Ideas on how to improve the look of this piece?

[Carrie Loosz]

I assembled this piece using black medium frit to fill in some areas around the white flower petals on the design layer. The pre-fused white petal edges were smooth, but after a full fuse, the black frit touching them caused this ragged and nipped look. I am wondering if there is a technique that would make these look smooth again. Perhaps outline them with black glassline or liquid stringer and re-fire? I've never used these products, so I don't know if either would be suitable. The pink petals on the top layer were unaffected as no frit was touching them. I would appreciate suggestions. Thanks.

[rosanna gusler]

i like it the way it is. careful that you do not 'fix it to death' rosanna

[Vonon]

I agree. You are the only one who will notice. I'd love to see a photo of the whole thing. Looks pretty.

[Carrie Loosz]

Thank you both for your comments. As a novice glass fuser, I guess I'm being way too picky. It would be interesting to know if there are any techniques that would work, though. It has a brilliant 1" dichroic center and I'll post a photo after it's slumped Vonon, since you'd like to see it.

[Morganica]

You can "flip-n-fire" next time, i.e., glue white petals on the black background (use a sheet instead of frit, obviously), similarly glue down fritballs or however you got the green dots, turn it upside down and fire it face down on the kilnshelf. Then you flip it over, sandblast or lightly remove the very topmost surface layer, the part that was touching the kilnshelf, with some 220 wet-dry sandpaper in water (because the glass tends to embed kilnschmutz in the surface), and lay down the pink petals or whatever else you've got, and fire again. That technique keeps the lines sharp, avoids the problem of using frit to fill in, especially with black, and because the volume of glass is pretty much stable on the second firing, it continues to (largely) stay in place.

It would be hard to fill this stuff in without showing, or spreading more into the petals and dots than you'd probably want. Any enamel you apply would have to be exactly the color of the black glass (unless you wanted it to look like a cartoon outline). The liquid stringer might work with the same color glass, but it takes a little practice to make it work and not spread a bit.

Frankly, I like it the way it is, too. This looks hand-drawn and more natural. If you had perfectly smooth edges it might not look as good.

[Carrie Loosz]

Thanks so much Cynthia, for taking the time to explain the "flip & fire" technique. It sounds fascinating and I'll definitely give it a try on my next project. With 3 comments to leave the white petals as they are, I'm going to go ahead and slump the piece. Guess I'm more focused on mastering techniques right now, but I am looking forward to getting into the more artistic side of glass work and appreciating that "unexpected" results can sometimes turn out to be happy accidents. Wish there were more local classes available in my area covering interesting techniques.