Just a quick question for the fusers out there.
I have only done small scale fusing until now and have always used thin fire paper as well as having kiln washed the shelf. Now I am playing with much larger pieces the thin fire paper is going to be expensive to use. I admit I am rather nervous about fusing directly onto the kiln wash but I do have a lot of it and could do without the additional cost of the paper.
So I was wondering what you use?
I bought some ceramic fibre paper, which is a bit cheaper than thinfire. I think I got it from tempsford stained glass. It is not quite as nice as thinfire though, and it will totally crumble and cannot be used again.
Just found that creative glass has a bit of a sale price on their thinfire paper atm: https://www.creativeglassguild.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=68_128&products_id=1695
Thanks Julie I will take a look.
Sam, I fuse directly onto a kiln washed shelf all the time. Never had a problem so far.
I currently use the Bullseye shelf primer that Warm Glass sell (if I wasn't pi$$ed, I'd get you a link), although I am thinking of trying the Primo (?) one they've had on their site recently, which can apparently cope with higher temperatures and is easy to get off.
So long as you put enough coats on, you should be fine. Kiln wash is hugely cheaper than ceramic fibre paper or thin fire (I think I calculated several times cheaper, can't remember how much, but it was in a post somewhere). Advice is one coat in each compass direction, but I usually do horizontal, vertical, diagonal, diagonal, then all directions again at least once over. And maybe a bit more if the kiln wash looks a bit thin.
The worst that happens is that the glass sticks a bit to the kiln wash, which takes a bit more intensive cleaning, but I haven't managed to ruin a shelf yet ;D ;D
Thanks Dawn, I have paragon wash so it should be up to the job but I have added a few extra coats just to be sure.
Kerensa came over today and shamed me with her glass cutting skills (even with a broken finger) so we have filled the kiln and are looking forward to seeing the results tomorrow.
oooooh - pics? ;D