July Free Kiln Carving Pattern

allium kiln carving pattern

As hard as it is to motivate myself to fire up the kiln and add to the already excruciating heat, I was inspired by this gorgeous thing:

Allium seed headsWe have about a million Allium bulbs in the back yard, I’m not sure whether I like the flowers or the dried seed heads better.  Anyway, I thought I would try a kiln carving pattern of an Allium.

Step 1:

Download the free pattern from the Shop.  After you print it out, come back here.  Go on, I’ll wait.

Step 2:

Pin the pattern and a piece of fiber paper large enough for your piece of glass onto a puncture proof surface.  I use a sheet of cardboard.  Not sure how big of a fiber paper piece to cut?  If you’re using a bottle, remember, a 1.5L bottle flattens to about 6″ wide x however tall the bottle is (or the cut part).  A 750 mL bottle flattens to about 4.5″ wide.  Still confused?  Here’s the tutorial that talks about estimating how much glass you have.

pinned pattern and fiber paperStep 3:

Carefully cut out the gray area and remove the paper and the fiber paper underneath.  I like to cut the paper pattern off first, then the fiber paper.  Try to keep the flower in one piece, we’ll use it for another project later in the week.

kiln carving pattern cuttingfiber paper alliumStep 4:

Stash the paper pattern somewhere safe, we’ll need it for our next project.  Carefully set aside the fiber paper allium too.

fiber paper pattern

Step 5:

Put the fiber paper pattern on a prepared kiln shelf and add an appropriate piece of glass.  I’m using a cut yellow/green 1.5L bottle cylinder.

cut bottle for kiln carving

Step 6:

Fire to a full fuse.  You can see my bottle shifted slightly on firing, either make sure your paper is large enough to accommodate any shifting, or prop the bottle in place with a tiny piece of fiber paper so it won’t roll.

allium kiln carving pattern

Step 7:

Drill holes for hanging, or grind the edges and slump into a dish mold.

allium kiln carving pattern

Ready to try it?  Quick, go download the pattern!






 If you enjoyed this post, you’ll LOVE my newsletter!  Sign up now and you won’t miss a thing.

We respect your email privacy

Email Marketing by AWeber

Tutorials have Moved!

Tutorials are now located in the Knowledgebase.  This move allowed us to sort the tutorials and group them by topic rather than in chronological order.  We hope that this new format will be easier to browse and find useful tutorials.  Thank you for visiting us!

Dealing with Scrap Glass

If you've made glass art for any amount of time you know there is always a ton of scrap waiting to be processed. Add to that the complication of working in recycled glass, where your glass is rarely compatible across pieces, and what do you do with all of that scrap??...

State of the Studio – Week 2

Sometimes, ok, most of the time, I look at the giant mess and have no idea where to start, so I just pick a spot and work my way around the room in one direction. Works as well as anything I suppose. I this case I started with the giant table. This is a dream of a...

Q & A Monday, 6/26/23

Q & A Mondays are answers to reader questions submitted via email or social media.  All personal information has been removed for privacy reasons and messages have been edited for clarity.  You may submit your own questions through...