Don’t Refuse to Refuse by Trudy Thomson

I started making glass about ten years ago setting aside a large chunk of time to make and break glass. The first year was great. In fact, most of my favorite pieces were fresh in concept, intricate, and remain my favorites. I worked at the process eight hours a day and learned a lot.

Then suddenly everything broke down. Every piece I made cracked because it had thermal stress. I would be upstairs and suddenly I could hear a ping. I ran downstairs and my latest treasure (three months after I made it) split down the center. It nearly broke my heart. But I am stubborn. I called and emailed anybody I could and finally figured out I should ignore the advice of the manufacturer of my kiln and slow everything way down.

Now I get to “refuse”; I cut little pieces out of the broken glass and rearrange it and it becomes even more intricate than when I started the project. I have programmed my computer control on the kiln to let it go through a process for a long time—like 13 hours, then never open the lid until 24 hours. That rewards my obsessive behavior, but “better safe than sorry”.

If you want to know more about how to do this because you are a beginner, contact me at t-thomson@nc.rr.com or to take a peek at my work see my website at http://www.fernsandfancy.com.