Pot Melting

Use this forum for discussion on kiln casting, pate de verre, and related topics.

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SEMueller
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Pot Melting

Post by SEMueller »

I was leisurely looking through different discussions when I found a thread about Pot Melting...Kim was so kind as to guide me to more info. Thank you Kim!

I want to know more about this flower pot melting. I believe the gist of it is you put glass in a ceramic flower pot (I'm assuming the red clay kind...) fill it with compatible, different colored glass, some how raise it above a kiln shelf and heat till it starts "pouring" out onto the surface below and carefully hold and bring down the temp so it doesn't crack.

Also, I was thinking that I could use my small bowl mold lined with ceramic fiber to catch the drip and then after the piece has cooled I could fire it on a shelf with just kiln wash to remove the texture from the bottom if I wanted...

I REALLY want to try this. I have a very small Quick Fire kiln, and I also have some tiny red clay flower pots and would like to try to make some tiny pot melts. How does one elevate the flower pot above the shelf? I would definitely have to have a study rig up for this since I have to set the top down over the bottom portion of the kiln. From what I read in the archives, it needs to be at least 3" for a good swirly effect.

Any info would be greatly appreciate!

Suzanne
Suzanne
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Post by SEMueller »

sturdy rig up is what I meant...
Suzanne
Mira
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Post by Mira »

Use kiln posts w/cut kiln shelf pieces. (I got mine at C&R LOO) I wish I could draw this out, but think of the parallel bars we used to play on in elementary school.
Diane Trepanier
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Post by Diane Trepanier »

There is a fire brick collar out there for the quick fire and the evenheat kilns. Put a layer of thick fiber paper around the edge of the kiln floor (where the top would rest), place the collar, more fiber paper on top, then a square of hardware cloth. The pot sits on the hardware cloth. Put your kiln top on and fire. If you are using really small pots, enlarge the hole some or the glass may not all melt out.
Diane Trepanier
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SEMueller
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Thanks for the info...

Post by SEMueller »

I cannot wait to try this! I appreciate ya'll's input. I had envisioned making some crazy contraption out of wire to hold the pot up above the shelf. :lol:
Suzanne
charlie holden
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Post by charlie holden »

The biggest trouble people get into when doing pot melts is the glass is very sticky as it spreads out over the shelf. I do it on plaster/silica bats. Others use very well kilnwashed shelves. Fiber paper won't work.

Good luck

ch
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Post by Brad Walker »

charlie holden wrote:Fiber paper won't work.
I use 110 fiber paper all the time. Mostly, I only use old paper that's already been fired on dozens of times, so it's no big deal to just throw the paper away if the melts don't come off easily. Sometimes they come up without too much trouble, sometimes you just soak them off.
Goldfinger
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Pot Melt

Post by Goldfinger »

Is there any reason why you can't use a stainless steel funnel to
do a pot melt?

Steve
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Post by jerry flanary »

Steve,
$$$$$$$$$
j.

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charlie holden
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Re: Pot Melt

Post by charlie holden »

Steve Eshbaugh wrote:Is there any reason why you can't use a stainless steel funnel to
do a pot melt?

Steve
Unless it's Inconel the stainless will spall off black crud into your glass. Normal stainless is fine for slumping but won't hold up to casting.

ch
DonnaG
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Re: Pot Melting

Post by DonnaG »

Am working on a project for a friend (there's always a friend right?). We need a 17" circular pot melt with most of the color in the middle and rings of color, clear and white going to the outside. I've tried stacking (the color flowed thru the entire piece) and also placing the pieces with the color on the inside of the pot and then closer to the outside. These are getting closer to what we need but still not quite. For our test pieces, we're using clear, white and dark blue (last % were clear 5%, white 4% and blue 1%).
Any suggestions on how to place the clear, white and color in the pot?
Nicole Hanna
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Re: Pot Melting

Post by Nicole Hanna »

I have no advice on how to place the glass in the pot...been my experience it pretty much does what it feels like doing no matter where ya put it. However, have you considered doing a high fire melt instead of a pot melt? You might have more control over color placement and still get an interesting melt. Or maybe even a screen melt might give more control.

Nicole
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Re: Pot Melting

Post by Morganica »

Don't know if this will help, but I did a test where I stacked colored opal and clear cubes* in a cylindrical crucible with a hole in dead center bottom about the diameter of one cube. I heated it up to 1525F on a slow casting schedule and let it drip into a similar plaster/silica cylinder. Then I quartered it lengthwise and looked at where the colors ended up. (each opal cube was a different color, and the clear was to help keep them separated (and also because I ran out of opal cubes). This was a test to see if colors could be made to flow into specific levels of a mold when casting.

The results were interesting. I kinda thought the glass would empty from the bottom up, so that all the opals on the bottom row would wind up at the bottom-most part of the cast. They didn't. Instead, the flow started at the bottom, over the hole, and then pulled down the glass above it until it pretty much reached the top. Then it started pulling in glass from the top cubes, and they pulled in the glass immediately below them, and so on. The very last cubes to leave the crucible were the ones stacked on the outer bottom. There was also some variation in the shape and mixing the layers, probably because the glasses were of different viscosities at the same temperature. The softer, runnier glasses got pushed around a lot more, and did more mixing. (BTW, it made a great pattern bar)

I'm not sure what would happen if you let it flow out flat but I suspect that the size and shape of the rings would be even more affected by viscosity.

------------
*Well, really circles of glass the same diameter as whatever ring they were in, cut up and stacked into pie-shaped "cubes" of approximately equal height and length so they'd fit into the cylinder with smaller gaps. Good way to use up scrap glass.
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Peter Angel
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Re: Pot Melting

Post by Peter Angel »

Morganica wrote: I heated it up to 1525F on a slow casting schedule and let it drip into a similar plaster/silica cylinder.
Cynthia, what type of glass did you use? Pete
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Esta Souber
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Re: Pot melting

Post by Esta Souber »

I have never heard of it, so will definately try it and let you know the results, sounds exciting!
Esta from Inglewood, New Zealand :!:
DonnaG
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Re: Pot Melting

Post by DonnaG »

O my - great ideas. The project that i'm working on is to be a disc at the bottom of an aluminum sculpture (no not mine). It will be lit from the bottom so the artist is wanting a more concentration of blue in the middle with the 'rings' of blue outwards but more white/clear towards the outsides. I have made 5 test melts and while I got close on #3, my 'tweaks' to #4 and #5 naturally went opposite of what I wanted.
It's not like I didn't know glass had a mind of its own :)
Mira
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Re: Pot Melting

Post by Mira »

You might have better color control, but still get a look similar to a pot melt, by melting through an SS grate instead.
Morganica
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Re: Pot Melting

Post by Morganica »

Peter Angel wrote:
Morganica wrote: I heated it up to 1525F on a slow casting schedule and let it drip into a similar plaster/silica cylinder.
Cynthia, what type of glass did you use? Pete
Was using Bullseye 3mm sheet (mostly because I had it handy), different color for every cube that I mapped so I could see where it went. It was several years ago, and I don't have info on the stack order anymore, but I don't think I paid much attention to whether the color was relatively hard or soft when I set it in the stack. I was mostly just trying to figure out the relationship between glass in the pot and glass in the final piece.

Practically speaking, there are so many variables in the typical glass casting that it wasn't all that much help. Aside from being able to say "the glass in the middle outside or the reservoir is going to enter the mold when, say, 70% of the glass has already gone down (and therefore will probably be in the upper 3rd of the mold," I didn't get a lot out of it. It helps me a bit with stack order in the reservoir, but that's about as far as it goes.
Cynthia Morgan
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wingoda
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Re: Pot Melting

Post by wingoda »

Look beyond the pot itself... :shock:
I have found the combination of glass in the pot as well as glass on the lower shelf can produce what you are wanting. I use a large clay pot saucer on the bottom shelf, kiln washed, as a dam for the resulting potmelt. For your application I would cut several circles of the colored glass you want at the outer edges and place the circles in the clay saucer
Now charge the pot with the clear glass and let it flow….
The result will be close since the clear glass will fall to the center of the shelf below, in this case the clay saucer, and spiral out from the center. It will eventually reach the first circle of glass on the shelf, obviously melted as well, and push the color out toward the other color circle… and then…success [-o< . There may be some mixing of colors between the circles #-o , if you like it fine, however if you want to keep the colors true then try a circle of clear between the two color circles in the saucer to keep the color circles more defined…

PS… try this technique using pattern bars on the lower shelf spaced in a round configuration around the center point of the self where the pot glass flows onto the bottom shelf and see what happens to the pattern bars, very interesting…

So once again, “look beyond the pot”
David Wingo
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Re: Pot Melting

Post by Redfisher »

I found a large ss wire strainer at bed bath n beyond, and was wondering if it would be suitable for a mesh pot melt. I have done them in pots, but wanted to try the mesh. Where do you find mesh that is suitable, if this won't be? Will it work to lay down thin fire, a layer of clear glass in the damned area, and melt onto that?
Thanks in advance!
Terri
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