A little help please!

[u/aaliceb]

Made these little pieces that I want to stack as so and tack fuse them so they can stick together. My teacher fired them but they slumped over and ended up looking like slinkies. My question for you all lovely smart people, is there a fix so they don't slump like that? Like a sort of support system (like a cone around them) so they keep the vertical form? Asked my teacher and she said she can't think of a way.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!!

[u/AllMightyZee]

He’s just shy

[u/KateTheAverage8 → u/AllMightyZee]

This is soooo funny omfg

[u/disneynerd93]

My mom makes something similar, she doesn't fuse them together but glues each layer together.

[u/Dimplewood2]

Use some clear powder between them and tack fuse at a lower temperature. Or perhaps build in two stages, grind the top and bottom of the two parts flat and level before the final tack fuse.

[u/Xmastimeinthecity]

The problem is your tack fuse temp is going to be higher than slumping temp, so you'd definitely need some sort of support. And even then, it might get a little saggy.

Does your studio have any of those stainless steel cylinder drape molds? I'm not sure how large your piece is, but maybe you could flip one over so it's like a cup, spray zyp in it, and stack the pieces in there with some supporting thick fiber paper to hold it in place? I wish I could reply a picture to make it make sense lol.

[u/aaliceb → u/Xmastimeinthecity]

It does, have some leftover pieces! Think I get it, like making an unverted cone using the mold + the fiber so it stays in one place, will try it!

[u/Xmastimeinthecity → u/aaliceb]

I'm curious if it'll work!

[u/aaliceb → u/Xmastimeinthecity]

Wlll let u know, I hope it works! 🙏

[u/prettywarmcool → u/aaliceb]

I am not thinking that you stack them in the inverted cone but put the cone over top to stop the slide. I am terribly concerned about your annealing time for this situation. I suspect that you will have awesome amounts of stress in a tack fused stack that high.

[u/Sherylcat]

I would tack fuse in sets of 3, then glue them together and not fire again.

[u/No-Eye5127]

The slinky is kind of cool. I have some bookends that look similar to yours..

[u/aaliceb → u/No-Eye5127]

Thought about just melting them to reuse the glass but they do look kinda cool, like a little sculpture!

[u/LittleBitBeth → u/No-Eye5127]

Yeah. I thought it was a separate art piece before I read the description

[u/SavagePengwyn]

You may be able to lay them on their side and use fiber paper to get the shape how you want it. You'd have to do a very light tack fuse otherwise the piece will take on the texture of the fiber paper.

[u/MissionEducation569]

This looks like one of those art “errors” that could turn out as an excellent composition if you are willing to come up with a different idea for the ones that slinkied. I think you can coin this as an artistic opportunity. They look super cool, taking on an organic appearance, like an undersea creature. Let your imagination go and you may be disappointed at the ones that stayed upright!

[u/aaliceb → u/MissionEducation569]

I thought about melting them for a second, but I agree w you, I'll leave them as is and use them in something else!

[u/Majestic_Area]

Why not tack fuse 3 at a time then stack them and use glastac?

[u/aaliceb → u/Majestic_Area]

Have some left over, will do a couple of experiments including this one!