Frit Mandalas Using Glassline and No Days Liquid Fusing Adhesive

If you're interested in purchasing the plates below, they're currently for sale at the Noyes Art Gallery in downtown Lincoln through the month of April. After that, perhaps I'll list them on Etsy. Contact me if you're interested.

Ready to fire in the kiln

No Days Liquid Fusing Adhesive can be used with frits to easily create complex designs. In this set of Mandala plates, I've added Glassline Pens to the mix to add extra layers and dimensionality.

Base layer of clear becomes the clear cap

For a quick primer on how to use No Days Liquid Fusing Adhesives with frits, check out this video:

For these plates, I began with a clear circle of System 96 glass placed on top of my mandala template. Then, I outlined the design lines with a black Glassline pen. After letting that dry (you can help it along with a hair dryer or heat gun), I added layers of frit, securing and stacking with No Days Liquid Fusing Adhesive. Once my design was dry, I flipped the plate so the frit was facing down and loaded the plate into the kiln to full fuse it. (I used a lot of adhesive on these three plates, so I had to let them sit overnight to thoroughly dry. That said, I still had adhesive left in the 4 oz. bottle after making three 10" round plates.)

In the kiln for the full fuse firing...currently at 1145º F

You definitely want to adhere to the firing schedules below for a slow ramp up to burn off binders and adhesive. I'll explain more about this with the "Sand Dollar Mandala." After your full fuse, you're ready to slump. I have become really addicted to firing in this drop out mold from Slumpy's lately. Instead of using it as a drop mold by lifting the mold off of the kiln shelf, I use the shelf to create a flat bottom platter.

After the second "Slump" firing

I raise my slumping temperature a bit when using the drop out mold, so that I get really crisp lines and good definition.

Finished piece - "Tiger Lily Mandala"

Here's another piece with a lot of Glassline paints on both the underside (frit side) and top side of the clear glass:

"Flower Mandala"

You can get quite a bit more dimension by adding paint on both sides. However, you may also get more bubbles on the under side (frit side). You may be able to coax them out of there with a little tinkering in the firing schedule. For more information on bubble squeeze segments, give a search of the warmglass.org forum.

Detail of layering achieved by applying Glassline Pens
on both sides of the clear glass

Now, I'm going to talk about the importance of stopping at 600º F and at 1000º F for at least 30 minutes in the full fuse firing schedule. The piece below, "Sand Dollar Mandala," was not supposed to be one shade of lavender/grey. And, before I painted the top side, it looked quite dismal. (So, there's a lesson there...you can almost always fix it by firing again. As long as you're not attached to the outcome. In fact, you may be surprised and stumble upon a new-to-you technique!)

"Sand Dollar Mandala"

By examining the back side, you see a lot of grey. I did not use grey frit. I had some lovely light sapphire frit, with some pale amber, and quite a bit of bright orange, yellow and red, too! However, I zipped right by 600º F in my firing schedule, and only waited at 1000º for 30 minutes before continuing on with the rest of the firing. And, well...a lot of stuff got trapped. You'll notice that the colors are noticeable on the edges of the plate, whereas the center of the plate starts to go grey. Here's what happened...

Reverse side of plate shows the "oops,"
if you know what you're looking for

The binders in the Glassline pens and the adhesive was not finished burning out before the slump part of the firing schedule began. That means that the plate edges sealed against the kiln shelf, sealing in all the binders. So, I've got some ash going on in that plate. However, I was able to fix it by painting over the top of the plate with some Glassline metallic pens. Now, the plate actually gets a lot of compliments, and I say, "Yeah, I meant to do that." Errr....

One last important point...If you're going to flip your design down on the shelf so that the base layer you're building frit on becomes a clear cap, don't fire on Thinfire or other shelf paper. EDIT:   I have been wanting to test Papyros paper for a few months. It holds up a little better and can be reused, making me think that it won't become an inclusion in the frit. However, I haven't had a chance to double check that, yet. Make sure that you fire on a kilnwashed shelf. (The shelf paper binders burn out at around 1000º F, turning the fiber paper to dust. The frit falls into and around the dust, which becomes part of your plate. Doh!)


Full fuse firing schedule for mandala plate (the layers of glass will melt together and have no texture left):

Full Fuse
300 dph	600º F	60 min
300 dph	1000º F	60 min
300 dph	1100º F	10 min
50 dph	1250º F	20 min
500 dph	1480º F	10 min
AFAP	960º F	45 min
100 dph	800º F	0 min
200 dph	700º F	0 min
400 dph	100º F	0 min

NOTE: You may need to hold even longer at 600 and 1000 if you've used a lot of adhesive. I've found that it takes a lot longer for the adhesives to burn out if you're firing upside down. You can always fire frit side up, then flip it and fire it again to polish up the front side and add more painted designs.

[Assumptions: 2 layers of standard thickness glass (3mm or 1/8") stacked to make a thickness of 6mm or 1/4"] 

The firing schedule is fairly conservative, so you shouldn't have any breakage.  However, please note that this firing schedule is just a general guideline.  It is up to the user to take into account their glass fusing setup and design, materials used and kiln being used to yield their desired results.  

dph = degrees per hour (Fahrenheit)
AFAP = as fast as possible, represented by 9999 when programming your kiln
min = minutes

SLUMP SCHEDULE:  This firing schedule is for a slump schedule. After using one of the above schedules to fuse your pieces together, you're ready to give it shape by placing it in a mold. Make sure that the glass is not bigger than your ceramic mold, or you can potentially break your glass, your mold or both while firing.

Slump Schedule
250 dph	750º F	10 min
250 dph	900º F	30 min
300 dph	1150º F	15 min
300 dph	1280º F	30 min
AFAP	960º F	90 min
50 dph	800º F	0 min
100 dph	700º F	0 min
300 dph	100º F	0 min