Blanks for Engraving

I'm going to a class at West Dean next week with Katharine Coleman, which should be awesome. I'm thinking about hiding pattern or image behind engravings, which maybe I'll work on a little at the workshop, I don't know. I've been making a few blanks this week, but not much else, since I've been dying of sick. I like how here the french vanilla is almost opaque unless the layered pieces are back lit to reveal the pattern.

I fused the slices of blue together with clear first. I'm working on not trapping any bubbles between the layers of my engraving blanks, so I also ran the French Vanilla top layers through the firing separately to make them have a totally smooth side.

After that, they were fused together, in the image above the back piece had both layers shelf side up from the previous firing (the smooth side down.) Next towards the from is, colour shelf side up, French vanilla shelf side down. The round one is both shelf side down, and the front one is both shelf side up.

Both firing's were on the following schedule:

1. 334* c to 289* c hold 0:30

2. 222* c to 677* c hold 0:30

3. 333* c to 804* c hold 0:15

4. ASAP to 482* c hold 0:30

5. 83* c to 371* c hold 0:00

6. Afap to 50* c hold 0:00

And, I actually didn't get any significant bubbles... though the pieces are small, so it might be different with larger panels.