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Hi Amy, I agree with you that it is okay to use other people's technique ... the style should be your own. I guess I didn't express it very well. I believe and hope that as people develop their "voice" that the technique that they borrowed starts to be modified to express their ideas. Besi...

Ah Jackie, you're opening that pandora's box again. We are all influenced somehow. My interest in texture and powder comes from seeing William Morris pieces on a visit to Seattle, and purchasing has "Artifacts" book. His use of colour, the subtlety and strength of his work left a huge impa...

I too would join an Association. As a rule I do not join anything unless it seems to be both active and worthwhile. We (rather Brad) has laid the groundwork to show that there is the energy around an association.

Names?

Society for the Preservation of Artform Builders... SPAB


Cheers,

Bob

Hey Doug,

Great combinations of colour and texture. What a wonderfully coherent body of work! The show schedule is also extremely impressive. Congrats on all.

Cheers,

Bob

If you haven't used white or grey glass in the project I would think that the mark is from the ground edges of the piece (assuming they were ground) or some sort of devitrification. Try cleaning the pieces thoroughly, and minimising the amount of glue (if you are using glue). What colours are the gl...

Hi Tel, I would avoid leaving the kiln unattended. The relay switches that control the flow of electricity to the elements can seize leaving the power running to one set of elements in the kiln. This can cause a kiln to overheat. Where I live the heat from the kiln does not apprecaibly change the te...

Hi Tess, Welcome to F2A2 (First Firing Anxiety Attack). We have all had them so what you are experiencing is quiet normal. In the banner at the top of this page is the topic "Tutorial". I would try the tile/coaster project. Don't worry about the design ... just fire something simple. Next ...

Hi Sandy,

Why don't you cut the bar into tiles and then square the tiles with your grinder? It might be faster. Also some of the tiles may chip while being sawn so you will only want to square those tiles that are intact.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Bob

Renato Foti of Kitchener Ontario won the Fused Category and..... drum roll please... Tony Serviente won for lamps. Great news Tony!

Hi Gabriel, The books I would recommend are: Brad Walker's Contemporary Warmglass ... obvious choice Graham Stone's book on Firing Schedules... hard to find From a historial perspective: The first two Boyce Lundstrom Books (can't remeber the exact names... they have been worn off my copies because t...

Hi again Jackie,

It might help if the photographer has a polaroid back for his camera, or a digital camera to get a preview of the impact of the lighting before committing to film.

Cheers,

Bob

Hi Jackie, Great piece, Great presentation! I know you've heard it before but once more is always good for the ego. Back lighting might be tricky because of the mounting bar. How about mounting the piece on the wall and shining a light along the wall (in addition to light(s) illuminating the front)....

Carol, Have you tried the Bullseye test to determine how the heat varies across your kiln? It invovles building small bridges of glass at a regular spacing over the kiln shelf. Fire them until they start to slump. Turn the kiln off. Once the kiln has cooled check the bridges to see how much differen...

Hi Carol The temperature at which slumping occurs is a function of the diameter of the hole that the glass is slumping through. The wider the hole the lower the temperature at which slumping occurs. Each size of drop through mold will have different slumping characteristics. Try heating your piece u...

Hi again Sue, In reality I think that the "design problem" I mentioned should not have been that significant a factor. In theory there can be residual stress around pointy shaped design elements, and black sometimes can cause a problem because it is such a "soft" glass. But the s...

Hi Sue, Interesting problem ... which is the short answer for "I'm not really sure". But here are some suggestions. First of all your firing schedule appears OK... conservative if anything. The initial heating at 115deg F/hr to 955 is very cautious. You could easdily go to 300 deg/hr and(i...

Another reason why glass slips through drop through molds is the shape of teh mold. If the top of the mold has a slight evel then the glass slumps onto the entire surface of the mold prior to dropping through the hole in the center of the mold. If the top of the mold is flat the glass tends to bend ...

Hi Cheryl,

Your firing schedule is cautious enough that it should not have caused thermal shock. Did you have large areas of white and black glass together? Were the breaks related to edges between colours?

Fire your kiln goddess...

Cheers,

Bob

Quartz and silica are essentially the same. Quartz is a naturally occuring mineral, the chemical formula is SiO2. Silica and oxygen are common elements in many naturally occuring minerals. I would assume that you want finely ground material for mould making... something like silica flour. Cheers, Bob

Hi Carol, Yup, Barbara is right ... need a longer soak at 1325 to allow the heat to seep into the center parts of the glass. For the thickness you mention I would soak it at least an hour. Glass is a poor conductor of heat. It takes a long time for heat to work into the piece, and a long time for it...