Extraspot's Weblog

Frit Lace – Part II

extraspot — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 18:07:17 +0000

Upon opening the kiln, this is what I saw:

The Big Picture

All in all, I am happy. Now for their close-ups. The indigo blue.

Indigo Blue Tint

They look good, except that there are a couple of places where the frit was apparently piled too thin and there is only a sliver of glass connecting everything. There is also one area where there are complete gaps in the lace. The gap is at 2 o’clock. It goes lace, space, frit blob, space, lace. Also, the bright spots you see are individual specs of frit that did not pull into the lace.

Juniper Blue Tint

The next one is the juniper blue. No real issues here. The frit is thin, but not stringy, in a few areas. There is also at least one intersection that developed a hole. But that is fine as it does not detract from the overall effect.

Ruby Red Striker Tint

The last one is the ruby red striker. Remember how it was a blue/lavender frit? Now it is a most gorgeous reddish pink. This one has the fewest thin spots or holes.

So now comes the question of what to do with them. I need to fire some blanks, which will simply be two layers of glass fired using my regular full fuse schedule. The pale tints look best against white glass, and the ruby red needs something that will set off its stunningness [is that a word?], so they will all probably be white bowls. Although I do have some indigo blue tint glass, so it is possible to do a blank that is white on one side, indigo blue on the other for the indigo blue bowl.

Once the blanks are fired, then it is necessary to tack fuse the frit to the blank. Last time, I used the following schedule, which worked well.

300 / 1365 / 10

AFAP / 900 / 2.30

100 / 700 / 01

In my kiln, the lace maintained its shape and adhered well to the glass using this schedule. After what I learned and saw in my crackle class about tack fusing, I think I may slow down the initial ramp to something more conservative in order to avoid thermal shock between the layers. Better to go slow than to shed tears if it cracks.

Once everything is fused together, it will be cold worked, then slumped. I have access to a flat lap, but it is nearly two hours away, so it will be a while before these bowls are slumped. I will need to make a few more projects to make it worth my time and money. I have a number of glass projects in my mind for Christmas, and my November trial calendar appears to be clearing up, so hopefully I will be able to amass a stockpile of projects and get out to do some cold working in early December.

Frit Lace

extraspot — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 04:31:38 +0000

The following is a “how to” on making frit lace. There are a couple of versions. One looks like your grandmother’s drapes. There are instructions for that version at Spectrum’s website, and a few other places on the interweb. Another version is in Brenda Griffith’s book. It looks like this, and is what will be described here. The basic construction is to fuse the “lace” and blank separately, then tack fuse them together. After making a few of these, here is what I like to do [and what not to do].

Frit Lace Plate

But first things first, a materials and tool list.

ThinFire
Frit, preferably medium
Wide, flat, firm paintbrush
Medium, flat, firm paintbrush
Glass for the blank
Mold

While it is possible to use any size frit, medium probably works the best. It is possible to use coarse frit, but due to its larger size, it will retain more of its volume as it fires. Also, the chunkier size is less cooperative when being swirled around into a design. If it is too “tight,” you will end up with a bit of a blob. Ask me how I know. I mad a small one that looks like Patrick Star from SpongeBob.

Frit Pile . . . and so it begins

To start, trace an outline of the mold you will use with for your slump on the ThinFire. Pencil works fine, will not damage the kilnwash on your mold, and does not transfer during firing. The outline will let you know where the outer edge of your glass will be, and help to determine the outermost edge of the lace.

Once you have outlined your mold, place the ThinFire in your kiln. It is probably best to put it on a washed shelf just in case any frit escapes you and ends upon the shelf. Build this on your kilnshelf. Otherwise, there will be tears. And a number of very bad words. And probably frit all over the floor for years to come.

Pushing the frit around

Next is designing your lace. Carefully dump a pile of frit in the middle of the ThinFire outline, then take the wide paintbrush and start pushing the frit around into the design of your choice. It is as easy as that. The good thing about frit is that if you can always always dump it back into the jar and start over again.

Mushing the frit pile around . . . another view

The frit will shrink a bit when it fires, so feel free to “color outside the lines” a little bit if you want it to reach the edges of the glass. Also, it will change shape a bit as it fires: lines will shrink, holes will form in a thick pile of frit, curves will become sharper in places, etc. Remember, just like sheet glass, the frit lines want to be a quarter inch when they fires. Also, do not get the frit too thin, as you will want some substance to it when handling it during the construction phases. An ultra skinny line may also look out of balance if you have thicker lines. So try to keep composition in mind.

When you run out of frit, simply add more. But do so carefully. Putting some in a lid, and carefully dumping it near your design is probably the best way. It is also possible to add it by pinches [carefully, it is glass, after all], using bent paper or cardstock, etc. Keep pushing the frit around until you get a design you like.

Adding more frit

As you are creating your design, if you run across any contaminants in your frit, especially bits of glass of the wrong color, remove them. Some stuff will not burn off as it fires. The blue piece in the first picture has a tiny bit of white frit that was in the jar of Caribbean Blue. Unfortunately, it was on top and fused white. I could have removed it before firing, but did not. And what does my eye see every time I look at it?

When you have a design you like, use the paint brushes to tidy up the stray bits of frit. Then stand back and admire your work, tinker some more, and more, and tidy up, and admire, and generally drive yourself nuts until you get a design you like.

After you have decided that piled frit is unruly and simply will not stay where it is put, it is time to close up the kiln and fire it up. Since I want the frit to melt rather than retain its fritiness, I fire it to a full fuse. In fact, I fire it a bit longer than I do blanks. It also probably does not need a bubble squeeze, but what does it hurt? And you are always better safe than sorry, so I have a short bubble squeeze in my schedule. But due to its size, I have shortened my anneal, letting the natural cool down of the kiln take care of the anneal down from 900. I have a fairly large kiln [20x20x13], so something this “small,” i.e., thin and lacking in overall surface area, so I can probably get away without a staged anneal to the 700s. If you have a smaller kiln, you may want to use your regular anneal schedule. I will also note, however, I make up for the shortened anneal by extending it during my tack fuse and slump because (1) the glass is thicker in places, (2) tack fuses tend to like longer anneals, (3) multiple fuses tend to like longer anneals, (4) the cry factor, (5) paranoia, and (6) it does not hurt anything.

At this stage, my firing schedule, using Bullseye, is as follows:

500 / 1225 / 20

600 / 1490 / 15

AFAP / 900 / 45

Off

At the time this post was created, I was firing three frit laces for 6″ Bullseye ball molds. Here is what they looked like before firing. The one at the top is Indigo Blue Tint, bottom right is Juniper Blue Tint, and bottom left is Ruby Red Tint Striker(!). Yeah, I know, the frit is blue, but it will strike to gorgeous pink. We won’t discuss what the Ruby Red costs.

Ready to go . . . hang on a second

After standing back and looking at it for a bit, I decided there was something missing from the one on the right, [and now that I look at a picture of it, it is starting to look a bit pornographic!], so I added a bit more frit.

On second thought . . . now they're ready to go

This is what they looked like when the kiln was closed.

That one is still looking a bit pornographic as I look at it. In my defense, I will say that I had had a very frustrating day at work so I was consuming an adult beverage at the time the frit was sloshed around. Oh well, I can think of a few friends who would find this to be the perfect Christmas present!

When they come out of the kiln, I will post some more pictures. At the time this was posted, they were at about 1250 and dropping to the anneal.

Stumped on the Lighting

extraspot — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 07:05:13 +0000

I am presently stumped trying to decide upon a new light above the sink. Sorry about the picture, it was the only one I could find that showed the board. All the rest cut off that part of the cabinetry.

So Far It Is Working

extraspot — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:06:51 +0000

I got my first National Grid bill since the installation of all the new HVAC/water heater do-dads and am quite pleased. Even running the furnace for a day or two – yeah, it was a little cold in June – my gas bill was still only $27, using only 12 therms of gas! That is about a third of what I normally used during the summer. My electrical usage was also down about 125 kilowatt hours. And yes, the air conditioner did run last month. It is always cool here in June, so it really did not start running regularly until the end of the billing period, which is normal. In total, my bill was only $85! I did the happy dance when I saw it.

I am glad to see a savings reflected so immediately in my utility bill. It remains to be seen how much it will cost to run the air conditioner for a full month, but it looks like it is not going to be much more expensive than running the window units. They can tell you this when they are selling you the equipment, but you never know how much of that is sales pitch versus reality. I am relieved that it was not just puffery.

Power Outage

extraspot — Mon, 11 May 2009 06:23:16 +0000

I figured, how better to spend a power outage then playing on my laptop. After all, it is battery operated and telling me it has a 4.5 hour charge. Great idea, I think. Until I realize that my internet connection is connected to my cable tv, which is powered by the very electricity that is MIA. Oops! So much for that idea.

What I did do is move up when I planned to go to the grocery store by about 50 minutes. I had planned to go after watching In Plain Sight, and drying my hair since I had just gotten out of the shower, but with no power by which to watch tv, it made waiting seem a bit pointless. But now that I have been to Wegmans, and have replenished my supply of Zyrtec, which dwindled to nothing, what am I to do in the dark? Even Nanook, who can see in the dark when she wants to, is a bit perplexed.

Do you know what everyone in Syracuse does when the power goes out at night? Apparently they get in their cars and drive around. You would think the fact that the power outage happened at about 10:10 p.m. would deter such behavior, but apparently not. There was an unusual amount of traffic when I went to the grocery store a little while ago. In my own defense, I had to go to the grocery store anyway. It was either go then or after 11 p.m.

The rest of my Sunday evening chores are bit impossible at the moment. Laundry requires electricity, not only to run the machines, but I also need to see in order to sort my clothes. I still need to take out the trash, but I cannot see at the moment in order to pick up the bits and pieces around the house that need to go out as well, plus there is the fact that I do not really want to open the fridge any more than I must at the moment. But I suppose I can always collect the trash by flashlight, if I must. I still needed to do something for my mom for Mother’s Day. In my defense, I feel asleep earlier today, and woke up only a short time before the power went out. I had almost decided what to get her – at which time I would have also sent an e-card – but now I cannot even connect with the internet. I suppose now I have a good excuse as it slowly creeps up on 11:30 p.m. here.

But now what do I do?!? I really do not feel like doing any of the work that I brought home. I suppose I could watch the last DVD I have, provided I can find it in the dark. I still need to watch Pineapple Express. I should be able to watch it on my laptop. Maybe if I do that, it will entertain Nanook to some extent as well, as she seems to be acting a bit oddly. Or maybe this is just what she does at night after I have gone to bed.

I think I am going to try the DVD. And I really wish National Grid would get off its butt and fix the power!! After all, I have certainly paid them enough money in the last several months to warrant prompt service!!! Hmm, maybe this is punishment for installing energy efficient equipment in place of my gas and electricity chugging old equipment. . . .

Well, the power is back on now. It was off for about two hours. I also figured out why it went off: I reset the time on the oven clock this afternoon. Every time I set the time on the oven or microwave, the power goes out within 24 hours. It never fails. I guess that is why I the time is usually wrong.

Mission Accomplished!

extraspot — Sat, 02 May 2009 17:57:17 +0000

I was finally able to cross my HVAC projects off of my 2009 to do list and house improvements list yesterday. It took two days to install the new furnace, air conditioner, and tankless water heater. The first two were mostly done Thursday, leaving the water heater for yesterday. They had to re-route one of my pipes in order to accommodate the enormous exhaust vent, and there is water everywhere in my basement at the moment due to a few problems they had getting the valve open – let’s just say he had to break my old water heater in order to drain it – but it is finally done after months of waiting.

The new furnace is about two-thirds the size of the previous one. I guess they were not lying when they told me it was grossly oversized for my house. And it is so quiet! I had to run the furnace yesterday since my house was a bit chilly by the time they finished, and it was cold last night. Hopefully by the time I am able to switch off the heat for good in a week or two the “new furnace” smell will have burned off.

I have yet to run the air conditioner as it has been a bit cool. Looking at the forecast, I do not see a need for it for at least the next week, although I could have used it last weekend when it was in the upper 80s. I have missed central air! I have not had it since I left D.C. in 1995 to move to Syracuse. I suppose it is nice to live somewhere where you can get by with window air conditioners, fans, and open windows, but I miss having a cool house. Maybe if I was native to this area, I would not miss it so much. I now plan to sell my two window air conditioners for a small sum.

The tankless water heater is much smaller than I anticipated. It is about the size of a suitcase. They managed to put it on the wall over my washing machine. It delivers hot water almost immediately, which is nice since I was afraid I was going to have to start waiting. My old water heater did not have a wait before the hot water started coming out of the spout, especially in the shower on the second floor. The new one appears to deliver hot water almost as quickly. Now that is what I call “on demand”!

I programmed the thermostat this morning. It was set by someone who (a) went to work before I even get up in the morning, (b) goes to bed much, much, much earlier than me [10pm?!?], and (c) likes the house colder [in the winter] and hotter [in the summer] than me. I took care of that. The summer temperatures will need some tweaking, especially the nighttime temperature since I cannot sleep in a hot house. Hopefully, I will be able to keep the house a couple of degrees warmer in the winter and still have cheaper utility bills than my first two winters in this house.

I have had a number of people, when they are through being jealous at the concept of endless hot water, comment upon the price of the tankless water heater, suggesting that it is not worth the additional expense. From where I stand, I will recoup the extra cost within a year or so. The tankless cost $2,200 to install. I will receive a $500 rebate from National Grid and a third of my $1,500 tax credit is $500, leaving a balance of $1,200. I needed to replace my water heater anyway, and wanted something larger than 40 gallons. I was probably going to get something between 60 and 75 gallons, which would have cost around $900 to install [I was quoted a 40 gallon for $675 by one contractor]. The cost savings for not having to heat a standing tank of water all day long is about $300 a year, and would have been more for a larger tank. Thus, I will recoup the difference in cost in about a year, and the overall cost in about four years. So to all the naysayers, I will be enjoying nice long, hot showers, without that almost daily rush at the end to get the conditioner out of my hair before the water becomes completely frigid because I lingered too long.

In short, I do not have any regrets about this project, depsite the cost. Yes, it is expensive, but it will also save me money on a month to month basis, which is where I feel it the most. It will also make my house much more comfortable, especially in the summer. I know that it does not get that hot around here, but after my time on the High Plains of Texas, I can no longer handle the humidity in the summer. Now I just need to work on some insulation issues in the attic this summer that will hopefully resolve the huge icicle issues I have in the winter.

D-Day Is Finally Set

extraspot — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 19:31:33 +0000

I finally have an installation date for my new furnace, etc. It will be installed next Thursday and Friday. It only took five weeks for the dropdown of my interest rate to be approved. To say I was losing patience would be an understatement! The only good thing about the day is that National Grid is now offering rebates on air conditioners, so I was able to change my contract to a 15 SEER, for the same price, and will now get that rebate as well. Bryant also began a rebate program after I signed my contract and so I will get that as well.

I hope work will not be too irked that I will have to work from home for two days. Personally, I cannot wait for the endless hot water!

Hallway Glass

extraspot — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 00:48:49 +0000

As I was finishing up the trim painting in the library/Nanook’s room, I decided that rather than paint the louvers that go in the top part of the built in linen closet, I should make stained glass doors. That, of course, begs the question, what design? Well today I decided as I was digging through my desk drawer at work and came across a couple of patterns. I am going to do the Aanraku maple leaf pattern. I will simply split it in half between the two doors. There is also a more complex version of this pattern, of which this is just a portion. And if I don’t do the maple leaves, I think I am leaning towards an aurora boreales.

Aanraku's Maple Leaves

It’s Here!

extraspot — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 03:21:24 +0000

I got my new computer on Thursday. I am still trying to get used to it. One of my biggest problems is the touchpad. I seem to be hitting it with my hand every time I reach for the letter “T” as well as a few others and end up opening new tabs, browser histories, and a sundry of other things. It is driving me batty! Since I have to write an appeal and respond to another motion, I guess I will have plenty of opportunity to get used to the keyboard, unless I give up and hook up my regular Bluetooth keyboard and mouse.

The two features I did not really want, but were required options on the configuration I purchased are the backlit keyboard and fingerprint reader. While I thought the backlit keyboard would be cool, I wasn’t really willing to pay an extra $25 for it. Well I was right. It is uber cool!!!

As for the fingerprint reader, it is Dell’s own fault that I did not know what its purpose really was since it does not put an explanation of the features in the customization portion of the website. I figured it was just an extra security feature to keep unwanted people from logging on to your computer. It does do that, but it does so much more. The handiest use I have encountered so far is that you can use it to enter passwords in websites and programs. So not only does it fill in your username and password, just as the password feature in the browser does, but when you swipe your finger, it logs you in. Instead of using your mouse to click “OK” or whatever, you simply swipe your finger.

I am still loading my software, and I have not even started to transfer my data, but I did email myself my Firefox bookmarks, which makes my life much, much, much easier now. It should be a breeze to load my data since it will just require hooking up my external harddrive and copying files.

I have decided that I should probably get a USB port, and that I will need a separate laptop case. While my laptop does fit into my new bag, it is so long that almost nothing else fits in there with it. I did find a bag that fit will fit in at Dell that only costs $30, so I will definitely be doing more shopping.

I wrote the above on Friday, but did not get a chance to edit or post it until now. It is Wednesday now, and I have written an Appeal and another short brief on my laptop. Since then, the fingerprint reader has had problems twice. Apparently there is an issue between the software and the driver. On Monday and then again tonight it tried to tell me I needed to install the driver, but if you go into the driver’s area, it says it is there and working. The Dell support board seems to indicate it is the software. It seems that you have to reinstall the software, going through some roundabout process where you have to rewrite a line or two of code that is written for a different brand of computer. That seems to involves so I have just been restoring my computer to a previous restore point. It seems easier, although it is a temporary fix. But then again, I have been too busy in the last couple of days to mess with it so temporary – and quick – is good!

And other than this one problem, I am ecstactically happy with my new computer.

Yeah!!

extraspot — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 03:06:16 +0000

My computer shipped today. I will have it on Thursday. That means I will not have to worry about getting it in time to leave for Vegas. I wonder why it had a nearly month long build date?!?

Now I just have to find all of my software so I can load it.