Frit casting mold

[Vonon]

I want to frit cast a butterfly and/or a dragonfly. Does anyone have a suggestion for a good mold with plenty of detail? I want the piece to be in the 3" to 5" size range and plan to drape/shape it and place it on the rim of a bowl I've made. I'd thought about buying a lampworked piece from an artist yet to be found but prefer to have done the whole thing myself. I have no experience in casting - what could go wrong?

[jim simmons]

EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The other Jim

[Fiona Collins]

http://www.colourdeverre.com/product_de ... =16381&c=3

[jim simmons]

First what coe is the bowl? That will define what glass you use.
That is a very good mold you have picked out
Jim

[JestersBaubles]

Colour de Vere molds are great (the link above), and they have good tutorials. Just follow their instructions. Once the piece is cast, clean up the edges if needed (with diamond hand pads), then use some fiber paper or an existing mold to slump into an interesting shape. Keep the body relatively flat during the slump so it will sit nicely on the rim of the bowl. Use a good glue to secure it (silicone, E6000, Hxtal, etc), assuming the bowl is already fired/slumped. If it is not already fired, you can tack fuse the dragonfly to the rim, using pieces of fiber paper to "hold up" the wings if you would like. After the tack fuse, slump the bowl. Keep the fiber paper in place when you slump the bowl so the wings don't collapse.

Or... at least that is how I would do it .

Dana W.

[Vonon]

Thank you for your your thoughts. The bowl I made is a fused free form weave using coe 90. I planned to glue the butterfly/dragonfly to it. After checking out the molds I think they would not be delicate enough to achieve the look I want. I'm going to examine a few other options. I've located some torch worked possibilities and could go that route but if the piece is well received and I wanted to do a very limited collection should I offer the unified piece as a collaboration or purchase the torch worked products to use and credit the artist when the piece is shown?