First pot melt had "issues"
Posted: Sun Mar 21, 2004 7:12 pm
I tried my first pot melt yesterday with mixed results. Here are the details: Using a skutt 1014 kiln, used 4 colors of glass, lime green, black, orange and white. All Coe 90 and all BE. This was a 6" pot with a 7/8" hole dropping 3" into a 14" clay saucer that had been kiln washed then a 1/4 of talc leveled smooth.(got this from an archives search). The schedule was 700dph to 1650, hold 1hr then cooled using 1" gap in the lid to 1200, then heat back up to 1500( again something from the archives to supposedly relieve bubbles, then crash cooled to 1200 and naturally to 960 where I held it for 90 min. then 100 dph to 760 and finally cool to room temp.
When I opened it up this morning the pot melt had not cracked but the 14" saucer had a small crack in the side and my kiln shelf (20" mullite shelf space 1" oof the kiln floor)was cracked down the center. I had a few bubbles in the pot melt and 1 spot (top of picture) that appears like kiln wash on the surface. The back is very cloudy. My questions are Why did the shelf crack? What would cause the spot on the top surface? Can the back be cleaned up with something like lime away or do I need to have sandblasted? and finally I welcome critique on the piece itself-both good or bad. I am really trying to learn so I am open to critisism as mentioned in an earlier post.
Thanks for any feedback.
http://community.webshots.com/photo/127 ... 9076jSTkAT
When I opened it up this morning the pot melt had not cracked but the 14" saucer had a small crack in the side and my kiln shelf (20" mullite shelf space 1" oof the kiln floor)was cracked down the center. I had a few bubbles in the pot melt and 1 spot (top of picture) that appears like kiln wash on the surface. The back is very cloudy. My questions are Why did the shelf crack? What would cause the spot on the top surface? Can the back be cleaned up with something like lime away or do I need to have sandblasted? and finally I welcome critique on the piece itself-both good or bad. I am really trying to learn so I am open to critisism as mentioned in an earlier post.
Thanks for any feedback.
http://community.webshots.com/photo/127 ... 9076jSTkAT