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Gail, If you sandblast the glaze from only the top surface of a item to use it as a slump mold and leave it on the bottom surface you set up an unbalanced condition. In a properly finished glazed ceramic item the glaze on the surface is in tension with relation to the clay body of the item because t...

I would have to see some serious scientific evidence to substantiate this claim before I could give it credence. Food safety in fired ceramics centers around lead and other heavy metal release from fired ceramic glaze as defined by very specific ASTM standardized tests. I cannot imagine glass in the...

Since so very many variables interact in kiln fired glass it is hard to offer suggestions without more specifics about your project. Information about glass size, shape, thickness of components, type of glass, type of kiln, full firing schedule are some variables that are needed for others to unders...

I predict more sticking at casting temps with the addition of kaolin. I use 85% finely ground alumina hydride, 15% kaolin to 1700 F for pot melts with minimal sticking and easy cleanup.

Best wishes,
Tom in Texas

Are the elements in your kiln located in the lid or on the wall of the kiln? I would locate the larger items in the center of the shelf with smaller ones around the edges. If your elements are on the wall of the kiln it is very possible that items near the edge of the shelf are getting hotter faster...

Brad, if I am not mistaken Duncan no longer packages their mother of pearl luster in the spray can. It is packaged in one ounce liquid form for application with a brush or spraying through an airbrush. Med-Mar no longer produces lusters for ceramics. A search for "china painting supplies'' shou...

One work-around for posting photos is to upload them to a free photo hosting service like photos.yahoo.com or shutterfly.com, set them up so anyone can view them (very important) then post a link to your phot os in your post to this boardlike this:http://photos.yahoo.com/tomwhite2 Readers can then c...

Linda, I for one have never heard of this product. Could you possibly post more information about the product or better yet a link to the supplier so we can learn more about it?

Best wishes,
Tom in Texas

Molly, slipcasting is the method used to produce many ceramic items. A plaster of Paris mold containing from one to as many as ten separate pieces is made from an original sculpture. The mold pieces are assembled and held together with large rubber bands and sometimes locking web straps. A liquid su...

Molly, if you are making your mold from solid clay at 1/2 " it should dry a week or two. If the mold feels cooler than the table it is sitting on it is still wet. If you are slipcasting 1/2" is way too thick. Try more like 3/16" for cast molds.

Best wishes,
Tom in Texas

If your enamels are the standard 80 mesh you will need a very coarse screen to push them through. Also, you did not mention if you have the liquid plastic clear overcoat material to apply ovet the enamel colors to slide them off the decal paper when you apply the decals.

Best wishes,
Tom in Texas

Linda, it might be possible to attach the straight edge to the edge of the glass opposite the side you want to cut with the straight edge extending out past the irregular edge of the glass so that it fits against the guide instead of the irregular glass edge. Be sure the straight edge is parallel to...

Stella, I often work with 1/4" (6mm) float glass and have devised a simple tool to help me run the score on circles in the heavier glass. It is simply an 18" to 24" piece of hardwood dowel which I have sanded the on end to a hemispherical shape using a powered disk sander. I used a fi...

Paul, Chinapainters use an adhesive that fires to cone 022, about 1100 F, to adhere clear or colored glass beads to china. The same materials should also work on glass. The adhesive is at the bottom of the first page in the following link and the glass beads are at the top of the next page after cli...

Bonita, there have been earlier threads about wet belt sanders. Some posters have not been happy with smaller units. However you should be aware that there are smaller wet belt sanders using 3" x 41 1/2" belts instead of the 4" x 106" belts on the machines others have suggested i...

Don, have you considered fusing thin transparent red (1122-50F) for just the hat areas? I presume you are trying to do these in just one firing and I do not know how your other colors would hold up to a full fuse firing. I don't know of anything else that would give you a brighter, transparent red w...

I have played with Bert Weiss' formula of 80% alumina hydride, 20% kaolin and have adjusted it to 85% alumina hydride, 15% kaolin. I have ground the alumina hydride in my makeshift ball mill to as fine as I can obtain for this release. I mix 100 grams dry ingredients to make 1 pint release. I also a...

C&R Loo also sells frit & confetti for float http://www.crloo.com/

Best wishes,
Tom in Texas

In general the limiting factor is how fast you can heat the glass without thermal shocking it. 10 degrees per minute = 600 degrees per hour (my controller works in degrees per hour not minutes). IMHO this is a fairly fast rate of heating and I think that the glass on the shelf is lagging slightly be...

I have fired 12 at a time, four each on three 5/8" mullite shelves in a Paragon A99 ceramic kiln, 23"wide by 27" tall inside. The bottom shelf is 3" above the kiln bottom and each of the other shelves is 7" above the one below it. I fire at 300F per hour to 700F then afap to...