Adding Other Objects To Peices

[Columbine]

Has anyone tried incorporating glass or metal into their pieces? For example, if I would to put glass beads inside a bowl would it make something like this:

 

http://www.lakesidepottery.com/Media/JPG_Images/Glass-firing-fusing-clay-pottery/bowl-light-blue-glass.jpg

 

I would be firing to cone 10. 

[Chilly]

You'll find all kinds of advice, but many will say DON'T do it.  They are not compatible, and when the glass lets go of the clay it does so in very sharp fragments.  Definitely not in anything that could be used for food/drink.

[Columbine]

Makes sense, thanks for the advice!

[MatthewV]

Glass from bottles will flow and crackle. Can be fine for large decorative bowls; if fruit is put inside there is no harm. But not so great for more utilitarian pieces.

 

Copper metal turns black and could be used decoratively as well. It will fume a green halo.

Flecks of iron turn black and can be added to a clay body.

 

 

Smart people will experiment in tiny bowls.

[Marcia Selsor]

I had a student over do the amount of glass. After the firing there was an inch or more in the bottom of a large pot. In a week or so, it shatters..the coefficient of expansion and contraction was incompatible.

 

Marcia

[What?]

Marbles, colored decorative glass marbles work. If or when one of your pots breaks and glass runs down all over the shelves and other work you will think twice (god forbid it happens in a community setting and ruins someone else's work). I would use a biscuit or plate under whatever you would fire just in case. Get permission if the kiln is not your own. Cone 10 is fine.

[glazenerd]

I have made 10 bowls with various edge designs to try applying glass. I will be firing them into crystalline glaze next week: then applying some COE 90 glass to them as a trim. I designed the press mold to have a 3/16 recess for the glass to rest in during a fuse firing. A new area for me, not sure if it will work or not: but will find out soon enough. The difference being is that I am using glass sheets that I will be cutting on a wet saw to fit just so-so. I have spent the last few months talking to various suppliers and glass artist for advice. Still doesn't mean it will work, but at least I am trying to aim the arrow in the right direction.

 

Nerd

[alabama]

Sometimes marbles and glass shards can be melted and fused to the bottom of a container that will not be used for food. One girl in class made small oasis that had a palm tree and pool of water(blue glass) and the idea was to place/hold jewelry. They were cute. Another student had this concept of using glass for the bottom of a bowl...but the green or blue glass shards he choose turned an unpleasant brown. So do some testing first, get in the habit of making notes, and take extra precautions about the shelves.

BTW, we used a cone 10 reduction kiln.

Good luck,

Alabama

[rayaldridge]

Unless you're firing very low, there's no point in cutting glass to fit a recess.  A pile of shards will result in the exact same effect, because the glass is so fluid at midrange and up. 

 

I'd echo many of the things said above-- not too thick, make sure the glass can't run off the pot, don't use for any surface in contact with food.  Also, I would start with clear colored glass, as you can get weird scummy effects from over-firing glass that has opacifiers in it, like milk glass, and stained glass that has a similar kind of translucence.

 

But it can be fun.  I once made a series of heavy porcelain press-molded paperweights with glass wells.  They were beautiful, but to some extent violated my rule against non-functional objects.  (My rule is fussier than it probably should be.)

 

Here is a pipe I made with a moat around the bowl.  I put a few blue shards in the moat.

 

 

[Tim T]

Ray, you've obviously achieved the paperless office!