Slumping Glass over Steel

I wanted to slump a glass sheet over the top of two heads made out of steel.  My first attempt the glass broke.  The glass was too close to the heating elements in the kiln lid.

So I eliminated the steel rods supporting the heads and welded the heads directly to the steel plates.  I also covered the glass with kiln shelf paper. 

The combination of the two items prevented the glass from breaking.  The only problem was that the glass only slumped around the edges.  The steel also reacted with the air because of the high temperature.  The shop vacuum cleaned up the kiln, and sand blasting cleaned up the steel head.  The lessons learned: don’t use steel in the kiln – use stainless steel, and don’t expect the glass to mold itself around several objects.