frit casting snowflakes. Need advice!

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Maxine
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Dec 06, 2016 2:47 pm

frit casting snowflakes. Need advice!

Post by Maxine »

Hello. Total Noob here. I could use some advice.

This is my first attempt at fusing/casting. I have a small cone-art firebrick kiln, 9x9x4.5" interior. I'm using Primo Primer and a Color de Verre 2014 snowflake mould. (It makes 2 snowflakes and instructions say to use 8g of frit per snowflake).

You can see my pictures here, and my process and questions are below: https://goo.gl/photos/BbPWHXB3TxgrhUbK6

First attempt:

blue:
Medium Frit - 6g metallic iridecent clear in centre. 2g aqua blue iridescent on tips.

green:
Centre: 5g fine water clear. Tips: 3g medium ming green irridescent transparent.

Kiln:
Ramped at 300"F per hour to 1310". Held for 15 minutes. Down to 960". Held for 30 min. Cool down took hours. Entire process until room temperature took about 12 hours.

Results: Mixed.
Blue:
The blue turned out quite nice. I love the bumpy texture (snow crystals or frost/snow). Delicate, but should hold up well (assuming I cooked it well enough?) The edges are very rough. I'd like them to be less jaggy (less likely to snag or cut someone).
Green:
The green one turned out way too thin/fine. It would probably work well as an embellishment on top of more glass, but as a free-hanging ornament, way too delicate. I put it down on a glass table and a point broke off. some very rough edges too.

Second Attempt:

I added more frit to reduce the fragility of the pieces. And I turned up the heat and mixed in some fine frit to see if the jagged edges would lessen (maybe melt in a little more) - just a guess because I'm a noob experimenting.

blue: 9g (instead of recommended 8g) and fine clear frit on top and bottom: 3g fine clear frit across the entire bottom. 2g medium iridescent clear for centre. 3g medium red for tips. 2 g. fine clear over top.

red: mixed 7g of fine sapphire and medium clear iridescent. Half of mix on bottom of mould. 3g medium red frit for tips. Other half of clear mix on top. That's 10 grams total. (25% more frit than recommended)

Kiln:
A little hotter/longer: Ramped at 300"F per hour to 1320". Held for 20 minutes. Down to 960". Held for 30 min. Cool down took hours. Entire process until room temperature took about 12 hours again. Another lesson in patience.

Results: Mixed.
They both turned out ok, but not great. The heat made them smoother in the middle (which is ok, but I don't like as much as the first blue "chunky ice-crystal" one. The added frit didn't seem to do any harm, and they are still quite delicate looking without actually breaking when you put them down. The snaggy edges are possibly worse than the first set. Argh.

:?: QUESTIONS: :?:

a) Is the first blue "chunky-ice-crystal" effect ok? Is it still strong and properly cooked even with this rough texture?
b) Is there a way to smooth out the edges so there are less snaggy bits so it is safer and more professional looking?

c) Any other advice or recipes/recommendations???

Thanks in advance!
(and sorry for the long post - as a noob I wasn't sure which info is necessary or what I could have ommitted)
Once again, Images are here: https://goo.gl/photos/BbPWHXB3TxgrhUbK6
Thanks
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