i've been thinking about the post from last week in which someone asked about a layer of dichro on a cabochon bending upward during firing. i think it was paul tarlow who commented about the coating not sinking down into the glass in some circumstances.
i've got a lot of CBS blue/gold and copper/whatever on clear thin fibroid. i used to make 2 styles using this stuff in small pieces, about half the size of your baby fingernail, on top of a BE colored base, with a even tinier piece of clear violet on top of the fibroid, to create a lens effect. when it worked, which was most of the time, it looked very nice indeed, and fitted into my BeachGlass Hawaii concept.
the problem is that a certain percentage of the time, that little fibroid piece would bend up during the firing. it seemed to be rather random, and not within my control. eventually, i quit making that "look" because of the problem. obviously, if the earrings dont fire perfectly, i can't sell them, regardless of whether other people think they look fine.
i'm wonder if anybody has insight into why the coated thin fibroid poses this problem, and no other kind of dichro does. do you think a change in firing might increase the success rate closer to 100%? the way i typically fire, after a shelf of earrings has hit 500F, i go to 1490 over about 50 minutes. this schedule works well for 99% of what i do, and the only problem i ever have is with the coated fibroid.
it'd be nice to hear if there's a solution, or some way of looking at this that i haven't thought of. on the other hand, maybe it's just one of those things that there isn't a definite explanation for.
as always, thanks for your ideas. kitty.
CBS dichro on thin fibroid
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