Fusing Demo! (Day 5) IMAGE HEAVY!

So it's been another day of waiting for you all, but only about 3 hours in the kiln time continuum. The kiln's temperature now reads somewhere between 100 and 200 degrees, but remember, most of the heat is coming from the actual kiln shelf and the pieces at this point.


If we look in, the pieces look cool enough to reach in to grab. I cannot tell you how bad of an idea this can be.


In this picture we can see that there is still light coming off of the pieces, which means that they still are hot enough to emit it. Not a good time to go grabbing things out of the kiln. I recommend letting the kiln cools till it does not register any temperature (or possibly room temperature as most kilns have a 70 degree mark).






After pulling the pieces from the kiln there is still work to be done. Most pieces will have some rough edges, or in my case, since I use some glasses in different ways, they will need to have what I term upside down dichro ground off.




While doing this, You typically can shape the pieces and want to have the smoothest surface available. So here is a before shot of the pieces being ground,



As you can see in this photo most of the pieces have shrunk in size and changed greatly in shape. I love this part of the process, because it really is like the piece discovering itself. These Pieces are ready for a second fuse up to 1500 again, a nice slow annealing, and then will be cabochons ready for anything.

So this post concludes fusing week. I hope you have enjoyed it, maybe found it a little educational about the process that this artist goes through. I know that other fusing artists make other choices and do other techniques, but this is what I find works not only for me, but also for the long term.

I feel confident about the quality of my workmanship, and hope that it shows in my love for the medium.