Use of kiln space

[Susanbuckler]

Hi
I'd appreciate some ideas of how to make better use of shelf space when firing. My shelf is 12.5 x 12.5. When I fire an 8 x 8 piece at a full fuse, there is a lot of empty space left on the kiln shelf. Other than making 3 x 3 coasters or mini dishes, I don't have any other ideas for using the space. Seems like such a lot of wasted space. Thanks for any suggestions.

To those on the forum who have your web sites linked, I want to tell you how much I enjoy looking at your work. I am probably not the first newbie to spend hours going from site to blog to site to blog, reading and learning. I work full time so my glass work is limited mostly to weekends. spending time on your websites and blogs brings glass to me more often. Thanks!
Susan

[Marty]

jewelry
maglesses
elements that you will reuse in other work
experiments

[Morganica]

Frit balls. Cut your scrap glass into uniform pieces, put them onto the unused space and fire to a full fuse. They'll round up and you can store them in baggies or whatever, separated by color. You can never have too many frit balls.

[Valerie Adams]

Every time I buy a new glass color, I make a 1.5" tile so I've got color references when I'm designing a piece. So, if you don't already have all of your colors available for reference, that's a good way to use a little space. I still make sure to put small experiments in empty shelf spaces, and then mark them on the back with info so I can recall what technique or whatever I was testing.

[lorimendenhall]

fire some frit grains to make little balls.

[DonMcClennen]

I fire a lot of smaller off cuts, broken chunks, pendant failures, anything colourful under 2" or so.....I then give them to all of little neighbor kids on the street. They love them and their parents tell me they have become currency with sorting and trading going on.
Lots of fun!

[Drewcilla]

Thanks for the suggestions. I didn't even know I should have asked that question.

I'd also like to echo Susan's thanks and appreciation for all the help and links on this site.

[Susanbuckler]

Valerie
This is probably a very naive question....when firing the samples of glass as you suggest, does it make any difference if I use the rolled edges of the glass?

And to the others who answered.....if I am firing a thicker project with a longer anneal time, I assume it does not make any difference to the little pieces sharing the kiln space....or does it?

As always, thank you

[Valerie Adams]

Valerie
This is probably a very naive question....when firing the samples of glass as you suggest, does it make any difference if I use the rolled edges of the glass?

And to the others who answered.....if I am firing a thicker project with a longer anneal time, I assume it does not make any difference to the little pieces sharing the kiln space....or does it?

As always, thank you

The only reason I don't use the rolled edges on my color sample tiles is that I'm a bit anal and like them all the exact same size.
They're mounted on a white board where they sit in mirror rails, so I like the uniform look.

As for your filler pieces, they may become a bit overfired if you're doing very thick pieces. For me, I'm usually just doing tests or frit balls, that don't necessarily matter if they cook a bit too much.

[Susanbuckler]

Valerie
What are mirror rails?

[Valerie Adams]

They're the strips used to hold mirrors against the wall:

[Susanbuckler]

Valerie
Beautiful! Are these your 1.5 x 1.5 tiles?
They look much larger in the photo
What a great way to keep the colors accessible for reference. I am going to begin to do this with the rolled edges of all glass I purchase. This was such a helpful idea. I was looking at glass tonight to choose colors for a project....would have been so much better if I could have looked at the fired colors instead of referring to the BE catalog

[Valerie Adams]

Yep, those are my reference tiles.