BE confetti, irid, sandblasting and fluxes...

[Carol]

Hi all. I'm not sure how to fix this easily...first the background

have made a series of tiles using BE clear, 2 layers with leaf green confetti layered between the glass and also sprinkled over the surface. Believing that BE's claim their glass was good for 3 firings before divit occurred, I then added some additional elements cut from BE irid glasses and did a second tack firing on some of the tiles.

All tiles which went through the second tack fire had devit on the surface layer of confetti. (An interesting effect, except all tiles fired only once didn't have this so look wasn't consistent).

Had devit tiles blasted...some tiles had surface confetti only, some with irid dragonflies (masked off the general area where dragonflies were). Cleaned and scrubbed tiles, and applied borax solution (lower maturing temp, would lose less definition in 3rd firing), and fired again.

This removed devit on all surfaces, but a new problem reared its head.

The clear background on the dragonfly tiles clearly shows the straight outlines of where the resist was placed. Instead of cutting resist for each wing I put a patch over the whole insect. The clear has a different clear look where the resist was. They're both shiny, but they look different. Not a good effect.

Now, these tiles have had 3 firings already, no materials to redo these tiles or do further experimentation, time is tight. Obviously I need to mask off just the irid wings and then do one of the following. I would appreciate suggestions from those who have dealt with getting rid of mask lines in their work.

1) surface etch with etching cream

2) hit it with borax again, refire.

3) hit it with spray A, refire (what does spray A over borax do?)

4) sandblast it again...this is least preferred solution as I lost half day in the studio taking stuff to the sandblaster and back.

Thanks in advance for thoughts on the easiest fix.

Carol

[Cynthia]

Hi all. I'm not sure how to fix this easily...first the background

have made a series of tiles using BE clear, 2 layers with leaf green confetti layered between the glass and also sprinkled over the surface. Believing that BE's claim their glass was good for 3 firings before divit occurred,

I'll try to help a bit. First, you have a bit of a misconception about BE's claim. The claim is that you should be able to fire three times to normal process temps (not high temps) without encountering compatibility shifts. BE, and any other glass, can devitrify even on the first firing.

I then added some additional elements cut from BE irid glasses and did a second tack firing on some of the tiles.

All tiles which went through the second tack fire had devit on the surface layer of confetti. (An interesting effect, except all tiles fired only once didn't have this so look wasn't consistent).

Opals seem to be the most vulnerable to devit. Were they opals? Regardless, I would recommend using an overspray from the get go to prevent potential devit.

Had devit tiles blasted...some tiles had surface confetti only, some with irid dragonflies (masked off the general area where dragonflies were). Cleaned and scrubbed tiles, and applied borax solution (lower maturing temp, would lose less definition in 3rd firing), and fired again.

This removed devit on all surfaces, but a new problem reared its head.

The clear background on the dragonfly tiles clearly shows the straight outlines of where the resist was placed. Instead of cutting resist for each wing I put a patch over the whole insect. The clear has a different clear look where the resist was. They're both shiny, but they look different. Not a good effect.

If I understand your description correctly, the resist was to protect certain glass from the blasting. If that is the case, where the glass remained unblasted, the end result after firing will look different from where the blasted surface was.

Now, these tiles have had 3 firings already, no materials to redo these tiles or do further experimentation, time is tight. Obviously I need to mask off just the irid wings and then do one of the following. I would appreciate suggestions from those who have dealt with getting rid of mask lines in their work.

1) surface etch with etching cream

2) hit it with borax again, refire.

3) hit it with spray A, refire (what does spray A over borax do?)

4) sandblast it again...this is least preferred solution as I lost half day in the studio taking stuff to the sandblaster and back.

Thanks in advance for thoughts on the easiest fix.

Carol

I suggest you mask the bugs in a more specific way to only mask them, and not any surrounding clear glass. Blast to get an even texture on the glass. If borax worked the first time, use it again and fire.

I think you need to get that clear glass uniformly blasted to eliminate the difference in appearance you now have. Etching cream in my experience doesn't work well on BE glass, and I woud stick with the blasting even though it's not as simple as your other solutions. I think it will give a better end result.

The difference between borax and Superspray is that borax is a flux that chemically helps the glass melt (probably melt isn't the correct technical term, but...) at a lower temp. Superspray is ground glass suspended in a solution of alcohol and a surfactant, so with superspray you are actually adding a thin cap of glass.

Hope this makes sense and is helpful.

[Bert Weiss]

Carol

If you fire hot enough the glass will "equalize" on it's way to a full flat fuse. Otherwise, you can sandblast everything, unmasked, and refire. You can pay special attention and try and soften the ridge when blasting.

[Carol]

Thanks both for the info. I'm switching over to BE from Spectrum and am finding there's a new learning curve to master.

C.