First checker and strip project progress

Here is how my project is progressing
First her is my plan for the project. This step really helped me know how many pieces I needed and how big to cut each one,

Next I cut all the pieces and washed each one. 

I put the first layer in the order that I wanted, then flipped all the pattern pieces face down, To help keep the line straight I have to fire the top of the patter face down. I will have to fire polish it after. This project will most likely have to go in the kiln 3-4 times. 

After the first layer, I put a layer of clear followed by a layer of white and one more layer of clear. There are a a few square that I used tranparent blue for all the layers. I hope to have light filter through those areas.  I find that I quite like the combination of colours! 

 This piece is going to be about 1/2 an inch thick. Way thicker than all my other projects. So far I have only done two layers of glass. This will be 4. I will have to slow down my kiln schedule and add time to the holds and annealing time. This will take about 14 hours in the kiln the first time around. I hope to have a finished project some time on Monday. Right now I have kiln primer drying on the kiln shelf. In the tutorial I am using for inspiration, Steve used kiln posts to dam his project. I do not have any kiln posts. Something I am putting on my wish list. I will be using fibre paper and other molds to stop the glass from spreading. Also, Steve using a lap sander to get the edges polished and even. Again I don't have that equipment, so I will be researching how I can achieve a similar look without  that equipement.

I can see the benefits of a good strip cutter. My squares are not perfect, so they  do not line up all that great. That is another item I have added to my wish list. I am thinking of using some of my earning from the sales of my Christmas ornaments to buy a strip cutter and over 80 square feet of glass.  I am also trying to decide what bowl mold I want to buy. The web site I normally order my supplies from doesn't have the mold I am looking for. I might have to take a trip to Edmonton and look in a few shops. 

Hopefully I will have some postive progress on this project to post!