Firing frit & layers

Dee Newbery · Post by **Dee Newbery** » Thu May 01, 2003 10:36 pm

I am hoping some of the experts out there can help me with this question. I have a piece (about 10" long and 5" wide) that is a clear, thin base; 2nd layer of opaque pieces ( covers most of the base) with stringers and frit on it. My understanding is in firing frit it burns off at the higher temps you might normally use to fuse this piece. I really would like this piece to be fairly flat but am worried about "losing" all the frit.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Dee

Jerry Barnett · Post by **Jerry Barnett** » Fri May 02, 2003 12:24 am

The frit will not burn off, so you will not lose it.

However, you may have a different concern. If I'm understanding correctly, you have one layer of thin rolled. Not sure what thickness of glass you used for the second layer pieces. If also thin rolled, you have a thickness of 1/8" before the frit and stingers. At fusing temperatures, the glass would like to be twice that thick. That means that the edges of the piece will pull in to try to become thicker and you will have a thicker rim around the edge. It could also mean that the frit will not flatten out as much as it would if it was sitting on 1/4" of glass.

Jerry

charlie · Post by **charlie** » Fri May 02, 2003 11:08 am

if by 'burn off' you mean flattened out and won't have the relief, then yes, a full fuse will do that. you'd have to full fuse the layers/stringers (taking into account what jerry said above), then tack fuse (or just a little more) a second time.

i've done this with frit when i was making some flower tiles. i did a tack fuse at 1340 for 10 minutes to get large frit to round off and start collapsing into the background tile.

you'll have to experiment with times and temps for a tack fuse to get it to look how you want it to turn out.

Dee Newbery · Post by **Dee Newbery** » Fri May 02, 2003 2:38 pm

I had been told by another fuser that you had to fuse frit (powder and fine) at about 1385 or it would literally burn off some of it, thus losing some of the design. I am glad that you and Jerry have set me straight on that. Thanks to you both
Dee

charlie · Post by **charlie** » Fri May 02, 2003 2:42 pm

Dee Newbery wrote:I had been told by another fuser that you had to fuse frit (powder and fine) at about 1385 or it would literally burn off some of it, thus losing some of the design. I am glad that you and Jerry have set me straight on that. Thanks to you both
Dee

it melts and diffuses, so gets lighter. that's maybe what they mean. for instance, if you use a powder frit and don't pile it up thickly, there really isn't much color there, as powder has a lot of air space in it.

it's glass. it really can't go anywhere.

on the other hand, some dichroics and irids can literally disappear on full fusing. those are metal films, and oxide into the air.