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I have a fairly large kiln, so when I make jewelry parts, it just doesn't make any sort of sense to make a single pair of earrings (for example).  So, I make 100 earring pieces.  After picking out my favorite two for the pair of earrings and throwing away the 5 or 6 fugly pieces, I have about 90 left over.

What to do with this bounty and largess? 

Crucible cast - Take 2

After isolating a temperature and aperture through testing, the actual project firings have begun.  The goal is to create a slab of glass that can be used for a future sculpture collaboration project as well as a large flat disc that can be formed into some type of lighting piece.

The kiln that I'm using for this project is a side fire Skutt, so I'm going to do two crucible melts at the same time, stacked with shelves.  The bottom of the kiln is lower in temperature than the top, so I'll load the thin disc on the bottom and the thicker slab on the top. 

Here is the large saucer kilnwashed and loaded with supports and a pot of glass.  The center of the glass is large chunk tempered, the blue frit is trickled in around the edge.

 

After firing:

And the final product:

 

The top shelf will be loaded with the slab set up.  I was trying for streaks of blue through a clear base, so I used a square pot with the side broken out and loaded the clear glass in the center with turquoise frit down both sides.

 

  

After firing:

 

The final result:

 

Conclusion:

The slab is successful and can be taken to the next step of the process.  The glass for the blue disc had some impurities in it that I missed, which came back to haunt me.  Some of the disc can probably be used, but a new round of firings are in order, perhaps with different colors. 

Recycled Architectural Glass

Did you know that I can make large architectural glass pieces for you home or office?  These pieces have trees sculpted in the reverse side.  Each  rectangle panel is about 30" x 20" and 1/4" thick.  I can go as large as 58" x 28" with nearly any pattern included in the glass. 

Recycled Glass Pot Melt Tests

One of the things about recycled glass that everyone who uses it knows is, you have to test everything.   Twice.  And then do it all over again, since your results could have been a fluke and the worst time to realize that is after you've spent a very long time on something.

So.  In preparation for some cast sculptural work that's coming up, I decided to do some potmelt (crucible) casting tests.  The factors I need to isolate are:  glass particle size, aperature size and temperature.

The most obvious way seemed to test three aperature sizes and three glass sizes at the same temperature.  This would allow me to isolate one factor at a time.

The glass I used was:  ground clear window glass larger than 16# and smaller than 1/8", ground clear window larger than 1/8", smaller than 1/4" and large chunk tempered glass.  All three were mixed with one third by weight of ground Bombay Sapphire bottle glass.

Next I used 9 terra cotta pots, all of the same size, drilled 1/2" holes in the bottom of three, 3/4" holes in the bottom of three and 1" holes in the bottom of three.  Next step; loaded one of each size with one of each glass mixture.

I set them all up in my side-fire kiln (a.k.a. the EZ bake).  Based of past experience, I knew that 1700 wasn't hot enough.  I decided to try 1850 for 15 minutes.

 

Here are the pots post firing (the bottom shelf, the remainder were on another shelf).  With the exception of that center pot, it looks like we got pretty good drainage of the crucibles.  The center pot:

This pot contained the smallest particle size (16# mesh) and the smallest aperature (1/2").  This is very useful, because it gives me a baseline for the bottom end of the success spectrum.

The next step is to look at the resulting melts and see which other combination would suit our purposes the best.

 

This is the smallest particle size (16#) through the 3/4" aperature.  The result is shiny and smooth, but not translucent.

Med size (>16# <1/8") clear through the 3/4" aperature.   The results are very shiny, with some translucency.

Large chunk (~1/2") tempered glass through the 3/4" aperature.  Very translucent and shiny.  

So, the conclusion here is that we need to use about a 3/4" aperature or larger.  Any of the glass particle sizes will work with that aperature, but each gives a very different result.  Next step in the casting process is mold making and further temperature refinement based on increased quantity of glass.

Lightening Bolt Man

That's his super hero name, his secret identity is Erik Morgan (oops!). Erik came and spent a few days in my shop seeing how it's done. He also made this great bowl all by himself from start to finish, including the block printing. Considering that his very first glass cutting was a circle, he get's an A+!

New work finished June 27th

Fresh baked and hot from the oven, these pieces will be at Farmer's Market on July 11th. (unless someone snatches them up first). The pieces that come home from Farmer's Market will go online.

The long, modern orange and brown one is very cool. It's tucked in at the far end next to a small oval with dots (and it's upside down). Come check it out.

What's in the Oven

These pretty pieces finished fusing this morning. Tune in tomorrow to see the finished pieces. My favorite so far is the orange and brown asymmetrical piece on the lower right (second photo). All of these pieces were made with glass from the Utah Museum of Natural History. The glass is from defunct display cases and is about 35 years old. (estimated, of course)

New Work at Evergreen Gallery

I've just delivered a whole batch of brand new pieces to Evergreen Gallery. These pieces feature the new block printing technique that I've been working on since before Christmas. The pieces are made from recycled window glass with original block printing on both sides, usually in two colors. Sometimes more, sometimes less (but not much less!)

Here are a few teaser photographs, please visit Evergreen (3295 S. 2000 E.) to have a look at all of the pieces.

Welcome New Polisher!

Yes, around here I tend to anthropomorphize my tools. They work hard, after all, and are often as quirky as people, so why not give them a name?

Recently I acquired this 24" steel wheel polisher from Jenkyn Powell, a renowned stained glass artist located here in Salt Lake City.

As yet, it doesn't have a name, since I haven't used it long enough to get a feel for the personality. I'll keep you posted on that.

What that means for me in terms of capabilities; this tool will allow polishing of large surfaces to a perfectly flat finish. Also, beveling, faceting and some rudimentary carving. All very exciting for a glass artist.

Windbreak

Windbreak is a new piece, 10"x15" hand carved and slumped recycled glass tabletop.

Tile - Slicks

Here is a sneak preview of new tile from my shop. These are from the Slicks line, we have sanded, then frosted and clear, followed by aqua and cobalt. These will be standard colors, and will follow the price structure listed in a previous posting.

New Work at Utah Artist Hands

Please drop by Utah Artist Hands sometime soon and view a whole pile of new glass work, including this beauty.

The lighting on this photo is odd; my white balance was out of whack. I find it strangely mesmerizing though. The piece itself is formed of nearly 100 strips of single strength recycled window glass fused together into a graceful vessel.

To add to the treat, Pam has an adorable new puppy that loves to give nips and kisses. If you are just starved for glass and puppy kisses, head on over. Utah Artist Hands is located at 61 West 100 South in Salt Lake City.