Almost but Not Quite

My Patchwork tile is complete but hasn’t turned out quite as I’d hoped…

I cooked it on a glassfire automatic program, full fuse on medium but it didn’t fuse completely.

Tile after full fuse

As you can see, there are little gaps at the corner of the green squares, dark lines around the turquoise square and the two tiles  at the top and bottom are not quite fused.

So in it went again.

This time I went for the full fuse, slow cook and its looking quite a bit better. There are still a few tiny gaps and it’s not perfect in every way, but it’s fun.

Patchwork tile after second fusing

As you may remember from my last post, this was a flip and fire exercise so, as it went in with the design layer on the bottom the first time, I turned it over for the second firing so the design layer was on the top.

I don’t think this is a piece to sell but it looks a treat on my studio window ledge with the snow behind it!

 

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Alternative Patchwork

Before I took up glass fusing, I was an avid patchworker and quilter. I taught it for 10 years and still turn my hand to it now and again. But since falling in love with glass fusion it has struck me how similar the process, of arranging pieces of glass to make a patterned tile, is to patchwork.

I have a substantial library of patchwork books and have been looking through them for ideas for tiles.

Here is an exploded view of the first design. All the pieces cut and laid out ready for grinding and cleaning.

Exploded view of Patchwork Tile

All these small pieces have sorely tested my cutting skills and, as you can see quite a few are less than perfect! But grinding will sort that out – hopefully.

Here is the tile, ground and washed and arranged ready to go into the kiln.

Reassembled Tile

I have recently read on one of the blogs I follow about the flip and fire method of firing multi-layered tiles. In this method, the pattern layer is laid face down on the thinfire paper and the base layer laid on top of this. The lines of the design layer will be smoother and more evenly fused but will of course have a more matte appearance from being in contact with the paper. To counteract this, the piece can then be flipped over and fire-polished until shiny.

But I wondered if, as my piece is inspired by a design intended for fabric, should I retain the matte appearance which may echo the texture of fabric?

The piece is in the kiln, ready to go, but as my kiln is not close by, I don’t like to leave it firing overnight. So I will set it going in the morning.

Design layer on the bottom!

In the Kiln, Ready to Fire

Hope to be able to show you the results soon. Watch this space!