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Hi Pilisa:

First both of your designs have a sophisticated simplicity – well done! I especially love the effect of the patterned dicro on clear. The thing about fusing issues like this is there are often more questions than answers and when we do come up with a possibility it is nothing more than a best guess until it is tested. So with that caveat here are my questions and guesses.

1. Have you used these molds before with success? (I’m going to assume yes)
2. Were both of these pieces fired in the exact same kiln firing? (again, I’m going to assume yes)
3. Were the 1st fired flat blanks 2 layer plus design layer making them thicker than 1/4”? My thinking here is there may have been too much material (i.e. glass thickness) for the rather extreme angle/curve on the heart mold. Problem is that doesn’t explain the square plate.
4. So maybe it was not enough time at the slump soak temperature to allow gravity to do its thing.
5. I noticed that the heart blank was very close to the mold edge on the lower right side. Did the glass slump over the edge ever so slightly over there? This could cause a pull on the glass holding it to one side and have an effect on the slump. I would be curious to find out if you’ve ever fired a slightly smaller blank with success? (I would suggest 1/4” smaller than the mold all around).
6. Perhaps the type or color of glass you used created a variable. I have found that some glass seems to be more relaxed and will slump into the mold faster and more completely. I do not have any scientific explanation for this effect (I’m not a chemical engineer and I don’t play one on TV) it’s just something that I’ve noticed with my own firings.
7. As for your kiln wash build up theory. The glass has to be free & loose on the mold to allow it to slip and move as it sinks into the mold (see my #5 point). It is possible that the kiln wash somehow got stuck to the glass on the way up to slumping temperature and therefore the glass was stuck to the mold and could not fully slump. However kiln wash usually gets stuck to the glass at full fuse temperature and not at slumping temperature so I think this is unlikely the cause.

So my best guess is either the firing was not hot enough or long enough at the slump temperature. Or the glass was too thick to allow it to fully slump into the extreme curve. Actually it could be a combination of both of these. If the glass was thicker it would need a longer soak to slump.

Since you can’t use these pieces as they are anyway then I think it’s worth another shot to slump them using a slightly higher/longer slump program. And do it at a time when you can be there to open the kiln at slump temp to take a look. You may have some devit issues because it’s a second slump firing but at least you’ll find out if they will actually relax fully into the mold.

Let us know your results on the refire.