Feedback on Firing Schedules

BennettS · Post by **BennettS** » Fri Oct 17, 2025 1:34 am

Hey everyone!
I fired these pattern bars earlier this week.

I didn't have a lot of good pieces to dam with so looks a little funky but I think I adapted well. And I know I cut the fiber paper badly. The glass is all Oceanside (well, the pink may have been Uroboros) and I used this schedule, modified from what Brad suggested in his book:

250 to 500 hold 10
250 to 1000 hold 10
250 to 1250 for 40
500 to 1500 for 35
Anneal
AFAP TO 960 for 120
100 to 700 for 10
300 to room temp

I'm REALLY happy with how they turned out; it was my first time doing pattern bars on my own.

The next step is to put them together. This is 3 pieces so I'm going to cut the bottom left corner off the red/orange/yellow one and the top left corner off the green/blue/purple pieces then turn them skinnier side down and put the triangle in the cut out part then fuse them together.

Given how they responded to the first firing, do you have any suggestions for the next firing? I'd like to try to make the pieces fuse together a bit more but I'm not sure how far to push it or whether I should be going longer or a bit higher. The kiln is small, as you can see in the first picture and all of the heating elements are in the walls. The triangle is the one I'm most concerned about getting more fused. I don't hate the current look but I worry it's more pronounced in the middle. I just like the blending together look more.

I'm currently planning on doing that fuse on this schedule (which is mostly the same as last time):
250 to 500 hold 10
250 to 1000 hold 10
250 to 1250 for 40
500 to 1500 for 45
Anneal
AFAP TO 960 for 240
100 to 700 for 10
300 to room temp

I was thinking I'd hold it at top temp for longer to make sure it penetrates all the way down. The triangle in particular needs more blending together but I think it being at the top will help with that. The kiln being less crowded will probably make a difference but I'm not sure how yet. I was considering going 500 to 1525 for like 10 or 15 to try and add just that little bit but they were starting to ooze during the last firing and my instincts tell me that that extra little bit would just make the outsides get too runny?

The horizontal stripes are 2 inches wide, each 3 color block is 6 layers of 3mm glass high, and they're ~8 inches long. I'm going to turn the stipes vertical and then put the triangle in the cutout then fuse again. Right now the plan is triangle on top but if someone has feedback on that, I'd love to hear it.

Thanks in advance for the help! The info I get on this website is invaluable!

Edit to add: I fired the triangle on fiber paper in the mold due to reasons of lacking confidence in the ZYP & being told by a doctor I need to avoid the ZYP at the moment and not having anyone else around to do it. There's a texture to the glass now, very similar to when clay gets rolled out with a piece of canvas on it, if that makes sense. I don't know if that affects the advice about the next firing schedule bc of air getting trapped.

Also, as a side question, I peeked in the kiln at about 650 degrees and the fiber paper was all dark grey/black. The next day when I opened it again, it was all white again. What was that about?