Crushed Glass Decorating (And Not Melted!)

[maddy]

[quick background] I've got a very good friend who runs a recycling center in the town we both live in; they recently got a glass pulverizer (sp?), and the first time I saw that crushed glass, I fell in love - it's beautiful!! I thought, that would look awfully pretty if it could be stuck all over the outside of ceramic pieces - kinda reminds me of the (somewhat newly marketed) pieces that have what look like mirrored pieces on the outer surface. Except multi-colored glass Now, put simply, I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to pottery; I've taken one college ceramics course several years ago, and that's as far as my knowledge goes. I've recently spoken with that instructor; he said he's never seen it done, but would be concerned about the glass melting. I've done a bit of research on the "melting point" of different types of glass, but that's definately going to be a process in itself. Now, I don't have a kiln here at home, though my friend (mentioned above) has several friends that would be willing to help me out. However, I still want to figure as much of this out on my own time as possible. Have any of you heard of something like this being done?

[MudPotz]

you may have some luck at cone06, but I'd expect some of the glass colors to change/burn off. I've also had this thought, but don't have my own kiln to experiment in. I wouldn't want to melt a mess of glass on someone elses' kiln furniture. Speaking of burning off, make sure you know what's going to volatilize from the glass and that your kiln is very well vented.

[Chris Campbell]

If you go to my website and click on the "recycled glass and clay" link on the left side,

you will see some experiments using a specific type of recycled glass with clay. This is

not exactly what you are planning to do but you might find it interesting.

 

www.ccpottery.com

 

At low temps ... Cone 06 ... these crushed pieces of glass tended to turn into balls rather than lie flat.

[AmeriSwede]

I would tend to agree with MudPotz about experimenting with melting the crush glass onto ceramics... with someone else's kiln.

 

Because of the nature of the two materials, their expansion/contraction rates will no doubt be different, which implies that the end results will be cracked (if melted with thick areas). Some situations may have glass popping off the ceramic piece during heating/cooling ('annealing'-for glass) and hopefully they won't be stuck to the sides of something else or the elements or refractory walls. Glass tends to dissolve refractory over time.

 

As Chris stated, at the lower temps (as cone 06 for non-lead glass) and depending also on what type of glass you are using (lead crystal, soda lime or borosilicate), the glass will tend to ball up. Increasing the temperature lowers the viscosity. Depending on numerous variables; ie, where they are placed on the ceramic piece, how thick, etc, firing/holding temperatures, they would give different results, some maybe favorable to your goals, some possibly disastrous to the hardware.

 

If the glass chunks (cullet) is just crushed glass, there will be no volatilization of gasses unless you have added something to it (like soda ash, which is a flux for glasses).

 

Indeed, interesting experiment Chris.....

[Username]

Good luck!

[alienor]

i have been melting glass with my porcelain for many years thru trial ad error i learned not to use bottles and other discarded pieces of glass. they all have different coeff. of expansion. i now buy glass "frit" which is finely crushed glass from bullseye or some other glass supplier. i am firing my pots at ^6 now, but had been doing them ^8. i sprinkle the frit into the depression of a knob or onto a tile with a large depression and fire to my glaze temp. i have finally figured out how much glass frit to use . too much will cause massive cracks. also i tend to mix some colors such as green blue grey and white. the red and orange colors and others of that family burn out. i am adding a photo of a randy red casserole with a mix of blue and green glass in the knob

eleanor

[Keiko]

I have messed around a bit with glass (both frit and bottle glass, as well as glass beads) and had no real problems except cracking. It's best to put the glass in a depression (like the bottom of a bowl), so it won't melt onto the kiln shelves. The results are not always impressive, however, and probably nothing like the mirrored mosaic you mention. At lower temps (08) the melt is not very thorough, and at higher temps (above 04) it tends to melt away into nothing.

[Christine]

[quick background] I've got a very good friend who runs a recycling center in the town we both live in; they recently got a glass pulverizer (sp?), and the first time I saw that crushed glass, I fell in love - it's beautiful!! I thought, that would look awfully pretty if it could be stuck all over the outside of ceramic pieces - kinda reminds me of the (somewhat newly marketed) pieces that have what look like mirrored pieces on the outer surface. Except multi-colored glass Now, put simply, I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to pottery; I've taken one college ceramics course several years ago, and that's as far as my knowledge goes. I've recently spoken with that instructor; he said he's never seen it done, but would be concerned about the glass melting. I've done a bit of research on the "melting point" of different types of glass, but that's definately going to be a process in itself. Now, I don't have a kiln here at home, though my friend (mentioned above) has several friends that would be willing to help me out. However, I still want to figure as much of this out on my own time as possible. Have any of you heard of something like this being done?

 

 

I've experimented with coloured glass pieces and nuggets on bisqued plates at around 700 degrees and found that the nuggets worked quite nicely, but a combination of commercial glaze (900 degrees C) and glass pieces resulted in lots of bubbles and some cracking even though I let the kiln cool down absolutely over a couple of days before I even opened it in both cases. I probably need to do more research on glass melting temperatures, but would agree that the glass needs to be contained - in depressions on tiles, in bowls or plates.... eleanor's example looks lovely

[Marcia Selsor]

Steve Branfman uses crushed colored glaze in his raku. They may melt slightly but appear a little chunky and unmelted.

I wish our city would get a glass pulverizer. Baltimore uses it as an additive to their street surfacing. Pretty and extends the wear of the surface.

 

Marcia

[CJEA]

The responses I see below assume that the ground glass would be used like a glaze: applied to the ceramic piece and then fired. That approach comes with some relatively difficult technical puzzles to solve. It can be done, but there are a lot of limitations... enough that I (this is just me) wouldn't find this a very satisfying way to decorate ceramics. It would be easier to get the look I wanted just using glaze.

 

That said, I think the idea of decorating with ground glass has possibilities in the "cold finish" department.

 

I think "cold" finishes are highly underrated. A "cold" finish is any finish you apply that doesn't need to be (or can't be) fired. Paint would be an obvious example. If you don't have a problem with making "non-functional" pieces: pieces that can't be washed easily or used to hold food, then you have a lot of "cold" finish materials available to you. Ground glass could be used as a cold finish. You could glue it on, and cover it with a clear coat such as acrylic (so it isn't sharp -- you don't want ground glass in people's fingers if they pick up your art to look at it ).

 

I could see you painting a vase or a wall tile with acrylic paint, adding ground glass to the wet acrylic paint (wet so it sticks-- thickly applied acrylic paint makes a great glue), and after it dries covering the glass area with a coat of clear acrylic.

 

***

 

If you're bent on firing ground glass, approach it like a scientist. Test and keep records. Make a whole bunch of little bowls, with a stamped design in the bottom (so you can tell what the glass will look like if you fire it over texture). Take the ground glass you want to use, and sprinkle it in the bottom of the bowls. Fire it at different temperatures. Keep records. If you get a result you like, see if you can repeat it. You can try this procedure with glaze, too. You can glaze your little bowls, sprinkle ground glass in the bottom, and see if you like how that looks.

[LucasQueiroz]

Hello everyone!

 

My name is Lucas, I'm new around here and was searching the internet for a mixture of glass and ceramic and finally got at this site. First of all, i'ts a really nice amount of knowledge you have here. But what I am really in need to know is to confirm if it is possible the application of glass in ceramic made functional products. That doubt came into my mind because I'm studing Design and right now i'm doing a academy project of a group of cups for drinks, and one of the problems i found out doing it using ceramic as the main material is losing the visual aspects of the drink, since ceramic is a opaque material. So, I thought that would be a really nice thing if ceramic and glass could be united in one and only piece, keeping the transparency of the glass.

 

I would be really glad if you could anwser me that.

[lakesidepottery]

[quick background] I've got a very good friend who runs a recycling center in the town we both live in; they recently got a glass pulverizer (sp?), and the first time I saw that crushed glass, I fell in love - it's beautiful!! I thought, that would look awfully pretty if it could be stuck all over the outside of ceramic pieces - kinda reminds me of the (somewhat newly marketed) pieces that have what look like mirrored pieces on the outer surface. Except multi-colored glass Now, put simply, I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to pottery; I've taken one college ceramics course several years ago, and that's as far as my knowledge goes. I've recently spoken with that instructor; he said he's never seen it done, but would be concerned about the glass melting. I've done a bit of research on the "melting point" of different types of glass, but that's definately going to be a process in itself. Now, I don't have a kiln here at home, though my friend (mentioned above) has several friends that would be willing to help me out. However, I still want to figure as much of this out on my own time as possible. Have any of you heard of something like this being done?

 

 

Glass has been combined with pottery and ceramic work for years at Lakeside Pottery and we love the results. We teach its use to our students, our ceramic instructors / artists incorporate it into their work and recently we started using it with children's projects. We wrote a whole guide of using glass with pottery and it can be seen on our website:

Combining Glass with Pottery

 

Have fun and see some results below:

 

 

Lakeside Pottery, Ceramic School & Studio

543 Newfield Avenue

Stamford, CT 06905

203-323-2222

www.lakesidepottery.com

[Katran]

I've also been looking for a way to combine clay and glass and with research came up with a couple of things. I taught a kid's class a year ago and we made Christmas ornaments with cone 6 white clay. We cut out shapes, I had the kids form depressions on the front of their shapes and we added small scraps of stained glass in the depression (a parent helper did this as the child choose the color, glass edges were sharp and kids didn't touch). After I added clear glaze, we single fired the ornaments to cone 6 and the kids loved them.

Before I rediscovered clay, I was working in stained glass using copper foil so had a lot of glass supplies around. I carved the cross in the center and surrounded it with glass as a gift for a friend.

 

Kathy Ransom

http://throughfire.ca/

[minspargal]

Lucas, I think having a drinking vessel with clear(glass) and opaque parts (ceramic)can not be done in a kiln. I think you can throw a clay cylinder and cut out some areas that you can glue glass later into those areas but then it would be functional for drinking or putting in the dishwasher.

[Lakehouse mom]

i have been melting glass with my porcelain for many years thru trial ad error i learned not to use bottles and other discarded pieces of glass. they all have different coeff. of expansion. i now buy glass "frit" which is finely crushed glass from bullseye or some other glass supplier. i am firing my pots at ^6 now, but had been doing them ^8. i sprinkle the frit into the depression of a knob or onto a tile with a large depression and fire to my glaze temp. i have finally figured out how much glass frit to use . too much will cause massive cracks. also i tend to mix some colors such as green blue grey and white. the red and orange colors and others of that family burn out. i am adding a photo of a randy red casserole with a mix of blue and green glass in the knob

eleanor

 

 

wow that is beautiful !!

[muddy1]

The southern folk potters have been using glass in pottery for about 150 years. They rigged up "trip hammers" on a nearby creek which worked by water filling a box on an arm with a steel spike on the other end. When box filled, the arm lifted and dumped out water causing the spike to fall and pulverize bottles in a wooden box. They mixed this with ashes and some clay and fired utilitarian ware to cone 10. This sound was a common one around the potteries in the Catawba Valley of NC.

 

They also placed pieces of glass on the rims and handles which melted leaving long streaks of color. Sometimes, they would use a piece to re-attach a broken handle by placing piece of glass on crack and re-firing. Also, Mark Hewitt has taking decorating with glass to new heights. Check out his website!

[Idaho Potter]

A similar post came up several months ago. If you want to look at it from a glass worker's point of view, try www.glass-fusing-made-easy.com . The newsletter they put out is very informative, and they will answer emails. Very helpful folks and they have forums just as we potters do.