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. 

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+!

Arrowmont Day 1 - July 15, 2007

Slightly belatedly, here is an account of my week at the Arrowmont School of Art and Craft in Gatlinburg TN.

It all started some months ago when Kerry Transtrum offered me the opportunity to be his teaching assistant for a week long casting class at Arrowmont. The dates of the class were July 15-21.

After boarding a plane at a bleary 4:20 a.m. on Sunday, July 15, then spending a dismal layover in Houston, I arrived in Knoxville. The Knoxville airport is just delightful. I was absolutely charmed. The rental car agency (Enterprise) personnel were charming, the drive through the winding Tennessee roads were charming.

Then I got to Pigeon Forge. Pigeon Forge is NOT charming. At least the traffic wasn't. I didn't see a whole lot of the town itself.

Gatlinbug is 6 miles from Pigeon Forge, the intervening miles were beautiful, but Gatlinburg suffers the same traffic woes as Pigeon Forge. Here's a picture, although it is hard to see the traffic part.


Those green humps in the distance are the Smoky Mountains, which are beautiful, but I had a really hard time keeping track of them. They were so...hill like.

Here is a view of the Wasatch Range from my yard, so you get an idea of where I'm coming from. I'm used to mountains being BIG and easy to see. Maybe all those trees confused me.

At long last, here is the school, which is exquisite. And, our fearless leader.














The class was about casting with relief images in the glass. We started Monday morning bright and early by creating negative and positive castings. More detail in the next post...