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Tack fusing holey moley molds: Any reasons not to?

Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2023 6:04 pm
by Kinsey K
I’ve been using holey moley frit molds lately while eyeing some colorful batches of minis gathered from nipping that I’ve been wanting to play with. I was curious about what would happen in a high tack fuse, so they looked like a bunch of tiny gems. i’m not finding any comments about it or photos online. Thoughts?

I’m imagining that it could be a lumpy mess if filled up to the usual amount, mushed on the bottom and more relief on the top. Unless it’s very lightly, tacked, in which case it would probably be sharp —?

if i just covered the bottom of the pod so not too thick, might that yield something interesting?
Ideas for firing schedules?

If you experimented with this or know of any references online, I'd be interested to see.

Re: Tack fusing holey moley molds: Any reasons not to?

Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2023 1:12 pm
by Kevin Midgley
People tack fuse all the time but I will never do it.
Glass wants to be whole or in bits but not half whole and half bits.
The chance of stresses not being accounted for by a LONG annealing time are too high for me.
I don't want a piece to crack months after a firing because the annealing was not sufficient.
If you want to try it, may I suggest using double your normal annealing time in your kiln for that glass.
Also take into account that bits of glass like frit have air surrounding them which affects the firing temperatures and makes the firing longer so as to allow the kiln heat to penetrate.
The amount of extra firing time just to get a mass of frit fired together can be exponentially longer than you think possible.
Thin layers of frit may work, thick layers may not.