I have a new piece. I wanted to play with inclusions a bit (that’s when you include something other than glass between the glass pieces). In this one, I put copper leaf in between two pieces of clear glass.
Two interesting things happened with this one. The glass I used is textured on one side, so I put the textured sides together. This trapped air between the glass, which accounts for the interesting bubble pattern embedded in the glass. The other interesting thing that happened was that the copper oxidized in the heat of the kiln, turning a light blue (and, oddly enough, transparent).
For what it’s worth, I doubt I’ll do more of this style of dish any time soon. I’ve done several now, and I need to try some other things. Time for some new molds.
Edit: I got a question about the firing schedule and so on. For reference, the glass I used was Bullseye’s Tekta. Here’s the firing schedule:
| Segment | Rate °F/Hour | Temp (°F) | Soak (HH:MM) |
| 1 | 600 | 1100 | 0:30 |
| 2 | 250 | 1300 | 0 |
| 3 | Full | 1400 | 0:10 |
| 4 | Full (flash vent) | 1050 | 0 |
| 5 | 200 | 750 | 0 |
The oxidized copper is pretty, but is there a way to keep it copper-colored if you want to?
That’s something I have to experiment with. One of the things I was wanting to do was a circuit board motif with copper tracings. They won’t look right in shades of blue, strangely enough. Still, I could always use gold leaf, which pretty much keeps its color in the kiln.
Ah, I wondered why the corners kept turning up but it sounds like that’s due to the shape of the mold. The bubbly glass with bits of blue copper would make a neat ice tea tumbler or goldfish bowl.
The circuit board idea sounds neat. Also, really geeky–but in a good way.
Hi Peter,
It looks like it has been a couple of years since you posted this. I have a question though. I fired a couple of small 2×2′ pieces and the copper foil turned out as it did in your picture. When I try to fire a bigger piece (10 x 10) the foil goes black. I like the aqua and want the bigger piece to turn out with blues. Any suggestions. Share your glass type and firing scheduel?