hours, then fused (either 1400 x 10' or 1420 x 20'). Vented the kiln on the way up until it reached 1000-1100 degrees to burn off all glue residue.

At first I tried to make patterns reminiscent of those found on kiffa beads, but it was very laborious getting the suspended powder evenly suspended and keeping consistent lines and dots. I started randomly drizzling the powder slurry and aiming for a marbled look. I'm planning on making my own CMC "liquid stringer" mix the next time I try this, which will hopefully give me better control.

#59 Denise Dennstedt

I decided to combine two techniques with my mags. Copper inclusions & powdered frit stenciling. My magless’s consists of 2 layers of Bullseye 90 COE glass. The base glass is white & the top glass is clear. I was going for a look of depth with the moose behind the tree.

I tried two different coppers, one being a semi- thin sheet cooper the other is an adhesive backed copper foil in sheet form. I used a paper punch to cut out the moose shapes. I found that the preferred the adhesive backed foil for three
reasons 1) it was thinner so, easier to punch, 2) it stuck to the glass & stayed in place and 3, because it didn’t require a bubble squeeze firing as did the other copper sheet.

I tried several different green frits before I settled on Adventurine green. Each tree has two layers of powder.

The lay-up:
white/moose/clear/stenciled tree

firing schedule:

500/1400 -hold 10/full/960- hold 15/off (fire schedule for adhesive backed foil)
500/1100-hold 20/150/1250 hold 5/600/1400-hold 10/full/960-hold 15/off (fire schedule for sheet copper)
Next I added a 2nd layer of powder and took it up to not quite a full fuse, I wanted a raised look.
500/1350-hold10/full/960- hold 15/off

And there you have it a moose in the woods

#60 Monika Libor

First I would like to thank Brad for providing the Warmglass board and the Warm Tips Section, which gives me the opportunity to learn everyday about glass without having to travel and take classes.

This is the first time that I was able to take part in the Magless-Exchange, and almost dropped out because the kiln-gods were not with me on two runs (speak 100+ pieces), having trouble to get the material I needed in my area, not enough time off from work etc

Thanks to Suzanne for her encouragement and setting my head straight and getting me back on track again.

Loving chocolate (especially Belgian Chocolate) and having the insert of one of those chocolate boxes to use as my master mold, just to try it out, was the first step. Reading about pate de verre and color the verre and curious to try it out to see were I can go with it was part two. And thinking of my Grandma, my parents and all those delicious fondant sugar sweets during Christmas time and on our Christmas tree (oh sweet childhood) was part three.

Ingredients:
a. distilled water, plaster of Paris, silica flour (325 mesh)
b. Mold, Pam Spray, Cling Film, Tupperware or cardboard box
c. Glass, Frit, Powder, CMC, Mica, Airbrush, Hairspray
d. Hammer and news paper (to make Frit)
e. following Brads Book and casting guidelines (Warm Tips) and all the
other contributions on the Warmglass board about kiln casting,
f. Time, patients and a supportive spouse.

How to:
1. prepared mold, Clingfilm in cardboard box, master mold sprayed with Pam,
2. mixing equal parts of distilled water, plaster and silica
3. pouring mold and releasing after it’s set and letting air dry for 24hrs
4. using airbrush to apply mica on mold
5. filling molds with frit and powder in different layers and as high as
possible
6. firing and cooling back to room temp (26 hrs)
7. checking, refilling and re firing,
8. Waiting, cleaning; and wishing for cold working equipment.

Firing Schedule (in my kiln Skutt GM1014): (wet mold)
I.) 200°- 225° hold 120min,
II.) 200°- 350° hold 120min,
III.) 200°- 850° hold 60min
IV.) 300°- 1050° hold 20min,
V.) 400° - 1375°hold 90min,
VI) 9999 to 950 hold 120min
VII.) 50 to 800 hold 30min,
VIII.) 50 to 700 hold 30min,
IX.)Let cool to room temp 12hrs+).

Reload and re-fire a lot faster since mold doesn’t have to dry, but handle with care. Checking, cleaning, sorting and starting all over again a few times.

What did I learn?
- have more material than needed; but I had fun smashing the glass to make frit,
- start early if you have a day job, (more time to get more stuff)
- don’t loose patience and start over if the kiln gods fail me again
- trusting my family if they tell me it looks “cool”
- And that take out isn’t that bad at all (if you don’t have time to cook).
- Start saving to buy cold working equipment!

Monika # 60

*Be the Change you want to see in the World. (Mahatma Gandhi)*

#61 Larry Lunsford

#62 Dianne Van de Carr

I made a new sheet of glass by fusing a base Bullseye 3304. I think it was curious. The tiny pieces of dichroic were added across the surface with tweezers, some face up and some face down. Then strips of 1441-50 were placed on top. It was fused to about 1440 with a 22 minute hold. After the first fusing, I cut strips and then triangles with a "tile clinker". That made cutting and breaking the strips much easier. The center of the triangle was removed with my "ameritool" saw. The corners were nipped off with a tile nipper. Then I grozed the glass to smooth it further. No grinding. Then back into the kiln to be fired again to 1440 with a 18 minute hold to round out the edges. The big revelation for me this year was discovering that I could use the tile clinker to cut and break glass. It has
revolutionized how I cut thick glass.

#63: Michele Rubin

Screen-Printed Orcas

1. Cut and full fuse 2 layers of glass for bases. I used black irid for the back piece and plain black DR for the top. The irid back insures that the glass will not pick up any kiln wash during the fusings.
2. For the orcas, I made a silk screen that had 30 design elements in a 6 x 5 layout on a 12” x 12” screen. I cut BE red DR to fit within the screen dimensions. Black Paradise paint mixed with A-13 was used for the printing. After printing the sheets of design elements were fused at 1425 deg for 10 mins to mature the printed images. I did not do anything to avoid devitrification and was pleased not to have that problem.
3. The design elements were cut into strips by hand and then the individual elements were cut on the bandsaw.
4. The design elements were placed on the bases and tack fused at 1385 deg for 8 minutes.

#65 Debra Young

Made 7 casting molds for the faces
Used hairspray or CMC (whichever was closest) mixed with opaque powder frit for the details
The majority was backfilled with opaque powder frit and fired once
Lots of experiementing with frits and mica
Used 'Back Magic' on a few to get a luster like appearance
Some are unique and some are just plain homely but to say the least...no two alike
Hope you enjoy them

#67 Susan Morita

#68 Loretta Brost

#69 Jeanette Bailor

Project Mica Experimentation - something other than airbrushed mica.

Bullseye glass.
Bottom layer Tekta, although a few of the mags have clear rainbow irid for the base as I had a scrap.

Next layer, strips of 1426 Spring Green and 4200 Black Mardi Gras.

On top of that are small squares of 0100 black. On these small squares I experimented with various micas. All my micas were mixed with Klyr fire, just a drop from the end of a toothpick on the black glass seemed to be adequate to bond
the micas. Part of the experiment was making some juicier than others. Some had the mica smooshed on and left uncapped, lending a rough mica texture. Some had the mica completely capped with clear and those ended up with depth, like a small gold nugget under water. Some had the mica capped with clear slightly smaller
than the black square and that allowed the mica to creep out and up, creating a small mica cavern. I think those bits were the most interesting and afforded the most diverse appearance of depth. I did a single full fuse firing on these.

#70 JJ Jacobs

The result of waiting until it’s nearly too late, I quickly created “Funky Town” out of various colors of Bullseye glass strips and dichroic glass. In the beginning of this Magless adventure I attempted to grind the bottoms of the little buildings to sit perfectly upon the green strip of “grass” but due to time constraints quickly gave up that idea and allowed the uneven bottoms to tilt where they would, giving the towns their funky lop-sided look. Breaking the small windows of dichroic glass was done by tapping the cuts with the ball side of a tiny hammer and placing them on the buildings with tweezers. I fired them in two different kilns to 1385 degrees.

#71 Sandra McDonald

#72 Peggy Mattock

Method and Madness
Take a lot of 150cm long 6mm diameter Schott rods (optically clear coe 91 glass), and snip into bits using mosaic cutters. Rest aching hand round cold glass of wine.For a week.

Arrange 19 rod bits end up into hexagons. To prevent insanity ponder on the maths - to make a hexagon with sides of X rods you need (3 x (X2 – X))+1 rods. That’s why I stopped at the size I did – though one lucky maglesseer will get a mag the next
size up, made of 37 bits of rod. Using a straight edge push the rods together on all sides to make sure they’re touching. Fire to 820 (Celsius), hold 10 min.

Plonk each resulting hexagon on a bit of CBS dichro (all but one on black) and fire again to the same temperature. The second firing softens and rounds the rods much more than the first. Some mags got fired a bit hotter, and are more rounded off than others. Some opened up like flowers (OK, the edges sort of collapsed outwards).

Rinse and repeat.

Lessons Learned
Rods roll. Arranging the hexagons was a nightmare – and carrying the shelf to the kiln very precarious. They look best when there are widely varying lengths of rod - the clarity of the glass enhances the dichro – you get flashes of colour at the rod ends when your perspective changes. Unless you got one of the dark blue ones,
which aren’t as sparkly.

If your mag broke in transit fire as per Bullseye, a bit cooler than usual at the top temperature and anneal a bit hotter, though at that size I doubt it really matters.

#73 Matthew Lovein

#74 Jenefer Ham

#75 Amy Valuck

#76 Pam Damon

There are few variations on the "stamping with mica" theme All were made with Bullseye glass and mica.
A piece of clear was stamped using Perfect Medium by Ranger, then sprinkling mica this became the top glass.

The "star dust" magless was made with a star stamp: yellow frit on clear glass topped with clear glass stamped with mica.
The "heart strings" was made with a heart stamp: pink or red stringers on clear glass topped with clear stamped with mica.

The "hearts and stars" was made with a heart stamp: precut star(s) on clear glass topped with clear glass stamped with mica.

The Kokopelli was made with a Kokopelli stamp: a precut star on clear glass topped with clear glass stamped with mica.

What I learned was get started earlier I would have liked to do some grinding and polish fusing but didn't have time, and use a stamp that covers more area for a more defined look.

"star dust" I liked the looks

"heart strings" The stamp was lost in the strings

"hearts and stars" The precut stars retain their shape with full fuse between two layers

"Kokopelli" I liked the look

#77 Susan Hutsko

How To For:

Bobbi’s Sun Dancers
Glass used – Bullseye
French vanilla
Tetka
Mint green powder
Red powder
Black powder

Process
1. Make stencils for background wafers and sun dancers.
2. Prepare powder wafers - 126 background and 126 sun dancers. Firing schedule – 600 degrees per hour to 1285, hold 10 minutes
3. Fuse French vanilla and tetka
4. Cut french vanilla/tetka sheet into 1 ½ inch squares with band saw.
5. Grind edges as needed.
6. Place one background wafer and one sun dancer on each square and fire.
Firing schedule:
Seg 1 400 hr to 1100 hold 15 minute
Seg 2 400 hr to 1425 hold 1 minute
Seg 3 9999 to 1100 hold 15 minute
Seg 4 100 hr to 960 hold 45 minutes
Seg 5 100 hr to 700 hold 1 minute

#79 Deb Compton

First a disclaimer: Everything I’ve learned, I’ve learned from the board! This site was the most helpful for pot melts:
http://www.clearwaterglass.com/aperture_pour_test.htm. Not all my photos or magless’ are from the same pot melt.

How To:
1. Load a flower pot with compatible glass. (Don’t put kiln wash in the flower pot.) I didn’t enlarge the hole but you certainly can.
This is how one of mine looked.

2. Prep the saucer with kiln wash. Set it up in the kiln so the glass drips out onto the saucer. If you want the colors to remain separate, I’ve found it helpful to keep
the flower pots close to the saucer. If you want the rings and a more blended pot melt you can lift the saucer up.

3. Fire away!
1000 dph to 1700F, hold 60 min.,
AFAP to 1500F, hold 45 min.
AFAP to 960F hold 60 min
200 dph to 750F300 dph to 300F
Off

4. My pot melts came out with a “belly button,” probably because I didn’t hold
long enough. (I consider it a happy accident.) To get rid of the belly button I
put them back I the kiln with the next pot melt run and the result is what looks
to be a combo “pot melt/high fire.” See below.

See how the orange comes to the surface? I think it’s more dramatic after the second firing.
4. I cut the pot melts with the tile saw into sizes appropriate for the magless. (The tile saw was plenty wet but I made sure that I kept the pieces wet by immediately putting them in a bowl of water-I was hoping to prevent grinder scum. Another tip from the board!) When they were all cut I washed them with soap and water (“That product called Dawn”), giving the edges an extra scrub.

5. I fired them once more to a full fuse-1480 degrees, annealed as usual and “wala,” I present my 2006 magless!

Enjoy!