Fused Glass Mesh Melt Platter, Project Tutorial Part 2

This is the second part of that platter project using the pieces from that fused glass pattern bar made in the mesh melt project. If you haven’t already seen Part 1 of that platter project I suggest you watch it first.

In this part, I’ll continue with cutting and cold working the glass, then doing a full fuse to create the platter.

The tutorial includes the design, materials, equipment information, and the full fuse to make the piece.

Project Information

In the YouTube video, you will find links to related videos, a chapter list with time stamps, and links to more resources.

Just as a reminder, the glass I use is Bullseye 90 COE. On the shelf for full fusing, I use Thinfire fiber paper. When fire polishing pieces on my shelf, and when slumping in moulds, I spray with boron nitride mould release.

I intended this video to be the final part of the project, but as you will see that isn’t how it worked out.

In part one I got as far as cutting the part sheet into slices and deciding on a design. In this one we’ll continue with developing the design, cover the basics about materials etc., and then cutting and coldworking the components. We’ll also fuse the piece piece ready for the final process.

Firstly, the pattern bar strips needed to be made uniform. This was achieved by first making them all the same thickness, 6 mm (1/4 inch). This was achieved on my large flat lap. I ground both sides until the thickness was reached. This is on a 360 grit diamond disk.

On the flat lap I then flattened one edge to be used against the guide on the small grinder when refining the width. I also made sure one end was square.

On my small grinder, with the aid of a straight edge, I then ground all the strips to the same width. This turned out to be 10 mm, but it was dictated by the smallest piece. The important part is that they are all uniform. The thickness could also be refined on the small grinder if you don’t have a flat lap. All this did take quite some time.

Throughout this process, I did maintain the matching of pairs, but for this platter, they weren’t really necessary.

I then had to cut the strip of white for the border between the Royal Blue and the pattern bar strips. Note that Opaque White is dense and sheets are usually quite textured. I’ve found that when scoring and snapping ai have often found the glass split at odd angles. A firmer score is necessary. You may find a better solution. If you do I’d love to hear from you. Fortunately, the score and snap went well.

Then I came to the smaller strips to match the pattern bar strips. These were all marked out to be the same width as the pattern bar strips, with the adjacent waste strip indicated by some simple marker slashes. This was my guide to make sure I cut on the waste side of the line. That kept the white strips wide enough so they could be ground down to the correct size.

Of course, then I needed matching strips in clear as well. More cutting and grinding.

When all was done and cleaned, it was into the kiln for a full fuse. The sides were dammed up just to keep everything firmly in place.

Once that was done I coldworked the sides, sprinkled on some clear frit, and refused. Sadly, the frit produced a common problem I have. It left a cloudy area and small specks all over the piece that looked like a light cover of dust. I used to think it just wasn’t fired enough, but tests showed that sometimes this happened anyway, and even a refire didn’t fix the problem.

In the next part, I’ll do some coldworking to fix that problem, then fire polish and slump into the final piece.

If you have any questions please ask in the comments section on YouTube.

Full Fuse Firing Schedule

• #1 – 222 C (432 F) up to 535 C (995 F), hold 45 minutes
• #2 – Full up to 805 C (1480 F), hold 10 minutes
• #3 – Full down to 482 C (900 F), hold 60 minutes
• #4 – 65 C ( 149 F) down to 425 C (797 F), no hold
• #5 – 132 C ( 270 F) down to 371 C (700 F), no hold

Second Full Fuse Firing Schedule

• #1 – 222 C (432 F) up to 535 C (995 F), hold 60 minutes
• #2 – Full up to 805 C (1480 F), hold 10 minutes
• #3 – Full down to 482 C (900 F), hold 60 minutes
• #4 – 65 C ( 149 F) down to 425 C (797 F), no hold
• #5 – 132 C ( 270 F) down to 371 C (700 F), no hold