I’ve finished the tiled star piece. I used a metal slumping form (otherwise known as a cheap stainless steel mixing bowl) to slump the dish into a general bowl shape.
The piece turned out pretty well. The edge is very clean and round, and the piece took on the shape of the form very well. The kiln wash I used on the form even imparted an interesting satin finish to the glass.
In case you are interested in seeing the stages of the slumping process, here are two pictures that might interest you. The one on the left is the bowl cooling down in the kiln and still on the form. The one on the right is a close-up shot after the bowl had cooled enough to remove from the kiln.
 |
 |
From start to finish, this project took about 13 hours: two hours to cut the glass, and about 11 hours to fuse and slump the glass.
Very cool! But are you prepared for the inevitable trademark lawsuit from Mitsubishi?
Strangely, I’m not too worried about that (although maybe I’d get a visit from the Israelis… I didn’t realize until I was done that the pattern is essentially a Star of David). Copyrights are something to consider though: one of the patterns I want to do is based on Penrose tiles, but Roger Penrose has a copyright on the Penrose tile pattern.
Beautiful!
So, to do the slumping, do you have to balance the flat glass on the mold and then just hope it doesn’t slide off?
Be careful with the Penrose tiles–they could make a person go a little crazy.
In this case, the form I used had a small flat patch (what would be the bottom of the bowl, if I were to use it as a bowl). So, I just centered the glass on that, and all was well. Draping forms like this usually have a flat top on them… partly because of this, but also so your finished piece has a flat bottom to rest on.
By the way… “stainless steel” ain’t so stainless when you take it to 1400°F for a half-hour. Strange, that.
I must not be doing enough cooking if I don’t even remember that bowls have to be flat on the bottom.
Or maybe none of my bowls are flat on the bottom, and that’s why I don’t cook more.
Stainful steel…heh heh.
Could anyone give me advice on how to use stainless steel bowls for slumping. Does one need to sandblast them first or are they good to go as is?