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Experience from flower pot drips suggests a couple of things. One is that you can find a ready made 3/4 inch hole in the bottom of a flower pot very easily. It's going to be in a pretty big flower pot though. You could kiln wash the bottom of the pot and drip your glass through, crashing the kiln wh...

(snip) my guess is that the larger foot on the vase is acting as a better heat sink, causing a difference in heat across the piece, thus causing thermal fracturing. the smaller foot on the vessel allowed greater cooling from the top surface of the platter radiating better than the thick solid glass...

I think what you are asking is: Do you prefire the paper before you put hardener on it? The answer to that question is no. You soak the paper in hardener, let it air dry (or dry it in your kiln at about 90 C). If you want to sand the dry paper you can, then add more hardener to the areas made soft b...

If you do a google search on "glass thermal shock" you'll find several sites by float and window manufacturers explaining the relevant parameters. Mostly they warn against covering too much of the edge of the glass with trim so that it is shaded and can't heat up fast enough when the sun h...

Hi Charlie, Keith sold me a great old war horse of a ball mill. I assume he has gone on to younger, more beautiful ball mills, but that's just a rumor. It has two 5' long rubber-covered rods. They are maybe 3 or 4 inches in diameter. Both have bearings on the ends so that they turn. One has a pulle...

This is meant more as an inspritational reference than an intimidating one, but if you're interested in cast glass dresses you should take a look at Karen Lamonte's work. She spent quite a bit of time in the Czech Republic learning casting technique from the masters to be able to do these. http://ww...

Give us some details please Steph. How big is it? Did you buy it or make it? What's the barrel made of? You're using it to crush glass or mix mold materials? If crushing glass do you quench the glass first? Have you tried thick cullet yet or just sheet scraps? What does the crushing? I built a ball ...

Wowie zowie I was just getting ready to run out and try it then read the post saying "i wish I had a deeper kiln" and duh, I have an Oval 9, not much height. Can I put fiber board or fiberfrax on floor of kiln or use shallow pot perhaps? Looking for advice from the potmeister Jeri You can...

Wowie zowie I was just getting ready to run out and try it then read the post saying "i wish I had a deeper kiln" and duh, I have an Oval 9, not much height. Can I put fiber board or fiberfrax on floor of kiln or use shallow pot perhaps? Looking for advice from the potmeister Jeri You can...

I'm teaching now in Atlanta, thoug I'm pretty new to it. I teach downtown at a place called Studio C. We are talking about a beginner's class soon, though nothing is nailed down yet. It may be an eight week -- two hours, one night a week schedule, or it may be a weekend seminar. The number is 404-22...

The pc will be in a kiln using top elements approx 3 1/2 away from top elements ( I hope this will work) I also have side elements in this kiln, but can only use either side or top due to power constrictions...hmm now that I think about it I have to use top elements since I am using the full width ...

Well that's too bad. I'm sorry for you. I can't offer much other than grinding or blasting off the surface, covering again thickly with an overspray and refiring on top of the mold. Back Magic matures at about 1000 degrees, but I've never gotten a truly glossy surface with it. I've never tried bendi...

The mold is a half orb, the glass will be draped over the mold. The mold is plaster but I don't know the composition of materials (he's the maker, I'm just the cooker). The peice is a 1/2" thick hour glass shape (red opal) on a base of machine rolled 6mm clear. The apex of the bend will occur ...

You can certainly slump on blanket without powdering the surface. It won't stick at all and you can get wavy forms without much of the blanket's surface texture being picked up.

If you want to fire hot enough to pick up fine textures then powdering is probably a good idea.

You're not going to get devit at 1250. You probably won't have to go to 1250 anyway. Fire up to 1150, take a look and raise the temp if it's not slumping fast enough. Low temp oversprays are for getting a glossy finish on the surface at a slump temp. They are not for preventing devit at a low temp. ...

Charlie I think that the solution is probably to estimate the amount of spread, cut the glass that much smaller and then set up the dam at the outer limits. By only being 1/4" smaller than the dam, the glass bumped them good and curled up. If the contact was gentle it probably would have worke...

Sounds to me like the glass expanded enough in the long direction during ramp up to jam against the dams before it got soft. Then it softened, fused and settled. That's when the ends turned up, since they were in contact with the fiber paper, maybe even tightly jammed against it, while the frit was ...

I agree with Brian that anyone looking at grinders should check out His Glassworks site. They sell all kinds of grinding and polishing equipment, and offer advice and support for glass workers as opposed to stone. Often the guys at the stone supply houses don't have a clue about glass, though their ...

If you're looking for a disc for stock removal on an angle grinder rather than a flat lap you should look at this page. http://www.granquartz.com/gdwheels.htm There's a disc in the tornado group that is 36 grit diamond. It's built for hours of heavy grinding. You have to have the right kind of backi...

I don't think it's thermal shock. I think the piece is tearing along natural week spots at joints between mosaic elements before it gets soft enough to slump. This is why it cracks in the center instead of at the edge. The stress is greatest on the center underside when you slump into a bowl mold. C...