I was going to try my first pot melt and I searched the archives, but couldn't find the info. It seems today I can't even find my way out the backdoor.
I bought the clay pots and some clay saucers and was going to try to suspend 2 small pots with different colors over a larger saucer just to see what happens. 2 reasons; so it's round already and, not wanting to think about glass overflowing to the bottom of my kiln. Yikes.
My questions are;
I'm pretty sure the clay pot doesn't get kiln washed as it's disposable anyway. Right?
Should the clay saucer get kiln washed? I'm thinking yes, but wouldn't the wash get mixed up with the glass as it swirls? Or is thinfire a better choice?
And do these clay items need to be heated first before use or are they good to go? They are brand new from the craft store.
TIA
No need to kilnwash the pots as it will mix with the glass as it flows out and make a mess. Do kilnwash the saucer to keep the glass from sticking.
There may be some kilnwash that gets pushed around as the glass flows into the saucer, it is unavoidable.
No need to heat the pots ahead of time, just make sure they are clean and have no cracks. The pots will be coated with glass when your melt is finished and the remaining glass will crack and shatter as it cools. You may even have an icicle of glass bonding your piece to the pots.
I would be concerned that the glass would over flow out of the saucer and break when cooling. You need to be sure that you don’t put too much glass in the pot. You can be a little more accurate by weighing the glass. 1/8â€
"Come to the edge. We might fall. Come to the edge. It's too high! Come to the edge! And they came, and he pushed...... and they flew."
-- Christopher Logue
Ron Coleman wrote:No need to kilnwash the pots as it will mix with the glass as it flows out and make a mess. Do kilnwash the saucer to keep the glass from sticking.
There may be some kilnwash that gets pushed around as the glass flows into the saucer, it is unavoidable.
No need to heat the pots ahead of time, just make sure they are clean and have no cracks. The pots will be coated with glass when your melt is finished and the remaining glass will crack and shatter as it cools. You may even have an icicle of glass bonding your piece to the pots.
Ron
i use a thin, but even, layer of common talc on the bottom of pot melts which prevents the wash from sticking to the bottom of the melt. press it out with a piece of glass, or even leave the piece of glass on the bottom, which reduces the amount of colored glass you need in the melt, and will give you a clear back to the melt.
you can get talc in the supermarket in small quantities. baby powder. look at the ingrediants, get the cheapest ones that are really talc. no added perfumes, and some baby powder is really cornstarch, which won't work.
Great tips guys! Thanks. I wonder if whiting which I have on hand would work like the talc, which I have none of at the moment?
I'll post a pic if it's not too hideous.
You guys/gals made me ashamed of myself a while back with the border issue, so here's one that is back in the kiln even as we speak finishing slumping into a home made bowl. This piece measures 18 1/2" and I made a clay slumping mold especially for it.
O, the question about the talc and kiln wash in the saucer; yes, do that, but there's one more step you will really like. After you kiln wash and sprinkle talc or whiting on the damp wash so it stays, cut a clear circle to go in the bottom of the saucer. That way the dripping glass won't disturb your talc at all! Neat trick. And, it WORKS!
Ashamed?!? Jerry, that is most awesome! I liked it before and still do. Whenever I try to tweak something I'm not too happy with it just comes out worse.
Now you wanna see something that's a shame? You should see the dog that came out of my kiln this morning. It's not only hideous, it defies description. No way I'm posting a pic of that poor puppy. I'm changing my game plan and trying again after the burial.
Thanks Diane, most of the glass stayed in the pots so there is not too much to look at, except conehead blobs. I did do another one last night. I made the holes bigger in the 2 small pots and it worked so much better. Following everyones advice I kilnwashed the saucer, still didn't have any talc, so sprinkled hotline, and then put the clear base in. It needs a bit of grinding on the edges, but it's not such a woofer this time. Too much orange, but scraps is scraps. I'll just say it's a fiery volcanic mountain type of thing. Yeah that's the ticket.
Well, I'll tell you this, for an early run at a pot melt, you'll soon be giving all of us fits. There's nothing wrong with that one. I'd suggest you do some color testing so you can predict how your glass will come out. I assume you had the pieces of glass standing on end? Well stack them in groups of 2; two white, two black, two yellow, two orange etc and see how the colors get distributed.
Take lots of notes and pictures too so you can see not only how the colors come down but what they do in relationship to the way you have the pots set. It gets to be fun the more you push it, but like any envelope, it will tear sometimes. Remember too that you are doing things to that glass that push it beyond normal fusing considerations, so surprises are bound to happen.
