hi,
i'm just about to purchase my very first kiln.
i am interested in making small fused glass pieces, pendants, and beads mostly. i have taken a fused glass class, but did not get to fire anything.
i need to know specifics on how to fire my pieces (how long?), and really what kind of kiln to buy. do i need to have a digital temp control to do glass in a kiln?
any info anyone would like to share would be most helpful.
thanks,
kt
fused glass jewelry questions
Moderators: Brad Walker, Tony Smith
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ruthelf1030
- Posts: 17
- Joined: Mon Jan 05, 2004 3:15 pm
- Location: Melrose, MN
fused glass jewelry questions
I am fairly new here, just a couple of years new, but I started out on the wrong end. I bought a 6 inch kiln, 1990, and used just regular glass. What a mess. Then I bought Wasser (check out the Wasser sponsor link) and just stuck to that. I found someone to sell me BE-thats bullseye thin glass 90 coefficient of expansion - but - a lot of broken glass, and ugly designs and mistakes. Hard to just say, go out and buy "this". Kilns are such a personal thing. They love you or they don't. so, I
Got smart,
bought Brad Walker's book, Contemporary Warm Glass, read it not only once but more than that. I still see things in there I have missed.
Since, I have purchased more glass, and two more kilns - e-bay.
A lot more time just "lurking" here on the board reading. Looking up things under the search button and reading the tutorials. I still ask stupid questions, but people are kind and understand-and even answer!
The book is a must, and reading and lurking here is also necessary.
My work did not take off until this happened. I still have a lot to learn.
The more you read, the more clues you will have as to what type of kiln, what dollars you have to spend, electrical considerations, where you will run it, etc., whether you need a controller right from the start. I ran my six inch with a very poor thermocouple temperature read out (always 50 to 150 F off), and adjusted the temperature with a Paragon rheostat plug-in unit. Now
I am graduating to controllers and larger kilns.
I for one, am very glad I did not buy a large kiln with a controller first.
I learned a lot having to do everything manually (read, crank the temp, hold, and peak occassionally method) for my first jewellry pieces. Of course,
the knowledge you can get here was not available in 1990. I have a 6 inch manual kiln, A new (used) Sierra PMC kiln that I am just learning on,
and a larger top element 120V 20 Amp Evenheat I love which needs a controller. The 6 inch taught me the most for hands on training, but the book and working through the tutorials, reading the threads here and doing subject searches will help the most.
Good luck, experiment and study, and ask.
Regards,
Ruth
Got smart,
bought Brad Walker's book, Contemporary Warm Glass, read it not only once but more than that. I still see things in there I have missed.
Since, I have purchased more glass, and two more kilns - e-bay.
A lot more time just "lurking" here on the board reading. Looking up things under the search button and reading the tutorials. I still ask stupid questions, but people are kind and understand-and even answer!
The book is a must, and reading and lurking here is also necessary.
My work did not take off until this happened. I still have a lot to learn.
The more you read, the more clues you will have as to what type of kiln, what dollars you have to spend, electrical considerations, where you will run it, etc., whether you need a controller right from the start. I ran my six inch with a very poor thermocouple temperature read out (always 50 to 150 F off), and adjusted the temperature with a Paragon rheostat plug-in unit. Now
I am graduating to controllers and larger kilns.
I for one, am very glad I did not buy a large kiln with a controller first.
I learned a lot having to do everything manually (read, crank the temp, hold, and peak occassionally method) for my first jewellry pieces. Of course,
the knowledge you can get here was not available in 1990. I have a 6 inch manual kiln, A new (used) Sierra PMC kiln that I am just learning on,
and a larger top element 120V 20 Amp Evenheat I love which needs a controller. The 6 inch taught me the most for hands on training, but the book and working through the tutorials, reading the threads here and doing subject searches will help the most.
Good luck, experiment and study, and ask.
Regards,
Ruth
i dont know anything about bead-making, or the kilns for it. i've seen some for sale that are bead annealers ... look elsewhere for that info.
i'm primarily in the jewelry production business. i produce a lot, and sell to stores, galleries, and museum shops. my primary work horse is a Cress kiln with an 8" shelf. this is a good size, because you can load it up pretty quickly, and fire a batch in about an hour or so. what constitutes a batch? well, it's about 88 pairs of little dots; OR 12 pairs of dangles; OR 35 pairs of small rectangular earrings about the size of your thumb nail. or it's 9 or 12 pendants.
you dont want a really big kiln, because it will take too long to fill the shelf. the Cress i have cost $660 about 7 years ago, and i fire it nearly every day, and some days as many as five times. it does not have a digital controller, but it has an infinite switch, and a pyrometer.
if you're serious about production, something like the Cress would be good. but if you are just at the very very very beginning, and dont know if you can make a go of your ideas, then i suggest a Hot Box, which is about $200 or $250, and you can do smaller batches, and very fast.
after you resolve your kiln purchase, come back and ask about firing schedules, or browse around in the archives. i'm always glad to share what i have learned about jewelry production.
good luck in your endeavours.
kitty
i'm primarily in the jewelry production business. i produce a lot, and sell to stores, galleries, and museum shops. my primary work horse is a Cress kiln with an 8" shelf. this is a good size, because you can load it up pretty quickly, and fire a batch in about an hour or so. what constitutes a batch? well, it's about 88 pairs of little dots; OR 12 pairs of dangles; OR 35 pairs of small rectangular earrings about the size of your thumb nail. or it's 9 or 12 pendants.
you dont want a really big kiln, because it will take too long to fill the shelf. the Cress i have cost $660 about 7 years ago, and i fire it nearly every day, and some days as many as five times. it does not have a digital controller, but it has an infinite switch, and a pyrometer.
if you're serious about production, something like the Cress would be good. but if you are just at the very very very beginning, and dont know if you can make a go of your ideas, then i suggest a Hot Box, which is about $200 or $250, and you can do smaller batches, and very fast.
after you resolve your kiln purchase, come back and ask about firing schedules, or browse around in the archives. i'm always glad to share what i have learned about jewelry production.
good luck in your endeavours.
kitty
thanks for the info so far. 
the kilns that i am currently looking at include the paragon caldera from bullseye and a jen-ken with infinity controller and built in pyrometer.
anybody use either?
does the infinity controller more or less work like a digital temp controller?
any more info would be great,
thanks,
kt
the kilns that i am currently looking at include the paragon caldera from bullseye and a jen-ken with infinity controller and built in pyrometer.
anybody use either?
does the infinity controller more or less work like a digital temp controller?
any more info would be great,
thanks,
kt
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Judy Schnabel
- Posts: 195
- Joined: Mon Mar 10, 2003 9:45 pm
- Location: SW FL
- Contact:
I agree with Kitty about not buying a large kiln for jewelry. It would take a long time to set up your pieces to fill a large kiln.
I fire my jewelry in a small RapidFire. It only has a 4" shelf, but I can fire at least three time a day, if I have to.
However, I have Jen-Ken kilns for all my other kiln work. IMHO, Jen-Ken is a marvelous kiln. I can't speak for other kilns, as this brand is all I've ever owned.
Judy
I fire my jewelry in a small RapidFire. It only has a 4" shelf, but I can fire at least three time a day, if I have to.
However, I have Jen-Ken kilns for all my other kiln work. IMHO, Jen-Ken is a marvelous kiln. I can't speak for other kilns, as this brand is all I've ever owned.
Judy
Re: fused glass jewelry questions
i started with the jen ken 14" as i was initially planning on jewelry 2.5 yrs ago, now i've got that and a 28" kiln as i quickly moved to coasters 2 yrs ago - look at the kilns at centre de verre and talk to marty, the owner, great guy, very helpfull and knowledgable about kilns - buy brads book, best warm glass book out there today, the others are rather dated, i have 2 besides brad's - the book gives you basic guidelines but each kiln fires differently and you'll have to experiment with whatever kiln you buy to see what temps give you the look you want and it will depend also on the type of glass - coe 90 or 96 - that you use, irid, opal, cathedral or dichroic all fire best at different temps and when combining the various types of glass into a piece you have to experiement to find the right schedule for that combination....katfaerie wrote:hi,
i'm just about to purchase my very first kiln.
i am interested in making small fused glass pieces, pendants, and beads mostly. i have taken a fused glass class, but did not get to fire anything.
i need to know specifics on how to fire my pieces (how long?), and really what kind of kiln to buy. do i need to have a digital temp control to do glass in a kiln?
any info anyone would like to share would be most helpful.
thanks,
kt
and yes, invest in a digital controller!
brad has some of the info from his book on the site here in the tutorials, take a look thru them to get an idea of how this works
D
an infinity controller is not like a digital controller. the digital controller holds a "recipe" for the firing schedule. i've been thinking of getting my Cress retrofitted with a digital controller so i dont have to have timers going off to remind me to check the batch and turn off the kiln.
an infinity switch is a potentiometer. it's a dial that controls how much electricity is flowing to the kiln -- kinda like a dimmer on a ceiling light. it is NOT like the temperature control on an oven, which specifies a temp of your choice. when i start a batch in a cold kiln, and the earrings are fresh off the work table and still wet with Klyr-Fire, i have about 80% of full juice coming into the kiln. when it gets up to around 400 or 500F, i turn it all the way up, and from that point it takes about 50 minutes or so to hit 1490 or 1500, whichever i deem the final temp for the style/texture i'm doing. i am looking at the temperature meter (pyrometer) to see how the temp is climbing. so you see, i have 2 things, the meter with the temperature, and the dial controlling the juice.
an infinity switch is a potentiometer. it's a dial that controls how much electricity is flowing to the kiln -- kinda like a dimmer on a ceiling light. it is NOT like the temperature control on an oven, which specifies a temp of your choice. when i start a batch in a cold kiln, and the earrings are fresh off the work table and still wet with Klyr-Fire, i have about 80% of full juice coming into the kiln. when it gets up to around 400 or 500F, i turn it all the way up, and from that point it takes about 50 minutes or so to hit 1490 or 1500, whichever i deem the final temp for the style/texture i'm doing. i am looking at the temperature meter (pyrometer) to see how the temp is climbing. so you see, i have 2 things, the meter with the temperature, and the dial controlling the juice.
well, it actually is exactly like a temp control dial on an oven, because that is a potentiometer. it's just that a temp control is calibrated by degrees inside (roughly) rather than amperage.Kitty wrote:an infinity switch is a potentiometer. it's a dial that controls how much electricity is flowing to the kiln -- kinda like a dimmer on a ceiling light. it is NOT like the temperature control on an oven, which specifies a temp of your choice.
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George Foster
- Posts: 8
- Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2004 3:05 pm
- Location: Mobile, AL
I'm only about 2 weeks ahead of you. I ordered an AIM 84BD to anneal beads and while waiting for it to arrive I started looking into fusing. Since it arrived I've mostly turned to fusing small jewelry peices but it's also great for annealling my beads. I love this kiln! It's not digital, which means you've got to babysit it, but I'd probably be sitting there with it anyway. It's small, but for what I'm doing it's perfect. It also isn't breaking me to fire it. I've fired everything based on the tutorials from this site and have had no problems. Good luck, I hope you have as much fun as I am!!
Kitty,
How do you get five firings in a day? My kiln is just a little larger than yours and I'm lucky to get two. How quickly do you cool down? I have on occasion just turned mine off when firing tiny earrings with no breakage but am nervous about pushing it with larger cabs, etc. My kiln is not lined with firebrick (?) and cools pretty quickly. What is your schedule for ramping down? Thanks for any info!
Sharon
How do you get five firings in a day? My kiln is just a little larger than yours and I'm lucky to get two. How quickly do you cool down? I have on occasion just turned mine off when firing tiny earrings with no breakage but am nervous about pushing it with larger cabs, etc. My kiln is not lined with firebrick (?) and cools pretty quickly. What is your schedule for ramping down? Thanks for any info!
Sharon