Making a woven strip bowl. By Gary Brown
I started out by flipping my Ikea slumping bowl (see the last picture in this set) upside down on my kiln shelf
and drawing a circumference with my No. 2 Ticonderoga pencil (the ONLY pencil to use!).
I then cut ¾ inch strips of iridized clear Bullseye of varying lengths so they fit inside the circle with around ½
inch to spare. Next I laid them out on the weaving molds. By the way... before I kiln wash a fresh stainless
mold I fire it up to 1300 in the kiln for 15 minutes to burn off ALL the residual machining oils and solvents. After
cooling kiln wash will stick perfectly. Note that when I lay out the strips which are iridized on only one side I
need to remember to flip over every other strip so that the iridized surface will end topside when I do my
weaving (this will be obvious in a little bit).
I started out by flipping my Ikea slumping bowl (see the last picture in this set) upside down on my kiln shelf
and drawing a circumference with my No. 2 Ticonderoga pencil (the ONLY pencil to use!).
I then cut ¾ inch strips of iridized clear Bullseye of varying lengths so they fit inside the circle with around ½
inch to spare. Next I laid them out on the weaving molds. By the way... before I kiln wash a fresh stainless
mold I fire it up to 1300 in the kiln for 15 minutes to burn off ALL the residual machining oils and solvents. After
cooling kiln wash will stick perfectly. Note that when I lay out the strips which are iridized on only one side I
need to remember to flip over every other strip so that the iridized surface will end topside when I do my
weaving (this will be obvious in a little bit).
As you can see I’ve got two weaving molds in my kiln at right angles. The top one is held over the bottom one
with some kiln posts.
Schedule for the first fuse is:
350 dph to 1300 hold 5
Full to 960 hold 15
300 dph to 700 hold 1
Full to room temperature.
Here you can see the strips slumped into the mold slots:
with some kiln posts.
Schedule for the first fuse is:
350 dph to 1300 hold 5
Full to 960 hold 15
300 dph to 700 hold 1
Full to room temperature.
Here you can see the strips slumped into the mold slots:
After cooling I took the strips out and laid them inside the inscribed circle, flipping over ever other strip. This is why it’s
important that the strips, if using iridized glass, be initially slumped to make sure things are right side up when making
the weave setup.
important that the strips, if using iridized glass, be initially slumped to make sure things are right side up when making
the weave setup.
I next cut ¾ inch strips of olive-green iridized Bullseye. I fed them into the slots and then marked the cut-off point on the strip:
| The strips were then cut and woven: |
This went back into the kiln and was tack fused with the following schedule:
350 dph to 1350 hold 10
Full to 960 hold 15
300 dph to 700 hold 1
Full to room temperature.
350 dph to 1350 hold 10
Full to 960 hold 15
300 dph to 700 hold 1
Full to room temperature.
I then put the flat piece into my kiln-washed Ikea stainless bowl and slumped at my
usual schedule of:
300 dph to 960 hold 5
300 dph to 1150 hold 30
Full to 960 hold 30
200 dph to 700 hold 1
Full to room temperature
usual schedule of:
300 dph to 960 hold 5
300 dph to 1150 hold 30
Full to 960 hold 30
200 dph to 700 hold 1
Full to room temperature
The Finished Irid woven Bowl
A special Thank you to Gary Brown for this step by step tutorial and photos of this awesome bowl.
