A Music Lover's Request

What a fun project!

I actually started working with kiln-formed glass in October 2019 and began placing my creations on Etsy in December of 2019. In conversation with a customer who wanted a special gift for her piano teacher. I suggested creating a piano keyboard, forming it to a wave, and creating a glass stand for it to sit. 

I had just finished a piano keyboard tray and was confident that I could accomplish this even though I was new to kiln-formed glass. The keyboard was flawless. But my first run at the glass stand contained rows of air bubbles. So, instead of wasting the 2 sheets of glass that made up the stand, I placed it back on the fiberboard used to form the stand, fused it again and most of the bubbles disappeared. It's normal for fused glass to contain bubbles. What I learned is that you can fuse a piece again to correct a problem but there are a number of things to consider before refusing. e.g. transparent colors can opalize or colors can turn muddy. I currently sift a thin layer of clear glass powder between the two-layers of glass to reduce the chance of bubbles forming.

My customer was delighted with the results and presented her teacher with the gift which was happily received. She let me know that at her last piano lesson, she saw the piano keyboard sculpture sitting on her teacher's grand piano.