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For those considering or already playing with pot melts I hope this helps a little to show how hole size is important.
Below is a picture of two small pot melts. They were done identically except one had a 3/8" hole and the other a 1/2" hole. Please try to ignore the shadows on them, there is no horizontal shading in the actual glass. The left piece (3/8") has very fine arcs. Looks like a feather. Maybe I'll refire it and try to pull a rake down the middle.
Great to see them side by side like that. Now, alter the SHAPE! A 3/4" by 2" slot produces a wonderful ribbon effect. But I'm not telling you how to do design; just a suggestion.
I have to ask what is probably a dumb question. Why are these melts oblong instead of round? Can you control the end shape and how? I've been bad about reading all the posts, so if you've already covered this, I'm sooooorrrryy! Dani
Dani wrote:I have to ask what is probably a dumb question. Why are these melts oblong instead of round? Can you control the end shape and how? I've been bad about reading all the posts, so if you've already covered this, I'm sooooorrrryy! Dani
Dani, that's a good question. I am guessing that Jim may have tilted his shelf some. we did that in Roger Thomas's class. The kilns we were using for the pot melts are front loading. We tilted the shelf some and then loaded the melts in the front (the high side). My guess is that you can very the shape of the melt by varying the angle of the kiln shelf.
Barbara
Barbara
Check out the glass manufacturer's recommended firing schedules... LATEST GLASS
Out of curiousity, has anyone tried to use dichro in their pot melts? I am assuming that you would lose any "pattern" but I'm not sure if you would lose the dichroic aspects of the glass...I would experiment but I'm waiting for the electrician to come and do some necessary wiring so I can use my new kiln! Thanks, Sonje
Oh, silly.... the Mesopotamians didn't have clay flower pots with holes in the bottoms! (I made that up, how would I know?) Seriously, who thought to put a bunch of scrap glass into a flowerpot to make these cool rondels? Who posted the technique first at warmglass.com? I'll bet we could track a modern re-discovery. Why? I dunno... to kill time?? Because we have nothing better to do? Because we're nosey??
There are a couple of photos in Keith Cummings' book showing glass poured from flower pots. One of a standard pour and one of a tilted shelf. He says little more about it than that it has lots of potential for exploration.
A question for Jim: Might the pot with the larger hole have been a little closer to the shelf than the other pot? It doesn't look like there was any spiralling of the glass from that pot. This is usually a function of distance from the shelf as well as one of hole size. It looks to me like this pot must have been very close to the shelf.
Just got back to town. Spent the entire last week without the internet. I guess it's good to see if you're addicted or not.
The two melts were as identical as I can make them. The hole size was the only change.
Barbara was correct, the shelf is tilted to get a non-rondel look. I learned it in Roger's class as Barbara said. We learned some other neat things that I'll be trying soon and will try to post pics if they look meaningful.
Jerry, I was wondering about a shaped hole. Thanks for the info, it is now on my list for future experiments.
SONJE - i'm getting ready to put some scrap dichroic into a pot melt, so i'll let you know what happens. i'm pretty sure some of the more fugitive colors will burn off, but a few others might work. i'll be using dichro on clear ... don't think the dichro on black would work at all, would probably make mud. i'm also going to try putting some real gold leaf into a pot melt and see what happens. kitty.
Dani