MESH MELT

[Havi]

Sheree,
Thanks a lot!
it does help a lot.
Seems that the characteristics of the glass you are using are utterly different than BE.............

1. You can hold at 1700 for an hour. My glass lost its viscosity while an hour at this temp. consequently there was a big compatibility crack.

2. You got very nice red, which sounds a great 'no no' in the books if one uses BE. I did not invent the term 'ugly brown' I read it in few places, while talking about melts.



Thanks again.
and good luck with what you do
Havi

[Peter Angel]

Is there any advantage in doing a mesh melt rather than carefully placing the glass in the mold?

[Morganica]

I hold the glass above the mold in part because I want transparency with minimal veiling, and I've found I'm more likely to get veiling when the glass is directly in the mold.

Mostly, though, I'm melting through a grid because it breaks up the stream of glass and makes it more likely that different colors come down into the mold at the same time. I think you can get a similar effect by simply poking more holes in the bottom of your reservoir, but the grid of rods is a little easier to build and control.

Using the grid softens the interface between colors, so that they're interleaved, and it becomes more difficult to tell where one color leaves off and the other begins. The more distance between the glass and the mold, the more blending I get.

So it's mostly a mixing technique for me. If I want a sharper delineation between glass colors, I put them directly in the mold.

[Havi]

Thanks, Cynthia for the explanation

Are you not worried about the high temp.? This might be a problem at 1700, sitting there for an hour. Do you do it with ALL colors, or just the 'blues'?
i.e. would you do it with reds too?

I had a problem with BE 1442 - New lavender shift - did you ever have a problem with it? It cracked, and broke the whole melt.


Thanks,


Havi