Easier fold-over pendants

[BadExampleMan]

I found this tutorial for kilnworked foldover pendants at http://fusedglass.org/learn/project_tut ... r_pendants and I liked the idea but the method is kind of finicky and I didn't get very good results. So with trial-and-error I figured out a simpler, more consistent way to proceed.

I cut my pendant pieces and then before decorating them I do the slump firing. To get the acute angle, rather than cut a piece of kiln furniture (no tile saw) I mutilated an old BBQ grill (see attached photo). I lay a piece of refractory material on the incline and position the glass with their tips poking over the top. After firing, they droop straight down and maybe even stretch a bit.

Then I decorate the pieces. I put a matchstick-sized piece of refractory material in the crook of each and I fire them to get something between a tack and a contour fuse - in my kiln that's a process phase of 1375F for 10 minutes. That makes the tips fold over and fuse perfectly.

So instead of three firings, my approach requires only two and you don't have to mess around with staples and skewers and stuff. The results are also (at least for me) more predictable. Following the tutorial, I found that the final slump firing often failed to completely close the hook, and the texture the bead picked up from being face down on the fiber blanket didn't flamepolish out.

[Valerie Adams]

Any photos of finished pieces?

[Judd]

Really cool. I"ve thought about doing jewelry with this method.

[Reba]

i think i get the concept of fold over pendants, just never seen one. sounds like a good way to get some shape while using fiber board/paper. any pics out there?

[Barry Kaiser]

I have a tutorial on my site that builds glass Bails. Basically you can use tile pieces bought at any home improvement store to create a line of bails then cut them apart. Then fuse them on to any pendant.

Barry

[haleybach]

i think i get the concept of fold over pendants, just never seen one. sounds like a good way to get some shape while using fiber board/paper. any pics out there?

Follow the link in the first post to the original tutorial, there are pictures of the finished pendants on that page.

[JestersBaubles]

I know about fold-over pendants, but I just can't "catch the vision" of how to do those with a grill rack. I guess I'm challenged

Dana W.

[haleybach]

I know about fold-over pendants, but I just can't "catch the vision" of how to do those with a grill rack. I guess I'm challenged

Dana W.

I think I may have spent way too long thinking about that same thing. I looked at where the fiber was in the picture of the rack and assumed that was where it is placed. I'm a visual person so I looked at the picture, then I read the post. Took several readings for it to hit me that my assumption about the picture was getting in my way.

The glass sits on fiber partly off the edge of the part of the rack that slants upwards. Not where the fiber is in the picture. Pretty much the same way the first slump is set up in the fusedglass.org tutorial.