Bubble formation

Question:

I had 2 kiln loads where every piece had huge bubbles. The 3rd time I did a test fire and put 2 pieces on Thinfire and one on the kiln shelf. The one without thin fire got a bubble. Theories?

Response:

Your experiment showed that the Thinfire prevented the bubbling.  The question you are asking is why.

Fibre paper is a porous material allowing air to move through it and from under the glass.  If the shelf has only slight depressions, the Thinfire or Papyros will allow air out from under the glass avoiding bubbles.

Thicker fibre paper can provide a different and more level surface if it is thick enough to span any depressions in the shelf, while allowing air out too.

First, it is apparent that your shelf is not absolutely smooth and level.  This has been shown by your experiment where Thinfire prevented bubbles where previously there had been bubbles.  It showed that without the additional cushion that the depressions, although slight are enough to cause bubbles without additional fibre paper separators.

Second, although you do not give your schedule, the firing is too hot.  There is dog boning of your thin glass.  The bubbles on the thinner glass have burst and thinned greatly.

Firing hot causes the glass to become much less viscous than needed to perform a full fuse and allows the trapped air to push bubbles into and through the glass.  Lower temperatures with longer soaks/holds enable the glass to better resist the formation of large bubbles.  Also firing more slowly enables air to escape and allows the use of lower temperatures while still being able to achieve the fuse you want.

More information is available in Low Temperature Kilnforming, an evidenced based guide to scheduling.

Incomplete definition on texture moulds

An enquiry on incomplete definition in the glass from texture moulds:

I have this texture mould, but I’m not getting much definition. I’m using a single 3mm layer of 96. Do I need to go hotter for longer?

155C - 750C, 15 minutes

Full - 516C, 140 minutes

49C - 371C, 0 minutes

Full - 49C, off

My response:

You have sensibly increased the temperature at a moderately slow rate (for 3mm).  This ensures the glass is evenly heated through by the time it reaches the working temperature.  It is slow enough for you to be confident that most of the air has been squeezed out.

If you wanted to be more cautious about bubbles,  you could introduce a slow increase in temperature - maybe 50°C - from 600°C to 650°C.  You may want to soak there for 30 minutes, although it may not be necessary.  Once that segment is finished you can resume at 75°C to the top temperature.

I would not increase the temperature as you are already at risk of dog-boning the glass.  I would extend the soak time to 180 minutes at 750°C. You need to check frequently after the top temperature is achieved.  A quick peek is all that is required to see if the texture is fully reflected in the top surface.  You may find success by using a lower temperature, say 730°C, but it will require at least an hour more soak time.

The piece above conformed completely to the 12mm depth of the mould with a soak of three hours at 750°C. There was incomplete formation of another test piece at 740°C for three hours. So the 10°C made enough difference for complete formation over this depth.  With less extreme heights, a lower temperature or a shorter soak would be possible.

Once the texture is assured, you need to advance to the next segment.  Or, if it is not achieved by 10 minutes before the end, extend the soak.  Check your controller manual on how to skip to the next segment, or to extend the soak.

As an aside, your annealing soak and cool is very long and slow for 3mm.  You can regain the time used in the slow ramp rate and soak. Review the requirements for a single sheet of glass.  A 60-minute annealing soak and a cool rate of 83°C/hr. to 370°C is an adequately slow anneal cool for a 3mm piece.

You may find more success with a 6mm sheet.  The weight of glass helps it conform to the texture mould.  I have found that a slow ramp rate (about 150°C) to the strain point of ca. 540°C, followed by half that rate to top temperature allows a reduction in soak time to achieve the required definition. This reduction in soak time can be one half hour less than the time required to get good definition on a 3mm sheet.

The strategy outlined here for the scheduling is using the principle of slow and low and long firings.  It is much easier to control the results of the firing by using moderate ramp rates to lower temperatures combined with longer soaks and periodic peeking to check on progress.

If you do not have the time to devote to peeking when the schedule is at the top temperature, you should investigate the method of programming a delay to the start of the firing.  Your controller manual will give the method of using this function.

Texture moulds work well with the slow and low principle of kilnforming.  Long soaks may be required with periodic observation to determine when the process is complete.

Further information is available in the e-book: Low Temperature Kilnforming.

Firing cremains to avoid bubbles

Firing with cremation remains is very similar to firing with any organic material encapsulated into glass.

Design

There are several possible design approaches.

Drilling holes is one method to avoid bubbles.  You can drill the base, put the remains on top and then cap.  Place the whole assembly on 1mm fibre paper to allow the air to migrate out through the hole and fibre paper under the glass.

Alternatively, you fire upside down and then fire polish the top.  Place the eventual top down onto the kiln washed shelf or Thinfire. Place the remains on the glass and cap with the glass that has the hole drilled.  Fire, then clean, turn over and fire polish the final top surface.

Design the piece and placing so there is a gap at the edge. 

This gives a route for air to escape.  If there is any gap left after fusing, it can be filled with a bit of super glue or other clear glue. 

Another method is to place pieces of frit or stringer at the very edge of the base glass to allow air out from under the centre of the piece.

If you do not need to concentrate the cremains in one area, you can disperse the material evenly across the piece to reduce the possibility of large bubbles.  The air and gasses can migrate to the edge through the particles, just as happens with powder sprinkled between layers of glass.

You can combine some of these methods as they are not mutually exclusive.

Firing

Fusing these pieces is, in principle, the same as encapsulating any organic material within the glass.  Slow advances are required with a 3 to 4-hour soak at around 600°C to burn out any residual organic material just as you might for thick vegetable matter.  You can add another bubble squeeze soak of an hour or so at around 650°C to gradually push any remaining air out from between the particles.  Then advance to the fusing temperature and anneal as usual.

Texture moulds

"I could use some help here please. I’ve tried this sun mould 3x and as you can see all 3x I get a hole.  If you could tell me what I’ve done wrong I would greatly appreciate. They were all full fused to 1430F (776C)."

Example of the problem

There are a range of views that have been given on how to make texture moulds work without the glass developing bubbles.

closer view of one example

These are a summary of the suggestions made to the enquirer.

Not enough glass thickness. The view is that glass needs to be 6mm thick to be used on texture moulds, as the viscosity of glass tends to draw glass to that thickness, robbing from other areas making them thin and prone to bubbles.

Glass always wants to go to 6mm.  Not always.  It depends on temperature.  The kiln forming temperatures we use results in a viscosity that tends to equalise the forces at 6 – 7 mm.  Hotter glass will flow out more thinly, until at about 1200C, the glass is 1mm or less thick.

Full fuse two sheets first.  The object is to avoid placing two separate sheets on top of the mould, creating the potential for more bubbles between the sheets, as they may slump into the mould at different rates.

Too hot. As the glass increases in temperature the viscosity is reduced and can no longer resist the air pressure underneath the glass.

Use a lower temperature. The idea is to keep the glass relatively stiff to resist bubble formation.

Bubble squeeze needed to avoid trapped air.  Another way to reduce the amount of air under the glass is to allow the glass to relax slowly at a temperature below which the glass becomes sticky.

Elevate the mould.  The idea is that hot air circulating under the mould will help equalise the temperature of the mould and the glass.

Drill holes at low points. This gives air escape routes under the mould, assuming the mould is slightly elevated.

Go lower and slower.  Use a slower rate of advance toward a lower top temperature with longer soaks to avoid reducing the viscosity, but still get the impression from the mould.

Now for a different viewpoint.

None of the views given above are wrong, but they all (except in one case) fail to consider the fundamentals of obtaining texture from such a mould.

It is apparent that the temperature used was too high because the glass had low enough viscosity to allow the air underneath to blow the bubble.  The suggestions of thicker glass, bubble squeezes, lower temperatures, drilling holes and elevation of the mould are ways of reducing the amount of air or resisting the air pressure.  They are not wrong, but miss the fundamental point.

That fundamental point is that you need to raise the temperature slowly on these texture moulds to allow the glass to fully heat throughout. By doing this most of the air has a chance to filter out from under the glass before it conforms to the edges of the mould.  It is simpler to use the slow advance rather than a quick one with a slow-down for a bubble squeeze.  The glass is more certain to be the same temperature throughout by using a slow rate of advance.  Glass with an even temperature can conform more easily to the undulations and textures of the mould.

Mostly, the recommendations given are to use two layers, or 6mm of glass that has already been fused together.  This gives greater resistance to bubble formation and reduces the dogboning and needling of the edges.

However, you can form in these moulds with single layers.  There are of course certain conditions:

• You must advance the temperature slowly.  A rate of 100C per hour will be fast enough.
• You can add a bubble squeeze soak of 30 minutes at about 630C as additional assurance of removing most of the air.  The bubble squeeze is done at a lower temperature than usual, as the glass is less viscous because the slow rate of advance has put more heat work into the glass.
• The top temperature should not go beyond 720C. Beyond that temperature the viscosity of the glass drops quickly and so becomes subject to bubble formation.

The soak at the forming temperature will need to be long and observation will be needed to determine when the glass has fully conformed to the mould. Quick peeks at intervals will show when the design is visible on the top of the glass. The time will vary by:

• Mould texture complexity 
• Type of glass (opalescent or transparent),
• Heat forming characteristics of the glass,
• Viscosity of the glass or colour,
• Etc. 

Be knowledgeable about how to extend the soak or to advance to the next segment of the schedule to take advantage of your observations.

Your observation may show that you can do the texture formation at a lower temperature in future. This will provide results with less separator pickup and better conformation to the mould without excessive marking. 

You will need a long soak in either circumstance. This will be in terms of hours not minutes.  If you do these texture moulds at slumping temperatures, you will probably need at least twice your normal soak.

You can do a lot to fool the single layer glass into doing what you want by using low temperatures and long soaks. See Bob Leatherbarrows's book on Firing Schedules.  He gives a lot of information on how to manipulate glass through heat work - the combination of temperature and time.  You might also consider obtaining my book - Low Temperature Kilnforming.

Most of the search for the right temperature, fails to note that the important element is how you get to the temperature. You can get the same result at different temperatures by using different rates of advance.

Kilnforming is more than temperature, it is also about time and the rate of getting to the temperature. By concentrating on temperature, we miss out on controlling the speed and the soak times. You can do so much more to control the behaviour of the glass at slow rates, significantly long soaks, and low temperatures.

Bubbles on Drop-out Rims

Sometimes people doing dropouts get bubbles or unevenness on the rims of their pieces.  This means that it is not suitable to leave the rim on the piece.  Most times, this does not matter, as you intend to cut the rim away. But if you do want to have a rim these uneven surfaces are unsightly and not suitable for high quality pieces.

One person has indicated that they used a schedule of 250°C per hour to 520°C for a 30-minute soak and then proceeded at 330°C to the top temperature of 710°C.  This is probably too fast a heat up at the second segment.  Slower rates of advance are advisable.

One of the advantageous methods of scheduling for dropouts is to put the heat into the glass steadily.  I suggest there are two problems with the rates of advance and soaks in the above (partial) schedule.

The soak at 520°C would be more useful if it were at around 600°C.  This would allow the heat to be distributed throughout the glass before it begins to droop significantly.

The rapid advance of 330°C is much faster than needed, or desirable.  This rapid rate of advance allows the glass to move into the aperture, before the rim is plastic enough to stay on the supporting ring.

These rough drawings show how the rim initially rises from the ring, pivoting on the edge of the aperture.  This happens on all moulds (drops or slumps) where there is a rim.

With a rapid rise in temperature the raised rim edge gets more heat than the depressed middle, as it is closer to the elements.  This additional heat allows the edge of the rim to curve downwards forming air pockets as the edge touches back to the supporting ring.

Some people use fibre paper between the ring and the glass to prevent bubbles. This addition allows a passage of air from under the glass and reduces bubble formation.

Others have developed sloped drop out rings that eliminate the rising of the glass from a flat ring.  The glass is suspended above the aperture and only touches the edge of it as the glass softens. These crude drawings show the process.

To be certain of avoiding air bubbles under the rim of dropouts whatever the style of ring, you should use moderate rates of advance, with a possible soak at around 600°C which is before the glass begins any significant movement. The moderate rate of heating should be continued after this soak, rather than increased.

Firing multiple layers

Glass Stela
Credit: Stephen Richard

Fusing multiple layers is prone to the creation of multiple large bubbles.  It also needs a strategy to schedule for thick layers.

Avoid bubbles

A widely recommended strategy for stacks of glass is to fire in pairs of layers. Then combine the fused two-layer pieces in a final firing. 

It is easier to fire two layers of glass than 6, 8 or 10 layers. The heat up is easier and less time consuming for multiples of 6mm than multiples of 3mm. The bubble squeeze schedule is simpler.  It also allows inclusions between the initial two-layer sheets and then between the layers of 6mm sheets.

This multiple firing strategy reduces the risk of large bubbles in a stack of multiple pieces. It seems the weight of the 6mm layers forces the air out from between the thicker glass more effectively than thinner layers. 

It is also a simpler set of firings.  If you were to want to make up a 12mm thick piece from 3mm sheets, your heat up will be very long compared to firing two layers in three firings.

E.g. Stone* recommends a heat up for 2 layers of 3mm glass:

240C/hr to 250C, no soak

400C/hr to 500C, no soak (a bubble squeeze could be inserted here by raising the target temperature to 650, with a 30-minute soak)

500/hr to top temperature.

This is about 2.3 hours to top temperature without the bubble squeeze and 6.7 hours to cool.  This means that you could fire twice in one day, if organised well.  If you are planning a final tack fused layer that should be done in the last firing of the combined layers.

However, it is a much longer schedule recommended by Stone for 6 layers of 3mm glass:

• 25C/hr to 125 for 20’
• 30C/hr to 250 for 20’
• 40C/hr to 375 for 20’
• 50C/hr to 520 for 15 (a bubble squeeze could be inserted here by raising the target temperature to 650, with a 30-minute soak before continuing at the same rate to the top temperature).
• 150/hr to target temperature

This is about 18 hours to top temperature without the bubble squeeze and another 18 hours to cool.  This strategy requires 1.5 days, assuming all the layers are even.  The same amount of time is required for both strategies, but the chance of large bubbles is dramatically reduced.

He recommends for 3 layers of 6mm glass:

• 200C/hr to 250, no soak
• 340C/hr to 500, no soak
• 400C/hr to 600, no soak (a bubble squeeze could be introduced here by changing the target temperature to 650 with a 30-minute soak)
• 500C/hr to top temperature.

This is about 2.5 hours to top temperature and 18 hours to cool without the bubble squeeze.

This means that it only takes 2/3 of the time to fire 3 layers of 6mm glass than it does to fire 6 layers of 3mm glass.  Yes, you lose some time in firing the pairs of 3mm glass, but you gain in reducing the risk of creating large bubbles that will ruin your final piece.

Inclusions

If you are putting elements between the initial two-layer pieces for fusing, you need to introduce a bubble squeeze.  Putting elements between the fused pairs will also require a bubble squeeze on the final firing.

Tack fusing the final layer

Note the times indicated above are for even layers.  If you have uneven layers or are tack fusing, the times will be extended much further than the ones noted there.

For a tack fused set of top layers, you will need to add those in the last firing, or do a sharp tack firing before the last firing.  In the case of a tack fused pair for the top layers you will need to reduce the rates of advance for the last firing by about 1/3. This would mean:

• an initial rate of 135C,
• a second ramp of 230C,
• a third of 270C and
• the fourth of 335C instead of the rates for even layers. 

You will also need to reduce the top temperature.  Observation will be required to determine when the correct profile has been achieved.

Further information is available in the ebook Low Temperature Kiln Forming.

When firing multiple layers of glass, the risk of creating large bubbles can be reduced by firing pairs of 3mm sheets, and then combining the results into one stack.

*Graham Stone. Firing Schedules for Glass, the Kiln Companion, 2000, Melbourne Australia.  ISBN 0-646-39733-8

Large Bubbles

As you move up from smaller pieces to pieces that occupy most of the shelf, you sometimes begin to get large rounded bubbles at tack fuse and burst ones at full fuse.

Image from B Stiverson

You have to go back to basics to discover the cause.

Schedule

It is not likely to be the schedule. It has worked for smaller items. But it is important to review the schedule.  Is it like others you have seen? Is it similar to what the glass manufacturer recommends?  Both these will reassure you that the schedule is OK, if not perfect, or to revise it.

Cleanliness

Going back to the basics relates to the cleanliness of your kiln, among other things.  Even a small speck of material under the glass can result in a bubble. Although the grit lifts the glass off the shelf only a fraction, as it heats up the glass slumps around that and creates an air pocket.  That grows as the glass heats up and creates a large diameter bubble. If there is no grit in evidence, you need to check another element of your kilnforming practice.

Shelf

The large bubble might often occur in the same relative place in the kiln, although different places on the glass pieces, depending where they are placed.  This is an indication that you may have a hollow in the shelf. It may not have been obvious with smaller pieces.  You need to check the shelf with a straight edge. If any light is seen between shelf and edge, you have a depression in the shelf.  It may only be a sliver of light, but that indicates a depression which is enough to create a large bubble. That must be fixed.

Image from Suze

There are temporary and permanent fixes for avoiding bubbles due to depressions in the shelf. 

The temporary fix is to use 1mm fibre paper on the shelf, to allow air out from under the glass.  This can be topped with Thinfire or Papyros. Alternatively, a thin layer of powdered kiln wash can be smoothed over the fibre paper to give the smoothest back possible in the circumstances. You can use a plasterer’s float, or simply a piece of float glass.

The permanent fix is to sand the shelf smooth and level.  A method for doing this is here.

Single Layer Bases

If you are firing with single layer bases, there may be nothing wrong with the shelf.  It is typical in tack fusing to use single layers with glass placed decoratively around the surface of the base.  This leaves gaps where the base glass is exposed.  Even though the whole piece may survive the differential heat up of the exposed base glass and the covered parts, there is the possibility of creating an air pocket under the exposed base.  This comes from the weight of the stacked glass pressing any air out to the side.  If the design is unable to provide a route out for the air, the possibility of creating an air bubble increases.

It is possible to create conditions to reduce the possibility of these large bubbles developing. 

One solution is to use a layer of fibre paper as for a shelf with slight depressions.  This allows air out from under the glass, even with a single layer layup.

The other solution is to change the rate and temperature of the firing.  By using the low and slow principle, you can reduce the risk of bubbles.  Use a much slower rate of advance to a lower temperature with a longer soak you can achieve the look you want without bubbles.  This utilises the concept of heat work.  It does require observation to determine when the effect you desire is achieved and then advance to the next segment.

Further information is available in the ebook Low Temperature Kiln Forming.

Pin holes in melts

Pin holes in screen and pot melts are the result of very small bubbles rising to the surface.  These bubbles are sometimes within the glass melted, but more often come from small amounts of air trapped within the flowing glass.  These are perceived to be unsightly, or make it impractical to make a functional piece from the melt.

There are ways to minimise bubble formation or to deal with the formed bubbles.

Bubble Formation

In pot and screen melts, the glass spirals as it touches down onto the shelf. This spiralling action can trap small amounts of air as each successive spiral forms beside the previous one. Efforts at prevention of tiny bubbles in the final piece need to concentrate on this fact.

Bubble Squeeze

A preliminary element in bubble prevention is to have a long bubble squeeze to allow the glass to settle in the pot or on the screen so that the rest of the process can proceed with a minimum amount of air trapped within the flowing glass.

Two-Stage Drop

In some cases. it is possible to have the glass flow from the pot onto an angled shelf where the spiralling glass has to flow from the initial touch down to the edge and then flow onto the shelf.  This allows any tiny bubbles initially trapped to escape before the final drop onto the shelf.  This provides two mixing processes and means that a lot of clear glass needs to be included to avoid a complete mix of the colours.  It requires careful selection of the original colours to avoid a brown or black result.  It also requires a big kiln with sufficient height for a two stage drop.

This two-stage drop is of course, not suitable for a screen melt where you wish the glass strands to remain.  Nor is it suitable when you wish to have many “pools” of colour mix in the final piece.

Where the two-stage drop is not practical or suitable other methods can be used.  These relate to scheduling, cold working the surface and re-firing the piece.

Schedules

Scheduling relates to using a soak at full fuse temperature before proceeding to the anneal.  The melt will occur at 850°C to 950°C.  You can cool as fast as possible to a full fuse temperature of about 810°C and soak there for an hour or more.  This allows the small bubbles to surface, break and heal.  Schedule the rapid cool to the annealing soak, once the high temperature soak is complete.  This will eliminate lots of the bubbles, but not all.

A sample friring schedule from bubble squeeze upwards and then down to a high temperature bubble reduction soak

Cold Work

Cold working the melt is about abrading the surface to open the bubbles that are just emerging to form a small dome at the surface.  Sand blasting is a common form, as usually kiln wash or fibre needs to be removed from the bottom of the melt, and some devitrification from the surface.  It would be possible to continue to grind the surface of the glass to eliminate the small depression in the glass caused by the now opened bubble, but this is likely to expose more bubbles that were at a slightly deeper level. What next?

Fire Polish

As you will need to do a fire polish firing after blasting or grinding the surface, you can use a full fuse temperature to allow the surface to become plastic enough to fill the bubble holes.  Remember to schedule the firing as though the piece were at least 12mm thick.  You may find that more bubbles are exposed in addition to the ones healed at the conclusion of this second firing.

Flip and Fire

An alternative is to fire upside down.  You will have noted that there are no bubbles on the bottom of the melt.  This is because the bubbles have risen through the heated glass.  This physical fact can be used in the second firing.  Fire with the melt surface to the shelf.  It is best to have a clean and newly kiln washed shelf, or fibre paper (not Thinfire or Papyros) under the glass. Fire the glass to a full fuse or high temperature tack fuse with a significant length of soak to allow the bubbles near the original surface to move toward the interior of the glass.  After firing, the glass will need thorough cleaning before being fire polished. This should leave you with a pin hole free piece.

Conclusion

Achieving a pin hole free pot or screen melt requires several stages of coldworking and firing.  This makes melts inexpensive in materials (it is scrap of course) but expensive in time and firings.

Bubble Squeeze for Multiple Layers

Difficulties often occur with bubble formation within pieces composed of several layers. There are a couple of factors in addition to the number of layers that have an influence - temperature and rate of advance to the bubble squeeze temperature.

Temperature

The top temperature for the bubble squeeze does not need to change with multiple layers. It is the advance to the bubble squeeze that needs to change in relation to the number of layers.

Rate of Advance
It would  be suitable to reduce the rate of advance to about three-quarters of the two-layer schedule to account for three layers.  And a reduction to one half of the two-layer schedule for a four-layer piece would be appropriate. The reasons for these slower rates of advance follow.

A normal rate of advance for two even layers would be about 200°C per hour to the bubble squeeze temperature.  Sometimes a very slow rate of advance is used from 50°C below the top of the bubble squeeze.  This strategy can continue to be used for thicker pieces made up of many layers with some modifications.

Multiple Layers

But for a three-layer piece, slowing the rate of advance to about 150°C is important to assist in a good bubble squeeze.  This helps get all the glass at the same temperature by the time the bubble squeeze is approached. Glass is a good insulator, and also a poor conductor of heat. This slower advance allows the bottom layer to be at the same temperature as the top piece.

For a four-layer piece, a rate of about 100°C would be suitable.  When the lower point of the bubble squeeze is reached (about 50C below the upper soak), the slow rate of advance can be used to go to the upper end of the squeeze, using the normal soak length.  

This illustrates that the more layers of glass in the stack, the slower the rate of rise must be in the bubble squeeze range.

Five Layers and Beyond

For pieces made up of more than four layers, a different strategy is needed to ensure the heat reaches the bottom layer of glass.  Graham Stone* calls this the “catch-up” schedule. It is essentially an overnight schedule with temperature equalisation soaks of 20 minutes at 125°C intervals all the way to the bubble squeeze. At each stage the rate is increased by 10°C.

This means that with a first segment rise of 20°C per hour, the second from 125°C to 250°C is at 30°C with a 20 minute soak, then 40°C to 375°C soak for 20 minutes, 50°C to 500°C and soak for 20 minutes, and finally 60°C to 625 for a final 20 minutes with 70°C to your normal bubble squeeze temperature.  This will take about 17 hours before you go on to the forming temperature.

This long heat up schedule illustrates the problem of getting the heat to the bottom layers of the stack, and the need to squeeze the air from between the layers.

Thicker pieces apply more weight to press out bubbles from lower layers, but only if the lower layers are equally as hot as the top.  This requires long schedules.

An alternative approach to this bubble squeeze problem is to fuse two layer pieces of the appropriate number to achieve the thickness required.  If these are fired with good bubble squeezes there will be a minimum of bubbles.  Combining these 6mm blanks will give fewer bubbles with a proper bubble squeeze.

Another approach is to start with 6mm glass as it comes from the maker.  This is not always possible, because it is not common for 6mm fusing glass to be made in anything but clear.  It may be possible to incorporate the clear within the stack, if it is not appropriate on the bottom.  These thicker sheets have fewer bubbles proportionally than 2mm or 3mm sheets.  So there are fewer bubbles in the final piece.

Of course, placing shards of glass at the corners, or sprinkling a very thin even layer of powder between multiple sheets will also help reduce bubbles between layers, but it is the slow rate of advance to the bubble squeeze that is the important element.

*Firing Schedules for Glass; the Kiln Companion, by Graham Stone, 2000. ISBN 0-646-39733-8

Further information is available in the ebook: Low Temperature Kiln Forming.

Layups Promoting Bubbles

Intentional Bubbles

Sometimes you want bubbles. There are various ways to achieve bubble placement with certainty rather than at random.  You can use a variety of bubble powders.  There are a variety such as the UGC bubble powder – now supplemented with bubble enamels.  The use of copper oxide powder will give bubbles of varying sizes dependent upon the amount deposited. You can also use baking soda – calcium carbonate - in the same way for clear bubbles.

You can create a range of bubble textures by arranging textured glasses in various orientations.  Fine reeded glass at right angles will give a regular pattern of small bubbles.  Accordion glass will give a slightly different arrangement.  Using fluted glass at 60 degrees to one another will give you diamond shaped bubbles if you control the temperature and time.  The variety is limited only by the textures and the way you arrange the glass orientations.

Incidental Bubbles

Most inclusions – metal, mica, organic, etc. – result in bubbles to a greater or lesser extent around the objects included.  Extended bubble squeezes are required in conjunction with a sprinkling of powder or very fine frit between the inclusion and the edge of the piece.  Sometimes corner pieces can be included in the design to keep the edges open longer allowing more air to escape.

Unwanted Bubbles

These bubbles largely come from the way in which the glass is arranged. 

Single layers at full fuse will draw in at the edges and thin from the interior, allowing any air to push up and sometimes through the glass.  This is because the thicker and heavier edges resist the movement of the air from under the glass.  This resistance, added to the thinning of the interior leads to bubbles, unless the glass is fired at fire polish or lower temperatures.

This example from Danna Worley shows the effects of firing single layers

Single layers with borders compound the problems of single layers.  The borders ensure that the edges are heavier than the interior and seal air at an even earlier stage of the firing.  The bubbles will appear between the other tack fused pieces in the interior of the piece.  Again, with this kind of lay-up, the top temperature should be no more than a rounded tack fuse.

Heavy or thick borders on two-layer bases are also circumstances where bubbles can be produced.  The border on even two-layer pieces can trap air both under the whole piece and in between layers in the same way a border can on a single layer piece.  In a lay-up like this, it is best to fuse the two base layers together first and then add the decorative pieces and border in a second firing.

This example from Andy Bennett shows how, even when inducing bubbles, things can get out of hand. Here the bubbles between layers have even thinned out the bottom layer to holes to the shelf.

Encased glass pieces are a certain way to get bubbles.  If you place even a single layer of glass pieces in a pattern around the base and then cap it with a sheet of clear, bubbles will form.  This will happen even if there are clear path ways for the air to be released from the interior.  The capping glass will not conform completely to the encased glass pieces by the time the edge is sealed, no matter how long your bubble squeeze may be.  The way to avoid this is by putting the glass pieces on top of a two-layer base.  And it is better to fuse the base layer first before adding the surface glass pieces, so they do not press down unequally, leaving a thin film of air around the heavier pieces on top.

Avoidance of unwanted bubbles

There are a few ways to avoid bubbles that are not where you want them.

• ·        Avoid using single layers with pieces on top.
• ·        When using single layers fire with slow rates of advance at low as possible temperatures with a short soak at top temperature. You will need to peek at intervals to observe when the work is finished and advance to the next segment.
• ·        Non-glass inclusions should be encased with care.  They should be as flat as possible before capped.  The bubble squeeze should be long – possibly as slow as 25°C per hour between 600°C and 677°C. This is to allow the glass at the centre to settle, pushing air from the centre out. Including a sprinkle of powder or very fine frit may help reduce bubble formation, as might chads at the corners or edge of the piece.
• ·        Organic inclusions will produce large bubbles from the combustion gases.  Use a three to four-hour soak at about 540°C to allow the burnout of the organic material before proceeding to the bubble squeeze.
• ·        Avoid borders on top of the glass.  The additional weight acts to seal the glass to the shelf and between layers, leaving air underneath to rise and even break through.
• ·        Do not cap/encase glass pieces unless you have a very good reason.  The glass pieces placed on top will stick to the surface with less chance of bubble creation, and will become flat at a full fuse.
• ·        If you must have a border or encased glass pieces, consider flip and fire – fire the piece upside down to a rounded tack fuse at least, clean thoroughly, then cap the piece and fire right side up. This can reduce the bubble formation.