Fusing thick slabs from blown scrap

[simonkashmir]

Hello fellow fusers.

I run a fully equipped coldworkshop and is a glassmaking veteran, doing it professionally for 25 years.

At Kosta glassfactory in Sweden, a few years back, they fused scrap glass such as bowls and vases,  into big slabs some 60 by 40cm and 4cm thick. Big chunks of the scrap was used, sometimes entire pieces.

My coldwork leaves me with a fair amount of such scrap. Some of it really nice, pieces of graal, colours in multiple layers, bubbles in patterns and such. I have sorted it in various piles according to recipe. As it happens there is a large kiln available where I have my workshop (the glassfactory, Boda, Sweden) and I was hoping to recreate the fusing they did at Kosta. The plan is to cut the slabs up into smaller pieces and make sculptures (coldworker as I am), so occasional cracks or impurities is not a killer. It also allows me to choose the parts of the slab I like best. Bubbles are also not a problem unless they break the surface, infact I find them desirable. Surface impurities, such as bubbles can always be fixed with lenses or cuts.

I would love to hear some input by experienced kilnworkers, as I am not one. After so many years in the buisness I have a firm grasp on annealing and the problems accociated with it. So I assume that a standard annealing curve would be appropiate.

Have any of you ever fused big chunks of glass, as opposed to the standard thin, windowlike pieces?

[wordana]

If you search the internet for firing schedules using billets, you may find information that will get you started in the right direction. I’m not certain what your question is, however.

Dana W.

Jester’s Baubles Fused Glass Designs

http://www.jestersbaubles.com

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