Easier fold-over pendants
Posted: Tue Mar 12, 2013 12:46 am
I found this tutorial for kilnworked foldover pendants at http://fusedglass.org/learn/project_tut ... r_pendants and I liked the idea but the method is kind of finicky and I didn't get very good results. So with trial-and-error I figured out a simpler, more consistent way to proceed.
I cut my pendant pieces and then before decorating them I do the slump firing. To get the acute angle, rather than cut a piece of kiln furniture (no tile saw) I mutilated an old BBQ grill (see attached photo). I lay a piece of refractory material on the incline and position the glass with their tips poking over the top. After firing, they droop straight down and maybe even stretch a bit.
Then I decorate the pieces. I put a matchstick-sized piece of refractory material in the crook of each and I fire them to get something between a tack and a contour fuse - in my kiln that's a process phase of 1375F for 10 minutes. That makes the tips fold over and fuse perfectly.
So instead of three firings, my approach requires only two and you don't have to mess around with staples and skewers and stuff. The results are also (at least for me) more predictable. Following the tutorial, I found that the final slump firing often failed to completely close the hook, and the texture the bead picked up from being face down on the fiber blanket didn't flamepolish out.
I cut my pendant pieces and then before decorating them I do the slump firing. To get the acute angle, rather than cut a piece of kiln furniture (no tile saw) I mutilated an old BBQ grill (see attached photo). I lay a piece of refractory material on the incline and position the glass with their tips poking over the top. After firing, they droop straight down and maybe even stretch a bit.
Then I decorate the pieces. I put a matchstick-sized piece of refractory material in the crook of each and I fire them to get something between a tack and a contour fuse - in my kiln that's a process phase of 1375F for 10 minutes. That makes the tips fold over and fuse perfectly.
So instead of three firings, my approach requires only two and you don't have to mess around with staples and skewers and stuff. The results are also (at least for me) more predictable. Following the tutorial, I found that the final slump firing often failed to completely close the hook, and the texture the bead picked up from being face down on the fiber blanket didn't flamepolish out.