firing leaves and green staff

[Havi]

Hi everybody
I am new to this very exciting forum. I am an Israeli glass fusist if you may say so, in love with the medium but still got a lot to learn. Basically I enjoy fusing for abstract scupltures, vertical pieces, about 1 cm thick (about half an ") I have been reading this forum and am learning a lot just from the discussions, answers and questions. however, aside from my main interest, I am trying now to learn few more techniques like fusing 2 sheets of glass with tree leaves between them. I understood from the book (warm glass) that the leaf should have been completely burnt, and the glass would have shown only clear traces of the leaf's shape. What I got is : fused glass, black leaf, and an air bulb around it. At the edges of the leaf there are some marks as if the leaf was a bit longer. Can anybody tell me how should it look, and what did I do wrong? I fired at 820 centigrade more than 1600 f
Thanks,
havi

[Brock]

You're always going to get bubbles, unless you allow the air between the sheets of glass to escape. Try again with some small compatible chips around the edge of the bottom piece, put your vegetation in the middle, then the top sheet. BTW, the results are usually more impressive with the more fibrous plant matter. Stems, roots, woody plants leave more of an image than leaves. Brock

[SarahM.]

humor me for a second folks....

Just the other day I was sitting outside with some friends and I asked them what they thought would happen if you fused leaves between glass....everyone thought the leaves would burn and it wouldn't work.

But...... you can?! And it will leave an imprint! And somehow...I missed that part in Brad's book. I am just to excited about this. Anyone tried this much?

~Sarah

[Brock]

Brad mentions it on page 77. And, to borrow a nice line of his, about inclusions in general, "This is an area where experimentation frequently pays off with unexpected results". Maria Romano in Taos, has done interesting work with flora inclusions. I've played with it, and occasionally do it in classes. You can get all kinds of interesting ghost images, and heat signatures. Brock

[Brad Walker]

In my experience, firing leaves doesn't usually leave behind a "ghost image", just a little ash. And sometimes not even that. My book mentions that sometimes organic materials will carbonize and leave an imprint, but it's not predictable and is more likely to occur with things that are thicker and have more mass than leaves.

[SarahM.]

page 77...bookmarked.

I'm taking your fusing class at EGS this fall Brock...and...I'm bringing leaves, bark and flowers

~Sarah

[Annah James]

I have been embedding leaves in glass for years, and this is how I do it:

There are two different ways I embed leaves in the glass, and it depends on the desired finished texture. Typically I am using Bullseye transparent irid glass as the base piece. If I want the metallic look of the irid to show, I use clear as the base, then irid, then I place the leaves, spoon clear frit on top of the leaves (close to 1/2" thick, making sure to cover the whole leaf!) and then fire it. If I want the irid surface to deeper and less metallic, I use the irid as the base, place the leaf, spoon frit on it (I do brush the frit so that it is close to the edges of the leaf). Then place the clear glass on top and fire. You don't need to use quite as much frit as is used on the other ones. The reason for the frit is that it allows the bubbles to escape as the leaf burns.

Below is my firing schedule for the leaf tiles. I have discovered that if I take the tiles to full fuse (1425F), they bubble, no matter what I do. Also, you need to be sure and choose leaves that have enough mass to leave ash. My experience is that oak, maple, elm, gingko, cottonwood, rhody, and clematis all work well. The leaves need to be dried between pieces of paper and weighted down so they are FLAT. This is important. Otherwise, it's hard to get the frit on them evenly. They also must be completely dry. I have tried (without success) birch, pine needles, beech and alder. They are just too fine.

Leaf inclusion tiles (2 layers glass, leaves and frit between the layers, or leaves and frit on top)
Event # Degrees / Hour Soak Temperature Soak Time
up 75 800 F 0 min
up 200 1200 F 20 min
down 200 1100 f 30 min
down 200 700 F 0 min
end

I hope all this helps you! Let me know if you try it and how it works!

Good luck,
Annah

[Lauri Levanto]

Another way is to roll a slab of clay with the leaf on it.
Remove the leaf, let it dry.
Kilnwash and bisquit fire.

Slumping a sheet on this mold gives a relief with
the leaf. One should go fairly high to get the details.

With 3 mm float I fire 790 C, soak for 5mins.
-lauri

[SarahM.]

hehe...I called my friends and said...I told you so..... and then I picked all the rhody leaves in my yard......

Thanks for sharing how you do it Annah, (and the rest of you) that certainly sheds some light on the situation, ........
Sarah


p.s.
Annah~I'm in Eugene also, and I don't know to many fusers in town (flameworkers yes, fusers no...) perhaps we can get together sometime and talk glass?! sarah@eugeneglass.com (Just a thought!)

[charlie holden]

I've had some success with painting grasses, ceder needles and a mushroom with enamels then firing them under glass. In this case I fired on sand with sifted dry plaster as a release. The enamels stick to a bit of the plaster and sand so I got a rough texture on the back. I don't know how it would work on a kiln washed shelf, but I think that it is important to leave a way for the burned off gasses to escape from under the glass.

The enamels left a strong, clearly recognizable image of the grass and ceder bough. The mushroom was more abstract, but it left incredible detail, (fired upside down.) The grass stems shrunk down and moved some before the glass got hot enough to fuse to the enamel. The seeds worked out quite well.