The Kaleidoscope Project - confetti disc

 As part of a uni assignment I am creating a type of kaleidoscope – the viewer will be made from mirrors and the discs will all be different using various forms of architectural glass techniques.

This disc is created to look like confetti

I cut a disc of glass from clear glass and laid it in the kiln where I then placed small pieces of paper thin blown glass shards all over it.

It then went into the kiln overnight to be fused together.

I think it looks quite interesting.

And it looks really pretty through the kaleidoscope.

 

The Kaleidoscope Project - Tartan disc.

 As part of a uni assignment, I am creating a type of kaleidoscope – the viewer will be made from mirrors and the discs will all be different using various forms of architectural glass techniques.

This disc is a fused ‘tartan design.

I started off by cutting a circle out of glass, then I cut some glass ‘ribbons’ and stringer to fit the circle and laid them onto the class.

I actually worked directly into the kiln for this disc as I knew that trying to move it after placing the ribbons and stringers would be very stressful – and probably unsuccessful 😊

I then fired it at 760 degrees to fuse the decorations to the disc.

I was really pleased with this one when it came out of the kiln, I really do like the Tartan effect.

And it looked great through the kaleidoscope viewer.  😊

The Kaleidoscope Project - candy stripes disc

 As part of a uni assignment, I am creating a type of kaleidoscope – the viewer will be made from mirrors and the discs will all be different using various forms of architectural glass techniques.

This disc is a fused ‘candy stripes’ design.

I started off by cutting a circle out of glass, then I cut some glass ‘ribbons’ to fit the circle and laid them onto the class, not in any particular order.

Then it went into the kiln and I fired it at 760 degrees to fuse the ribbons to the disc.

The finished disc was lovely and smooth, and the ribbon lines were nice and crisp.

It made a really interesting pattern when looked at through my kaleidoscope viewer.  😊

The Kaleidoscope Project - Mandala Disc

 As part of a uni assignment, I am creating a type of kaleidoscope – the viewer will be made from mirrors and the discs will all be different using various forms of architectural glass techniques.

This disc is a sandblasted mandala design.

I started off my drawing a mandala in a iPad app called Amaziograph.

I found a lovely piece of flashed glass, which is clear glass with a coating of colour on one side.

You can sandblast through the coating to make sections clear glass again.

I used a masking tape and placed the mandala image on the top, and cut through them both with a very sharp craft knife.

Then it was off to the sandblaster to blast away the parts I had cut out.

I wasn’t really prepared for how long it would take to blast through a 1mm layer of coloured glass – this was about 2 hours work!

After a few more hours I was finally getting somewhere…

I removed all of the tape, and popped the piece into a kiln to fire at 650 degrees so that it would soften the sand blasted areas to make it all nice and shiny again.

I’ve still got to grind the edges and maybe put some tape around it to make it a little neater, but so far I am quite pleased with that.

And it looks really cool through my kaleidoscope viewer.  😊

The Kaleidoscope Project - optical illusion disc

 As part of a uni assignment I am creating a type of kaleidoscope – the viewer will be made from mirrors and the discs will all be different using various forms of architectural glass techniques.

This disc is based on illusion drawings.

I cut a disc of glass and covered it with black glass paint.

Then using a wooden skewer and a straight edge, I scraped away the paint to create an optical illusion within a square shape.

 

It then went into the kiln to be fired at 650 degrees to set the paint.

Quite happy with the result….

 

And it looks quite good through the kaleidoscope.

The kaleidoscope project - making the viewer.

 As part of a uni assignment I am creating a type of kaleidoscope – the viewer will be made from mirrors and the discs will all be different using various forms of architectural glass techniques.

First I need to make a viewer!

It’s quite a simple idea really, three strips of mirror stuck together in a triangle.

I used Duct tape to stick the mirror together and I plan to put it in a decorated tube to make handling it easier.

So far so good though….. I had a good look around our glass classroom and it makes a great viewer  😊

Kaleidoscope Project – marble disc

 

As part of a uni assignment I am creating a type of kaleidoscope – the viewer will be made from mirrors and the discs will all be different using various forms of architectural glass techniques.

 

The first one I wanted to make was to include shop-bought marbles.

 

First I put the marbles in the kiln to melt down so they had a flat bottom.

This meant I could arrange them neatly onto a disc of glass without them rolling all over the place.

I cut a 15cm glass circle out of window glass and placed the marbles onto it.

Then into the kiln it went up to 820 degrees.

The next morning I was way too impatient and had a sneaky look while the kiln was still at about 100 degrees  (not really recommended in case the piece thermal shocks and cracks.)

Happy with the result.. I think it should make a good disc to view through a kaleidoscope.