I'm not sure if I should have put this in the newbie section or not but here goes.
I fused this flower using Spectrum96 the petals have one smaller piece of glass on top for extra strength. It fused flatter than what I really wanted and I had already adjusted my segment 4 down from 1475 to 1440. I am also using a brand new kiln.
I want to acheive a little dimension in the petal where the other piece of glass was but I want it smoother than the regular dimensional. Anyway I have 2 pictures and here is the Firing schedule I used. Would someone mind tweaking this for me as I am still quite new to this. I just want the middle of the petal a little bit more raised. Thanks for looking. Oh and just one last thing, when I first place the glass on the shelf all of the petals were touching each other they have really pulled away quite a bit so I am assuming it was too hot?
You need to get to know your kiln for one thing. Every kiln fires differently so the temps that work for my kiln could be totally off from yours. For instance, I never take a full fuse over 1425 so your 1440 or 1475 would be way over in my kiln.
When I want what I call a "hard tack fuse" I take it up a few degrees from my tack fuse temp and hold longer at that. It took some experimenting for me to determine exactly what that temp/hold is in my kiln.
As I understand you, the petals were mostly a single layer. Remember that glass will always want to reach a thickness of 6mm., which is why we use two layers of 3mm. Your temp was too close to a full fuse so your petals pulled in trying to attain the thickness. They will pull in some on a tack fuse as well, but not as much as in a full fuse.
Nicole
When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would have not a single bit of talent left and could say, "I used everything you gave me." (erma bombeck)
Vicki,
At 1440 you are at full fuse (fuse flat) temp. I'm guessing the petals are one layer thick. If so, they will contract drastically at full fuse. You would have to have full fused 2 layers and then cut the petals out to prevent "shrinkage." If you lower your fuse temp. to about 1350-1360 F you wont have to use a double layer and your center circle will remain raised.
Thank you both for the replies. As I was looking through the board I found a post on knowing your kiln I am going to do the tests that were on the bullseye site and see what happens. I guess I should have done this in the first place instead of being so anxious to get firing
