Glass Christmas Trees ... A New Paperweight!!

I saw an exciting photo of glass Christmas trees made of square glass pieces and decided to try to make this project. My son had given me a stack of thicker glass shelves that would be perfect, and I had a box full of scraps I could cut into different size squares. Here is the photo that inspired me. Aren't the trees simply beautiful?!!

I made two and used a dab of super glue between each piece to hold the trees together. Then let the trees dry for a day. I put each in the kiln on its piece of fiber paper and programmed the kiln to the temperature I would use for slumping, as I didn't know how hot it should fire. But I just wanted it to stick together and have the sharp edges round out. The kiln was set and turned on.

I came out to check it at 1100 deg. and was shocked to find one tree had fallen over and the glass pieces had separated on and off the fiber paper. The other tree was still standing. I got my long raku glove and kitchen tongs and picked up the fallen pieces. I placed them on a small kiln shelf and some pieces cracked immediately when hitting that cold shelf. But I didn't want the fallen pieces to remain in the kiln and fuse together, so they had to be removed from the kiln.

Later when the kiln had completed its firing, I looked inside and here is what I found:

I have myself a great paperweight! Surprisingly, the tree had held together, had slowly leaned over ... and the edges were nice and rounded. Having used this kiln for years, I had never checked the top shelf with a level, but that's the reason the trees fell over .... The kiln is not level. I'll take a day or so to regroup, level the kiln, cut more squares, and try this project again.