I know I'll never get up the nerve to open my kiln to rake. Instead, I was wondering, can I fake...I mean, rake it?
I was recently in Monterey, CA visiting a shop on Cannery Row, where glass artist David Alcala is usually busy at work.
The day I visited, he was out (at the Glass Art Bead Expo) promoting his new book and Flexi-Glass.
His lovely wife was holding down the fort and I marveled at his landscapes made with fine glass frit. I knew I had a lot of Uroboros frit and powder at home, and it inspired me to try and fake a kiln rake with frit.
I laid out a sheet of newspaper, and donned my goggles and 
face mask.
I cut out a 10-inch transparent glass circle, so I would have a double-sided plate.
Next, I sprinkled a bunch of purple powder, then white, and purple again, gently patting down the mounds with my fingers. I then added a squiggley line of bejeweled frit.
From there, I included Uroboros fine frit in white, purple, then sprinkled on some more bejeweled frit.
I used a paint brush to gently move the frit across the plate, blending one color into another. Next came the big move.
How was I going to get this thing into the kiln? I remebered watching a forensics documentary where they sprayed fingerprints in dust with hairspray. So from a distance, I sprayed a light coating over the plate. I wondered if it was going to devitrify the surface, but it didn't.
I safely moved the plate to the kiln - almost no glass fell off of the edges! I swept away some particles from the edge of the plate with my paintbrush. I also made a small matching pendant.
After firing, the plate was slumped into a 10 plate mold from Delphi.
How to: Fake a Kiln Rake
