colourdeverre.com, and downloading, printing, and reviewing Serpentine Basics. The formers should be spaced 1 (2.5 cm) apart. Balance the glass rods across the formers. Contemporary Serpentine Ware This project sheet details how to make two very different finished pieces embellished with shaped rods. Of course, the reader is welcome to vary glass colors to create their own unique piece. nnn Even though the results are impressive, this project is really pretty straight-forward. First, wavy rods are created using Colour de Verre s Serpentine Formers. Those are tack fused to a clear, doublethick glass panel which is then slumped rods down into a slumping form. Instructions are included in the Serpentine Former packaging, but we highly recommend visiting the C o l o u r d e Ve r r e w e b s i t e, The Sea Form Bowl Prime the Medium Serpentines with ZYP or Hotline Hi-Fire Primer. This is one of the few times we don t recommend Hotline Primo Primer be used on our designs. The formers are much denser than other Colour de Verre molds and Primo doesn t absorb well. Apply the primer according to the manufacturer s instructions or see our website s Project Ideas section for information on applying Lubricoat. Place a kiln shelf on your workbench and protect it with a piece of ThinFire or shelf primer. (Again, follow the manufacturer s instructions.) Place the primed formers parallel to one another on the kiln shelf. The only way to discover the perfect schedule for your kiln is by observing the results at critical points. This means that you will need to open the hot kiln and look at the rods. This is not as scary as it might sound but certain precautions must be taken. When opening a hot kiln it is essential to wear eye protection, heat proof gloves, and nonflammable clothing. Only open the kiln s door or lid one or two inches only wide enough Former Firing Schedule* Segment Ramp Temperature Check, hold, then check again 1 400ºF/220ºC 1240ºF/670ºC 10-15 minutes 2 400ºF/220ºC 1250ºF/675ºC 10-15 minutes 3 400ºF/220ºC 1260ºF/680ºC 10-15 minutes 4 400ºF/220ºC 1270ºF/685ºC 10-15 minutes 5 400ºF/220ºC 1280ºF/690ºC 10-15 minutes Availability Colour de Verre molds are available at fine glass retailers and many online merchants including our online store, www.colourdeverre.com. Tools Medium Serpentine Formers Mosaic tile nipper Bowl or plate slumping form Supplies Hotline Hi-Fire or ZYP Lubricoat Neon Orchid, Aqua, Sea Green, and Sapphire glass rods Double-thick clear sheet glass Firing paper (ThinFire )
to see the rods. A flashlight reduces the need to open the door or lid wide. Program the kiln with the schedule titled Former Firing Schedule. After each hold, carefully open the lid or door and observe if the rods have started to bend. If the rods have not started to bend, let the kiln firing program continue. When the right shape is reached, close the door or lid and shut off the kiln. Do not vent. least twice as many as you think you will need so your design won t be limited by materials. If you don t have double-thick glass, feel free to fuse two sheets of clear or tinted transparent glass instead. When the disk has cooled, place it on your workbench. Layout your design and cut the wavy rods to length. (In our design, we choose to extend the rods beyond the rim by ¼, however, this isn t necessary.) Before the rods are glued in place, user a grinder or diamond pad to round the rods outer ends. Again, use the grinder or pad to shape the rods central ends to fit together snugly. Lightly glue the rods in place with small dabs of white glue. Arrange the frit balls around the wavy rods in a pleasing pattern and glue them in place. Transfer the slumper and disk to your kiln and fire according to the Rod Tacking Schedule. The next step: Create the glass disk from the double thick, clear glass. This will become the basis for the bowl. The size of this disk will depend your design and the size of your favorite slump mold. (We used a 10 disk because we wanted to use the Colour de Verre 7-10 Bowl Slumper form. We like our slumper because it gives finished pieces a flat base.) Cut the disk, round the edges with a grinder, and fire it on a kiln shelf protected with either shelf primer or firing paper. Use the Sheet Glass Smoothing Schedule as a guide. In the same firing, create frit balls following the instructions in Serpentine Basics by nipping small pieces of rods. Create at Sheet Glass Smoothing Schedule* 1 350ºF/195ºC 1400-1420ºF/760-770ºC 10-20 minutes 2 AFAP 960ºF/515ºC 60 minutes 3 100ºF/60ºC 700ºF/370ºC Off. No venting Rod Tacking Schedule* 1 350ºF/195ºC 1350-1375ºF/730-745ºC 10-20 minutes 2 AFAP 960ºF/515ºC 60 minutes 3 100ºF/60ºC 600ºF/315ºC Off. No venting Slumping Schedule* 1 250ºF/135ºC 1220-1250ºF/660-675ºC 10-20 minutes 2 AFAP 960ºF/515ºC 60 minutes 3 50ºF/30ºC 800ºF/425ºC None 4 100ºF/60ºC 600ºF/315ºC Off. No venting
When the piece has cooled, check to see if all elements are fastened. Place the piece in a primed slumping molds fused rods down and fire according to the Slumping Schedule. Don t skimp on the annealing and cooling cycles. The finished pieces has both very thick and thin sections and needs to cool slowly. Once the rods have been shaped and the panel pre-fired, trace the glass panel onto a sheet of white paper. Connect the corners with lines drawn with a straight edge. Place the glass panel back onto sheet of paper and use the lines to help layout the design. Wavy Amber Plate The schedules and techniques for the Amber Plate are exactly the same as the Sea Form Bowl. We chose to use the Serpentine Formers to shape the Pale Amber rods but left the Black and Medium Amber rods straight. Again, use small amounts of white glue to hold the piece in place. Fire and slump as before.
Serpentine Basics Add wavy rods, stringers, noodles, and ribbons to your design vocabulary with Colour de Verre s Serpentine Formers. nnn Artists and craftspeople often speak about a design vocabulary, the materials and techniques they use in creating their artwork. For many glass artists, that is limited to sheet glass and frit. A few people add rods, noodles, and stringers to their work, but usually as rulings and borders. Availability Colour de Verre molds are available at fine glass retailers and many online merchants including our online store, www.colourdeverre.com. Colour de Verre s Serpentine Formers enable artists to add to their design vocabulary, letting them create glass waves from rods, noodles, and stringers. These can be used alone, or in combination with frit balls and Colour de Verre castings. Our formers are specially designed with added height to let the user determine how deep to make the waves curves. The formers are intentionally separate to give the artist maximal flexibility and creative options. Preparing the Formers This is one of the few times we don t recommend Hotline Primo Primer to be used on our designs. The formers are much denser than other Colour de Verre molds and Primo doesn t absorb well. Instead use a traditional primer (Hotline Hi-Fire Shelf Primer or Bullseye Shelf Primer). Apply according to the manufacturer s instructions. If you prefer, MR-97 Boron Nitride Lubricoat spray can be used instead. See our website s Project Ideas section for information on applying MR-97. Spacing Kiln Shelf Spacing Setting Up the Formers Place a kiln shelf on your workbench and protect it with a piece of ThinFire or shelf primer Tools Large, Medium, and/or Small Serpentine Fomers Mosaic tile nipper Priming brush (again, follow the manufacturer s instructions). Place the primed formers parallel to one another on the kiln shelf. For a gentle, generic wave, the spacing between the formers can be determined by adding the width of the former to the glass thickness. For example: Suppose you are using the ½ formers and a glass rod. Add ½ (the width of the former) to ¼ (the diameter of the rod) to get ¾. The spacing between the formers should be ¾. While this method creates the classic wavy form, users are encouraged to vary the spacing to achieve other effects. One can also mix former sizes. For example, using one larger, medium, and small former results in a great looking squiggle. Cut the rods to a length to span the formers. A great tool for this is a wheel tile nipper. Supplies Shelf primer or MR-97 Boron Nitride Aerosol. Glass rods, noodles, or stringers
Firing the Formers The perfect firing schedule depends on many factors including the kiln type (side or top elements), glass color, if the glass is transparent or opal, glass COE, rod thickness, etc. The only way to discover the perfect schedule for your kiln is by observing the results at critical points. This means that you will need to open the hot kiln and look at the rods. This is not as scary as it might sound but certain precautions must be taken. When opening a hot kiln it is essential to wear eye protection, heat proof gloves, and nonflammable clothing. Only open the kiln s door or lid one or two inches only wide enough to see the rods. A flashlight reduces the need to open the door or lid wide. Program the kiln with the schedule titled Former Firing Schedule. After each hold, carefully open the lid or door and observe if the rods have started to bend. If the rods have not started to bend, let the kiln firing program proceed. When the right shape is reached, close the door or lid and shut off the kiln. Do not vent. Make note of the hottest temperature reached and use it as a target temperature in future firings. Reusing the Formers After firing, inspect the formers. If the kiln wash is undamaged, the formers can be reused without Former Firing Schedule* Segment Ramp Temperature Check, hold, then check again 1 400ºF/220ºC 1240ºF/670ºC 10-15 minutes 2 400ºF/220ºC 1250ºF/675ºC 10-15 minutes 3 400ºF/220ºC 1260ºF/680ºC 10-15 minutes 4 400ºF/220ºC 1270ºF/685ºC 10-15 minutes 5 400ºF/220ºC 1280ºF/690ºC 10-15 minutes Sheet Glass Fusing Schedule* 1 250ºF/135ºC 1200ºF/650ºC 30 minutes 2 250ºF/135ºC 1410-1420ºF/765-770ºC 10 minutes 3 AFAP 960ºF/515ºC 60 minutes 4 100ºF/60ºC 700ºF/370ºC Off. No venting Tacking Schedule* 1 200ºF/110ºC 1200ºF/650ºC 30 minutes 2 200ºF/110ºC 1260-1275ºF/680-690ºC 10-20 minutes 3 AFAP 960ºF/515ºC 60-90 minutes 4 50ºF/30ºC 800ºF/425ºC None 5 100ºF/60ºC 600ºF/315ºC Off. No venting Slumping Schedule* 1 100ºF/60ºC 200ºF/95ºC 15 minutes 2 100ºF/60ºC 400ºF/205ºC 10 minutes 3 150ºF/85ºC 1250ºF/675ºC 10-20 minutes 3 AFAP 960ºF/515ºC 60 minutes 4 50ºF/30ºC 800ºF/425ºC None 5 100ºF/60ºC 600ºF/315ºC Off. No venting
repriming. If the kiln wash has been scraped and chipped, remove the old kiln wash with a Scotch- Brite pad and reapply new kiln wash. Incorporating the Waves The wavy rods, stringers, and noodles can be used to embellish plates, platters, bowls, and boxes. They can be combined with castings from other Colour de Verre molds. Rod and frit balls are also a perfect complement. (See Making Rod and Frit Balls sidebar.) Little glass spheres can be made easily from either frit or rods. Nipped up rods create perfect spheres that have a tendency to be optically perfect. Protect a kiln shelf with a coat of kiln wash or piece of ThinFire. To make frit balls, scatter medium and coarse mesh frit on the kiln shelf making sure none of the pieces touch one another. To use Making Rod and Frit Balls rods, nip the rods into ⅛ to ¼ pieces and stand them on end. Fire the kiln to 1420ºF (770ºC) for 20 to 30 minutes. Let the kiln cool with no venting. The surface tension causes the liquid glass to pull into almost perfect spheres. Wonderful results can also be obtained by using clear/colored Dual Tone frits. Create a rectangular or round glass panel by fusing together two sheets of glass using the Sheet Glass Fusing Schedule. Tack fuse castings, wavy rods, and frit balls, to the panels with the Tacking Schedule and form the final piece using the Slumping Schedule.
Tricks of the Trade We want our customers to have a great experience and wonderful outcomes with our molds. Let us pass along these hints and advice. nnn U s e H o t l i n e P r i m o 1 Primer. We tested many kiln washes and primers from a number manufactures. Only Hotline Primo Primer offered us the three properties that we required: thin, even coats that don t obscure the design; consistent release; and fired primer can easily be removed with a stiff brush. Mix the powder with water according to the label instructions. Apply four to five thin coats to the mold s inside surface. Let each coat dry before applying the next. A hair dryer can be used to accelerate the drying between coats. Keep the primer well stirred. The primer s fine particles the active components settle out of the mixture rapidly. If the primer settles, the particles will start to cake on the container s bottom. Use a stiff brush to stir the compacted particles off the bottom of the container and back into solution. It is not necessary to pre-fire the mold as long as the primer is dry. After firing the mold, use 2 any nylon kitchen brush or a toothbrush to remove all traces of the primer from the mold. We strongly recommend wearing a dusk mask. Always follow the firing 3 schedule recommended on our website and packaging. Colour de Verre molds are made from a specialized ceramic material. Like glass, this ceramic will crack or shatter if it is heated or cooled too fast. Finished pieces will have 4 much smoother edges if you use a small brush to move the frit away from the top edge of the mold. This trough only has to be 1/8-inch wide and deep. Use only crushed art glass 5 or frits in Colour de Verre molds. The molds are not designed for Pyrex glass, float glass, or crushed bottles. We don t recommend firing Colour de Verre molds above 1500 F (815 C). At higher temperatures, the primer will start to fuse and becomes more difficult to remove. If the finished piece 6 doesn t fall out of the mold, don t panic. Turn mold face-down and tap it against a hard surface cushioned with several layers of newsprint. If the piece still doesn t fall out, the mold probably wasn t properly primed. Occasionally, a few glass 7 spurs might be on edges of the finished pieces. These are easily removed with a wet diamond block or grinder. Following hint #4 will minimize these. Butterflies, dragonflies, 8 flowers, and leaves can be given more life with a second, slump firing. Some of our designs have a specially designed slumping surface on the reverse side. A sugar fire yields wonderful results with Colour 9 de Verre snowflakes. Fill the mold to half of the recommended fill weight with fine frit. Fire to a partial fuse about 1300 F (705 C). This technique can be used with any of our molds. Don t be afraid to experiment. Add CMC solution 10 to your glass powders to make a pate de verre paste. Mixed crush dichroic with your frits. Tack fuse finished pieces to slumped plates and platters. Mix shredded copper, silver, or gold foil into your frits. Embed smaller forms inside of larger, clear forms. The possibilities are endless. Availability Colour de Verre molds are available at fine glass retailers and many online merchants including our online store, www.colourdeverre.com.