Slumping Glass in Platter

I created a bigger platter and cut out an oval in the center. I took that oval slap and used it as a template for a separate slab, where I would slump glass into. After I had bisqued the platter and template, I glazed the platter, still using my turquoise and charcoal gray underglazes to cone 6. I also fired the template in the glaze firing, without glaze, so that it would shrink equally to the platter. Once the platter and the template were fired, I layed glass on top of the template to slump into, in order to attach it to the platter once it was fired. However, I was worried that the oval shape in the template and the platter shrank differently and I feared that the template oval was slightly smaller and therefore would not fit onto the platter. So, I decided to not only slump the glass on to the template, but on the actual platter as well.

After the slumping firing, I found that neither method worked. The edge on both the template and the platter was too sharp, and cut the glass as it began to slump, letting the glass fall onto the kiln shelf.

While this was not successful in terms of the outcome, I now know that glass can be easily cut in the firing process, and I will keep in mind beveling the edges beforehand.

Casting Color

In an attempt to try using color in my glass handles, I tried casting an orange-red piece of glass in the same mold I used for my first glass handles. The glass ended up sticking to the mold due to the amount of iron in the glass. Iron is both a refractory and a flux. Fluxes are used in glazes to lower the high melting point of silica. Because of the amount of iron in the glass, the glass ended up sealing itself to the mold. After trying to carefully tap it out of the mold, the mold disintegrated. I will now make a new mold of the same tear drop shape to test other colored glass.

Casting Handles

                                                     Kiln Casting Handles for Platter

I've casted two tear drop shaped handles from my plaster mold for a small platter. First, I bisqued and glazed my platter so that I could measure the exact size I want the glass handles to be. I measured the amount of glass I casted by calculating the amount of volume the mold had compared to the size of the platter. I made my own turquoise and charcoal gray underglazes, (colored slip) for this platter. Once the platter was glazed to cone 6, (2232 Degrees Fahrenheit), I was then able to cast my handles. I wanted the glass handles to sit flush on top of the ceramic, however due to shrinkage and warpage the handles did not fit seamlessly with the platter. Using a charcoal gray plumbers putty (a clay-like substance used to seal water tight areas), I was able to combine the glass handles with the ceramic platter. From this experiment, I have thought of a new way to make sure the glass and ceramic pieces fit snug with one another. I am thinking of key holes, and slits to slide the glass into the ceramic. More testing to come!