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The capped palladium also had some coppery elements, but most of it looked fairly silvery. Actually, it reminded me of well crinkled and aged aluminum foil. Unfortunately neither produced the brightening element I was looking for. I did find it in clear silver dichro, though, and I'll use that. Fus...

Both iridized and dichroic coatings cause the glass surface they are on to have a higher surface tension. The higher surface tension keeps the glass from flattening out, and will in fact cause it to have a curved surface.

Tim

Vidrio,

I use an entirely different method when making a pendant. I developed my method as an option to gluing and I did not like the look of the pendant hole passing the full width of the piece. Send me an e-mail off line and I will send you images of what I do.

Tim

Use a small diamond cared drill bit. Make sure that you use a lubricant (ie water) when you drill or you will burn up the diamonds. I use a flexible shaft and drill with the piece under water. You do not have to fire polish after you drill the hole, but it looks nicer if you do.

Tim

Dave,

I use mostly fiber paper when firing and have never purposely pre-fired it. I only pre-fire when using fiberboard. Never had a problem.

Tim

Leslie,

The crack will run three dimensionally until it runs to an edge. Generally, the crack will spread out horizontally through the glass first. Eventually though, the crack could propagate vertically through the glass.

Tim

Leslie, The piece is salvageable. To heal the crack you will need to go up to at least 1400°F. If there the check goes through he thicker section as indicated I suspect you did not anneal log enough. When you reheat take it up very slowly (as slow as possible) to minimize the crack from spreading, ...

Bob,

You can get etching cream at Michaels in Arizona. They sell Armour in different size containers.

Tim

John,

Good point! Well said!

Tim

Bea, I use BE for my fusing and Moretti for beads. I find that the dichroic glass coating seems to react consistently with either glass. The biggest difference between beads and fusing is that the bead is really more of a three-dimensional surface and fusing is a two dimensional surface. On a bead t...

Michael, I have been experimenting around and at the crossroads as to if I use the wax method or a spray on coating. In the experimenting I have experienced the erosion of the patina with normal handling. The only thing the keeps me from using the wax is heating the glass. I have put so much time in...

I have been experimenting with electroforming of copper on some fused plates. The plates are approximately 12 inches on a side. On one of these plates I have a put a green patina on the surface of the copper. I am looking for suggestions on how to stabilize the patina and reduce its potential to wor...

Bea, I would say your disappointment has been due to the dichroic color. I have experienced very poor results full fusing with light blue (reflected color). The light blue coating breaks down (burns out) during the full fuse and you end up with a scummy look around its edges. I have had success when...

Bea, Are you asking about the difference between Dichroic against the shelf and on the top surface? Or are you asking about the difference between when it is capped and when it is on the top or against the shelf? In the first case there is not much difference aside from texture and possibly color sh...

A kiln shelf improperly dried (even in Arizona) will cause large steam bubbles to form between the bottom layer of glass and the shelf. You can get around the pre-drying by holding the firing at ~500°F for at least 30 minutes. This will not work if the shelf goes in damp. If the piece is very large...

You can control the following together of the dichroic in three ways. The first if to put a glass barrier between the dichroic glass. The second is to control the glass above the Dichroic so that it is stabilized during fusing. The third is to leave a small gap between the dichroic that will allow g...

I have had a piece break on the ramp up, and found that the thermal couple getting accidentally pulled out caused it. The piece was broken into about 100 wedge shaped pieces and the cause was thermal shock. The kiln controller was trying to heat the kiln for the initial ramp for a slump but could no...

I have had the same problem. I traced it back to moisture in the shelf. Air drying even in AZ did not work for me.

Tim

When I want to get a nice smooth surface on a kiln shelf I use kiln wash. First pick which side of the shelf appears to be the smoothest, then apply several layers of kiln wash. After these layers have dried use your hand to smooth out the ridges. Apply additional layer of kiln wash and after it dri...

When I want to slow down the small kiln I have I do it by turning it off and on. It may seem crud but I only need to do this when I am doing a second fusing or batch annealing beads. I have considered putting a rheostat in line with the plug, but have not found it to be necessary yet.

Tim