WarmGlass.com

Not Fiberglass but refractory blanket. Yes you may need a respirator because of the irritation that can occur from handling the material. Generally and take this advice at your own risk, the refractory materials themselves are safe and supposedly non cancerous. Time will tell. Heating refractory mat...

Unlike a site like 'twitface' the posts remain and are searchable. However it is advisable to cut and paste notes on information you find useful as this site was hacked in the past and large numbers of early posts disappeared.

The micro holes in kiln shelves are filled with the multiple layers of kiln wash you apply. Not only finding kiln shelves can be difficult but finding smooth non gouged ones can be difficult. Potters don't care if they have gouged shelves and the suppliers take little care of their inventory. The tr...

Not engineering shops but electrical installers.
Those food grade gums since they make water thicker and into a gel, are good for putting on burns or fires for that matter.

Probably doing nothing wrong. If you add more clay the kiln wash will stick to molds better but it will also stick to glass better. Kiln wash once dried will be dusty if not much clay and won't stick to the glass so much. You have to figure out what you want and need and mix accordingly. There are a...

I reckon all the gels used to thicken or stick stuff are just variations of all the different gums you can get that can be used to prepare food. The last one I made, didn't stick glass together all that well but I'd made a very liquid batch of guar gum in a tiny plastic eye drops empty bottle. I put...

So real looking. The only complaint is that I can't smell the flowers.
Well done indeed.

Do air brushing inside a spray booth with supreme filtration at the exit end of that filter. Air brushing will suspend particles in the air for Hours and hours after spraying. Please visualize a brilliantly sunny day where a beam of sunlight comes inside your room and you can see the 'house dust' dr...

The lower density board will insulate the glass you are heating and make the firing slower and longer. The higher density board would allow more heat transmission through conduction of the kiln heat through the material and into the glass. The lower density board because it is less dense has infinit...

The instructions were clear when I learned. Stains down on a thin bed of throw away whiting and paints up. Silver in my experience can come back to haunt you months and months after the fact. Your first comment on seeing its golden return will be a 'what the..." Where did that come from? The an...

effectively you have a silver stain which may be difficult to track down these days.
If you have not used stain before and it looks like you did with those pieces, it is advisable to fire face down or risk have stain fumes reappearing on your glass work at the least opportune later time.

Never hand polish on machinery when you have a kiln that will round it all.
get a better kiln wash. Use bullseye

Just like many modern day glass people were entranced by the wonderful works of Tiffany, who is going to pick up where Don eventually slows down? The mythical average person does not understand the skills or appreciate the time and money that goes into such creations and then wonders why they cannot...

Impressive work as always Don. Well done.

bend a piece of metal and make the missing hanger to go behind the clock hands.

Her enthusiasm was the giveaway to the coming problem. Whenever someone is over enthusiastic about what you have made, you are not going to get paid. It happens every time. As for the garden club giveaway, you've been suckered. I'd go along with the idea up until the very end when you are for some r...

Oh I'd expect you to have to apply a separator otherwise I think you'd have heard of "this perfect mold material that never sticks to glass and you can use a zillion times" :lol: We'd have those specialist separator companies worried. Everyone's kilns are different and the sources of mold ...

Rigidizer is great but I've found it attracts glass like flypaper attracts flies.
Question to ask is will it make the mold any better in some way that is worth that risk.

there are lots to choose from out there some for a lot of money. Using the carbide open mesh variety sand paper stuck on the bottom of one of these units will allow dust free sanding. Well dust free if the vacuum you are using is of high enough quality and doesn't just blow the dust out the exhaust ...

using kiln wash seems the most sense to me.
I was even given a bottle of liquid equivalent of a zyp type and chose not to use it.

Buy a drywall sanding attachment for collecting the dust while sanding the shelves inside your kiln.
Hardware stores have lots of them to choose from.