Want to share a photo of your work? Or get feedback on a new piece? Post it here. (Note: items in this forum are deleted periodically, generally after several months.)
Yesterday my kiln went crazy, but I safely annealed the piece inside. It's a prototype for a set of dishes. The buyer wants plain black... but why come to me for that? So I made this sample, which is about 8" diameter & slumped thru a drop ring resting on strips of 1/8" fiber instead of furniture. Dropped to a kilnwashed shelf. The design is frit/powder pattern bars... sliced & bookended.
These are scans, not photos. The glare's pretty bad. The front has a clear cap. None of that fingerprint-ish stuff is on the actual item, or at least it's not visible to the eye. However, there is a dulled ring around the bottom edge of the slump. Don't know if it's from the extra glass buildup in the edge, or spending way too much time going up & down in the anneal as I wrangled my wild controller. Also, the dang thing weighs too much for an 8-inch plate. To thin it down, I could a) use a piece of thin as the clear cap, and/or b) figure out how to slice the pattern bars thinner than 1/4" w/out breaking them. (I figured that using clear on top would protect the design part, as well as give it a bit o' depth.) All tips & advice welcome.
Thanks,
Barbara
Last edited by PDXBarbara on Tue Dec 23, 2003 6:03 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Thanks, Jim. Glad you like it.
I love PBs. It's like playing in the sandbox for me. making the object out of them later is often only Grade B level fun relative to making and slicing open the PBs. I like making them in all sorts of shapes & depths too. I made this PB as an 8.5" square. (I'd made small PBs (triangle) with a similar technique.) To expand it, I simply built it layer by layer interspersing the black with Fr. Vanilla & red powders & frits (All BE & Uroboros 90). The first fuse was higher than a normal process temp with a long soak.
Question for you... am I correct that at least a thin cap is important if it's for a plate that will be used?
Barbara
I'm not sure that a cap is necessary at all. Are you concerned with scratches or toxicity?
I would guess that the clear would show scratches worse than the patterned surface. I don't know anything about the toxicity question. Except I thought all the BE glass (Spectrum too) were safe for food use unless you painted on them.
If scratches are a big concern how about doing a somewhat matted finish like Tony does on his black edges? Don’t know what you would call it … maybe a semi-gloss. Haha
He blast and then brings it back up just enough to get a gorgeous finish. To me it almost looks like leather. I’m sure he has a picture on his web site if you are interested.
If scratches are a big concern how about doing a somewhat matted finish like Tony does on his black edges? Don’t know what you would call it … maybe a semi-gloss. Haha
He blast and then brings it back up just enough to get a gorgeous finish. To me it almost looks like leather. I’m sure he has a picture on his web site if you are interested.
Melodie
Barbara makes a point about eating off a matte finish plate... You wouldn't be able to "clean your plate" at least at the table. It is a tough surface though, and doesn't show fingerprints.
Tony
The tightrope between being strange and being creative is too narrow to walk without occasionally landing on both sides..." Scott Berkun
Hi Tony, Melodie & Barbara...
I love the matte finish. Not sure it'd be appropriate for this person, tho. If I didn't have to ship the prototype, I might have made her a couple of selections to choose from. THough that's way over the line of duty. I'll probably do that anyway... and it's so much fun playing with this stuff.
So, I'm postiing it today... we'll see what happens.
you can make a matte finish, and then sandblast and firepolish designs into the finish, which gives you both a shiny and matte finish. here's an example i just did:
it's hard to see in the picture, but the image in the center flows into the matte finish on the edges.
although, i'd think it hard to keep a matte finish clean. you might have to take it just a little bit on the cool side of a firepolish to make this problem be lessened. it would take experimentation with exact temps to determine where that point is exactly in your kiln. this one was 15 minutes at 1225.
Barbara, I have a few pieces that I've blasted and then let fire polish in a slupm of 1200F. The finish is glossed, but since there is a bit of a tooth to the surface it is more matte in appearance than a high gloss. It cleans up nicely since it isn't powdery textured matte, just matte in appearance. Doesn't show fingerprints, and would probably mask scratches too.
I did a fun service for eight with each and every piece being different. It was made up of a charger, dinner, salad plates and bowls. It made for a festive and eclectic table with only the fact that the pieces were glass and the same forms being common. It was really fun and turned out fabulous. The downside is that with use they have scratched up a bit. The client doesn't mind though since in her view it gives them a history and are more dear to her as a result. Best client I ever had!
If you want a high gloss, you could use SuperSpray. It's simply ground clear glass in a solution of alcohol and a surfactant. That way you get the high gloss, a thin cap of clear and no added thickness or weight.
Thanks, Cynthia... I'd love to see pix of that eclectic set of table ware! I love that way of "matching" items. it's more like a theme uniting them... the theme being, let's say, HEXAGONS. OR OVAL. & everything else idiosyncratic.
I like your thinking about how the less-than-shiny surface might mask scratches. I'm gonna try it. As for sprays... I use Borax. But rarely.
As soon as my kiln's behaving properly again.. I'll be back in the studio trying these ideas.