The Skinny On Pot Melts

Randy W · Post by **Randy W** » Fri Jun 20, 2003 11:23 am

You don't have to go tall to get a cool looking pot melt. Use shallower pots with shorter drop heights and experiment with the hole size and shape.Here are some examples.
Picture #1 is 50 ounces of glass in a 6" pot with a 1" hole suspended 5" above shelf. Approx. 12" when done/ 1/4" thick.
http://users.wi.net/~magnum/PotMelts/1.JPG

Picture #2 is 54 ounces of glass in a 6" pot with a 1.5" hole suspended only 1.5" above shelf. Approx. 12.5" when done/ 1/4" thick. Same amounts and colors of glass as #1, just a bigger hole and shorter drop.
http://users.wi.net/~magnum/PotMelts/2.JPG
http://users.wi.net/~magnum/PotMelts/2-detail1.JPG
http://users.wi.net/~magnum/PotMelts/2-detail2.JPG

Picture #5 is 50 ounces of glass in a 6" pot with a 1" X 2.5" slotted hole suspended 4" above shelf. Approx. 12" when done/ 1/4" thick.
http://users.wi.net/~magnum/PotMelts/5.JPG
http://users.wi.net/~magnum/PotMelts/5-back.JPG

Dark colors tend to dominate over the other colors. In picture #6 I used 50 ounces of glass, equal parts of blue, red, yellow and orange and the blue totally took over. This wasn't what I was expecting but it turned out OK anyways. That's the cool thing about pot melts, you never know how they are going to turn out.
http://users.wi.net/~magnum/PotMelts/6.JPG

I usually add some clear to the pot, I feel it adds some depth.
But for this one I started with a lot of clear. 40 ounces of clear and only 4 ounces of color.
http://users.wi.net/~magnum/PotMelts/3.JPG
http://users.wi.net/~magnum/PotMelts/4.JPG

I fire at 700Â° per hour to 1675Â° and hold for ABOUT and hour until the pot stops flowing. Then I shut off the kiln and wait 15 minutes for the coils to cool off. Then I prop the lid open 1" to slowly cool the kiln to around 1200Â°. Then I heat back up again to 1500Â° and hold for about a half hour. This step takes care of the air bubbles. I noticed that shorter drops don't produce as many bubbles as taller drops do. Approx. 50 ounces of glass makes a 12" irregular shaped disc. About 4 ounces of glass stays in the pot.

Randy

Marge B · Post by **Marge B** » Fri Jun 20, 2003 12:19 pm

Randy - I guess I'm behind the times - I understand the concept of pot melting, and have seen it done at Bulleyes years ago. My question is: what are you using for the pot?
I love the whole idea of doing this as last year a car ran into the display area of my studio and I lost about 15 pieces. I was all picked up off the floor and put into boxes according to the glass, (you know us glass people never throw glass away) with the idea - someday - I'd find something to do with it all.
POT MELTING - WOW! How perfect would that be! It's also a look a person can't begin to get with just reg. fusing.

I've copied your firing sch. and can't wait to do this myself. Marge B.

Jerry · Post by **Jerry** » Fri Jun 20, 2003 12:54 pm

Randy,
I suppose we can say that your work has really gone to pot?

Nice stuff; I was particularly impressed with #5.

Don't know what you are using for a pot or how you set your glass up, but that would be an interesting discussion. I'm fond of el cheapo flower pots. I will sometimes use the solid bases, drill a hole/slot, or several holes and go from there. And, I like to stand my glass pieces on end; kind of looks like that's what you are doing too.

Do you ever clean up the edges, add rims a la Patty Gray, and then slump them into bowls or platters?

Thanks for the information.

Jerry

Randy W · Post by **Randy W** » Fri Jun 20, 2003 1:02 pm

Just regular orange terra cotta flower pots. Some are thicker than others. I use the thin ones, it's easier to make the hole bigger in the bottom.

And here's how it looks set up in the kiln.

5/8" thick mullite strips (cut up kiln shelf) sitting on 4" furniture.

Randy

Jerry · Post by **Jerry** » Fri Jun 20, 2003 1:10 pm

Yup! My set up exactly, including the same pots!

Sometimes I'll use one of the pot trays, about 8", to drip into. That contains the melt and gives it a nice round shape. I ALWAYS add a border and then slump, but that's just my thing.

As an aside, I had to figure out how much glass to use when I used a containment field, otherwise I wound up with a pretty thick piece. Anyway, I got into it with my nice niece; she's a math major at a local college. She believes that "pie r square." I couldn't convince her that Corn bread r square and pie r round. So, she insisted and it actually works. Mostly I'll add a base sheet with thin fire under it (makes getting the kiln wash off sooooo much easier) and then compute the amount of glass plus about 20% for the pot.

Works for me.

Thanks for the pics and the info.

Jerry

Randy W · Post by **Randy W** » Fri Jun 20, 2003 3:19 pm

If I'm reading it right, you do a pot melt onto a piece of glass that's on a piece of thinfire? I wondered if that would work, I thought maybe the base piece would shrink up before the pot melt started to pour onto it.

I haven't put rims around my pieces yet. I have one ready to go, just haven't had time to get it in the kiln. Some I grind round and some I just leave irregular. I'm getting some steel bar stock soon and plan on making my own display stands to fit the pieces.

I find that in a 5" or 6" pot there is ABOUT 4 ounces of glass left. I'm sure the uptight scientific types could prove me wrong but in this case ,"about" is close enough for me.

Randy

Kitty · Post by **Kitty** » Fri Jun 20, 2003 3:43 pm

i wonder why there's anything left in the pot, randy? when i did my melt the other day, the pot was empty, for the most part. just a bit of coating, that's it.

Jerry · Post by **Jerry** » Fri Jun 20, 2003 6:44 pm

Randy and Kitty,

How much glass remains in the pot is a function of how hot you got and how long you soak at process. The melt I did yesterday was the first in a long time where there was a thin stringer attached to the pot and the disc. It's easy enough to pop off and goes away in a fire polish or a second firing. Typically I get the same response Kitty gets; just a thin amount left in the pot.

And yes, you are reading it correctly. The thin fire will work under a piece of glass cut to the size you think you will end up with. However, I found a better way.

Some time back, my Wife took a glass painting class. In that class she learned that firing the glass, typically float, would leave texture on the back unless you did something to prevent it. And that "something" was a 1/4" layer of TALC. What I do that works so well is to sift a thick layer into or onto the area I'm going to melt on. Then, and this is the neat part, take a piece of paper and press it down on the talc. That leaves a wonderfully smooth surface that the glass doesn't often disturb. THEN I put the base sheet down and melt onto it. When it's done all I need to do is wash it with a sponge. No more scraping, no more sand blasting, no more CLR and Muriatic acid. It really is too good to be true.

I just fused the rims onto the piece I did yesterday and did take a picture which I'll post soon. I use a system similar to Patty Gray's but altered it to fit my methods.

Thanks to both of you for the discussion.

Jerry

Steve Immerman · Post by **Steve Immerman** » Fri Jun 20, 2003 11:15 pm

Nice pictures Randy. Thanks for sharing.

Steve

KellyG · Post by **KellyG** » Fri Jun 20, 2003 11:54 pm

Randy, thanks for taking the time to post with pictures. Very inspirational. One question tho - - can you use the same pot over and over again? My guess would be yes and no, just depends.

Kelly

Mark Hughes · Post by **Mark Hughes** » Sat Jun 21, 2003 9:33 am

Great comparisons Randy!

EmmaPicton · Post by **EmmaPicton** » Sat Jun 21, 2003 9:54 am

Nice work Randy

I posted not so long ago for tips on pot melts, so I thought I'd put a couple of pics up of my attempts.

I used pots with more than one hole which explains the odd shape but I think I'll have to try your schedule for getting rid of the bubbles. Any other technical advice is appriciated. My kiln is an old ceramics kiln, takes about 5 hours to get to temp, and about 20 hours to fully cool with the top vent open! This can sometimes make precision firing a bit difficult

Emma

Lorelei · Post by **Lorelei** » Sat Jun 21, 2003 1:30 pm

How does one cut the kiln shelves into those strips? And is there anything else I could use to support the pot?

Kitty · Post by **Kitty** » Sat Jun 21, 2003 1:51 pm

Emma, i must say, i think the bubbles are a major plus in your melts, and i wonder if they would be as interesting without them? especially with that clear/black color combo. eventually i'm going to do some melts using 3 pots at the same time, so i can have separate areas with separate color combos.

Kitty · Post by **Kitty** » Sat Jun 21, 2003 1:54 pm

Lorelei, i bought a kiln shelf and took it to a tile shop and asked them to cut it up into strips for me. the shelf was a 16" square, and they cut me strips about 2" wide, and of those, a couple of them were cut in half for use as dams. i had to do it this way because the ceramics shop didnt have any kiln furniture long enough to span the width of my proposed pot melts. i've got a 22" wide kiln, so with a 20" shelf on it, and the firebricks on the left and the right to support the 16" struts cut from the kiln shelf, it works out quite nicely to produce a pot melt about a foot in diameter.

Brock · Post by **Brock** » Sat Jun 21, 2003 8:23 pm

Lorelei wrote:How does one cut the kiln shelves into those strips? And is there anything else I could use to support the pot?

Rent an MKI 101 tile saw from Home Depot, or stores of that ilk. Cuts through shelves like butter. Also, there's lots of pre-made kiln furniture and posts you could use. Brock

Mira · Post by **Mira** » Sat Jun 21, 2003 9:05 pm

When you say TALC, do you mean baby talc? (Sorry if that's silly

)

Kitty · Post by **Kitty** » Sat Jun 21, 2003 9:09 pm

yes. baby powder is talc, sometimes with fragrance added.

Sharon Lee · Post by **Sharon Lee** » Sat Jun 21, 2003 9:14 pm

Where would one buy talc?

Thanks,
Sharon

Kitty · Post by **Kitty** » Sat Jun 21, 2003 9:24 pm

super market, drug store for sure -- maybe it's even for sale a ceramic supply places in bigger quantities.

WarmGlass.com

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