Making a Drop ring Murrine fused glass Vase

January 30, 2018 1 Comment

Making a Drop ring Murrine fused glass Vase

The next step was figuring out what to do with the murrine I had made.  I decided to make a drop ring vase by fusing this murrine into a blank  and then using a drop ring mold to  slump a vessel. ​ I fabricated a 3/4 inch stainless steel rings in my shop then added fiber paper 1 /16 inch to inside ring. Held fiber paper on  w Elmer's glue and then placed on  kiln  shelf paper.  Then stacked murrini in center of  2 sizes of blanks.  Decided to use clear casting chunks to fill the  outside area that cuts cut off after drop.  I can reuse this again.  No need to waste murrini. 
so fired at 250 per hour to 1225 then 600 per hr to 1500 held for 20 minutes
then afap to 900 for 4 hours the 27 degrees per hr to 800 then 49 degrees per hr to 700 then 162 degrees per hour to 80 .  This was per the annealing schedule from bullseye for thick slabs

The slabs fused well, went from 3/4 inch to 5/8 inch final height. ​So set 1 large blank on the primed drop ring with a coating of fiber paper.  I feel the  clear glass rim will be cut off and reused.


​Ring was 8 inch in diameter and 8 1/4 off kiln floor.  Used conservative heating schedule. 150 per hour and will start check about 4 hours in.  Kiln on at 9 am . Bullseye mold 8632 with 1/16 fiber  on top of mold. Will do one at a time since the hole size is different.  The smaller blank will take longer to drop, so can't fire them at the same time. My kiln interior height is 15 inches.  All kiln shelves were  removed from the kiln . I should have put the shiny side down rather than up but it worked. Added kiln paper to bottom of kiln so glass would not stick.  i could have use a kiln shelf that had primer on it
This is the drop out ring I used. At this time i used fiber paper on-top of the ring but now only use a coated mold with shelf primer on it.

Next I started to slumped this thick blank ...It was a whole day process. I went very slow at 150 per hour to 1220.  It then took  2 hr 30 minutes at this temp for the glass to  to reach bottom.  Then I went to  afap to 900 for 2 hours the 50 per hr to 700 then afap to 80.  730 on program was time from 10 hours.  This was went we went afap to 900.  I went slow heating during the slump do to thickness of the blank.  I stated checking kiln every 20 minutes about 1 hour into process temp of 1220.
I took the vase blank out of kiln when it hit  80.  Then I was off to cut off the top remaining blank and cold work the top edge on my flat lap.  A multi day process and  today was my birthday. So thought I would follow thru and celebrate....I liked what I saw.    When I opened the kiln we had a nice drop ring vase that was 8.5 inches tall and had a 4 1/4 inch  diameter inside. Loved the heart on the bottom. Pretty pleased so far....
Then the fun began  Here's a utube of what happened next .  I learning curve to slow down on a flat lap. Nathan Sandberg has a great video on AEE glass about cold working a vessel.  A great video.
​I finally cut up the clear glass ring surrounding the drop vase and will re-use it again. Now I de-bulk the ring before I cut the top off.

This was the diamond cut off disk I used.  I had bought this from Rio Grande.

Here is a similar product on amazon.
So some days stuff happens, and it will but you learn alot in the process. Please leave me a comment if you see something I could have done different. Lemons to Lemonade. Love the Hearts and Murrini patterns.


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1 Response

Carolyn Lindberg
Carolyn Lindberg

August 28, 2023

Wow, I’ve been looking for something like the cut off discs you have and reference above…so excited to look for those. I also wonder where you purchased the cone sanding unit that attaches to your grinder that you used to grind down the inside of the vase/cup. My grinder is a CrystalMaster so I don’t know if it will fit…but I’d like to check it out.
Thank you so much! The murini vase turned out beautifully!

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