It’s been a few months since we had a new kiln carving pattern. After nearly 3 years of drawing these, I hit a creative slump and just couldn’t think of anything new and interesting to do. After a couple months off though, I have ideas! Here’s one for May, and June’s is already in progress.
Step 1. Download the pattern. Some of the underlying code of the website has changed, so to download the pattern, visit the online Shop and select the May 2014 pattern. (link opens in a new tab). Print the pattern out after the download is complete.
Step 2. Pin the printed pattern over a piece of fiber paper large enough to accommodate the whole pattern. This pattern doesn’t have a border, so make sure your paper is larger than the piece of glass that you’re planning to use. (don’t worry, it will be clear later in the process)
I’m using 1/16″ fiber paper and pinning both layers to a cardboard sheet to protect my work surface.
Step 3. Carefully remove the gray area of both the pattern and the fiber paper underneath. I find it easiest to cut the paper, peel it out, and then run my X-acto knife around the edges of the pattern, this helps prevent tears in the fiber as you pull it out.
Keep doing that until all of the gray areas are removed:
Step 4. Once the whole thing is cut, discard the paper pattern. You’ll notice that the base of the tree may not stay attached to the rest of the pattern. This is okay, you can line it up when you put it in the kiln.
Step 5. Place the whole pattern on a prepared kiln shelf.
Step 6. Add glass on top of the pattern. I’m using the bottom of a large blue bottle. You can scale the print out of the pattern to fit other sizes of bottle bottoms if you wish. Fire to a full fuse.
Step 7. After fusing, drill a hole in the top edge for hanging, or slump into a shallow dish for jewelry or keepsakes.