I love copper, and putting copper between glass always has awesome effects. While my projects are small (because, of course, my kiln is small) that doesn't mean I can't do some simple, awesome things.

Using punches to create copper shapes seemed too easy, but for some time I had unsatisfactory results. Only the simplest of punches worked well -- think a circle!

One day I was playing with texture more than anything else. While a smooth, pristine piece of copper lends one result, texture gives another--one that is often hard to control because texture = air space = bubbles. Not always what you want, especially not over/around an inclusion.

Suddenly it dawned on me -- if the copper foil is too thin to withstand the punching, back it with something! DUH! So here is a great example of a test.

I had taken a crumpled sheet of copper and then gently uncrumpled it, and used the rubber brayer to smooth it out.

The tree punch is one of my favorites; It's about 2" tall, so the arms of the tree get pretty delicate. The first trial was without any backing -- just put the copper into the punch, and punched.

As you can see, it was mangled.

Next, I laid a sheet of regular printer paper together with the copper, and placed it into the punch so that it would cut through the paper first, then the copper. The second outcome looks pretty good, but isn't perfect.

For the third test, I used a lightweight card stock (the type you can put through laser printers). Again with the punch going through the card stock first, then the copper, the result was perfect.

The tweezers come in handy for picking up wayward pieces, and for picking the mangled parts out of a punch should your experiment fail. With punches I tend to turn them over so that I am looking at the bottom of the punch as I push the button or squeeze the handle. Punches are of varying quality/construction, and the truth is some punches will simply not work well, period. I've found some of my cheaper punches actually work better, and quite literally POP the piece right out of them! It seems to be those that have a deeper concave to the cutting surface work best.

Any time I use inclusions, but especially if there is texture, when I fire I put in a 30 minute squeeze hold around 1200-1250°F using Bullseye (1300 for Urboros) to allow the layers to melt together slowly, in hopes of minimizing bubbles. You place this before your ramp to 1450°F for a full fuse.

I've been spending more time at my kiln lately, and know the tips I find from others are invaluable. I hope to contribute with my own. If you've found this and find it helpful, please leave me a comment!