Last week a student made an appointment to make some pendants for herself and friends. She came prepared with the design and the colors were already chosen. It sounded like an easy project and as I laid out the process choices for her the decisions came quickly. Until I discovered I did not have the correct shade of green she wanted and needed. A compromise was made using frit instead of a solid piece of glass. The size was to be a 1 1/2 inch circle. Again no problem. A square fused will become a circle. We all know glass melted will draw into itself to a thickness of 1/4 inch.
All goes well using the cut pieces and the frit to finish the design. Added a piece of clear, waited till the next day to fuse. I fused the pieces and though they fused well, they were still square-ish!!! I stared in disbelief. Where were the circles? What happened? I have done this so many times with nice round results.
Hours later I realized three layers were used and of course it was already a quarter of an inch thick. I went to work grinding and shaping and when it looked more rounded I refired. Better, but not round enough. If this was for me I would have adjusted how I was going to use the pieces. But this was a special personal project by a customer. After the disappointment we discussed ways to make it into a circle. She has access to a powerful grinder and before redoing the project she is going to try and grind it into shape. If it works, I will then fire polish the circles. Otherwise she will start over and use different materials like glass paints or powders. Or let her try cutting small circles.
I learned I need to remember all factors when teaching and guiding and not get hung up on providing the correct sizes and colors that were asked for while forgetting the basics.
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