Lori Richter on thu 30 dec 04
A friend who is a lampwork supplier has a potential customer (a potter) =
asking about incorporating some course glass frits in her work.
I know Don Goodrich uses glass in some of his pieces and Steven =
Branfmann has used scrap glass in raku, but am wondering if there's =
anyone else I could direct her to.
Any advice or information would be appreciated.
Thanks much,
Lori
Freeport, IL
Life is a work of art,
Created by the one who lives it.
Alisa Liskin Clausen on thu 30 dec 04
>A friend who is a lampwork supplier has a potential customer (a potter)
asking about incorporating some course glass frits in her work.
>
>
Dear Lori,
When my job took me to Greece and later I took myself to Greece,
I noticed it was apparently popular to melt glass on flat ceramic
surfaces.
This past year I have worked with glass pieces and glass frit as well as
mosaic squares, on ceramic surfaces. No pointers and a few tries gave me
good results.
The first way I used glass in ceramics was to throw some very shallow
bowls, really plates with lifted rims. I brushed a slip with additives(in
this case, Zircopax for white) in a spiral covering the surface of the dish.
As fast as lightening, I sprinkled fine glass frit on to the dish
(leatherhard) and turned the dish upside down to shake off any frit which
has not adhered to the slip. Bisqued. Careful when loading the dishes
into the kiln to avoid spilling frit into the kiln. The glass adheres but
is not melted too much at 1000c.
I glazed these dishes with 5 x 20 clear. The expansion is all wrong where
the glass is, so the spiral gets a crazed surface. I like them, they are
decorative.
The other way I use glass is on very small dishes, same type, just smaller
like saucers/undercups. I sprinkled the glass frit on the bisqued dishes,
and added mosaic tiles, larger pieces of bullseye glass and copper sheet.
The only disaster I encountered with this was when I thought I had it down,
and made the second batch without too much concentration. The layer of frit
was all too thick. A thin layers melts out a long way. When I picked up
each saucer, the rims fell away from the saucers. The expansion of the too
thick layer of glass pushed the rims out so far they cracked off. I also
make small cups for tea lights and put glass in the bottoms of the cups. I
can stack them as high as I can, because the unglazed rims are high enough
to support the next cup without it coming into contact with the glass from
the cup below it. The glass spits on the bottoms of each cup in the stack
and it makes them a little shiny.
The third way I use glass is to make coasters, tiles, and (need words?)
tiles that go under plant pots or under hot pots on the table.
I make a tile with slab that is ca. 1 inch. thick. I use a wood block that
is ca. 1/2 inch smaller all the way around than the tile I just made.
Press the wood block into the center of the soft new tile, making an
depression in the middle, and leaving a ca. 1/2 boarder around the tile.
This depression is important. Bisque. I melt frit, mosaic tiles and glass
in the depression. Otherwise, the glass can flow over the edge of the tile
and that is not nice in the kiln. The glass "spits" and the edge of the
tile becomes slightly shinnier than bare clay. Since these are not glaze,
I can also once fire them with a cautious start of the firing to 400c.
The glass completely melts out, but the mosaic tiles are more controlled.
They do not melt completely out so you can make some patterns with soft
edges. I buy them by the kilo in a hobby store.
I do not know what the lowest melting point for the glass or mosaic tiles
is, but I fire them to cone 6 because I want my clay to be vitrififed.
I think that if you go with a light hand with the frits in slip, you could
use them on the side of a pot, high up (of a tall vessel) but have not
tried.
The nice thing about glass is that it retains all of it's original color
and makes for some nice contrasts.
Maybe you can use some of this.
Best regards from Alisa in Denmark (snow now)
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