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Fusing Glass To Ceramics


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Wanted to stop in and give a quick update about an experiement I did fusing glass to some ceramics in my last firing. It turned out pretty well! I used some of the flat glass "beads" from the craft store that are usually used for decoration on their own. Fired all the way to cone 6 and placed them on a bottom shelf with a pretty close shelf above it in case there was any splashing or antyhing. I placed the glass over the glaze that was already in the pot. Has anyone else done any experiments like this? Any pics?

 

You can see that it creates some crazing in the glass and its definitely not food safe or anything like that but looks really neat -

 

http://last-light.com/p1008585941/h40A755E#h40a755e

 

I had one issue with a hairline crack on one pot I think that as the glass cools it creates an inward pull and it was just too much for the clay.

 

http://last-light.com/p1008585941/hc75e948#hc75e948

 

There are some more pics from that firing as well in that gallery.

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The beads you're working with are most likely Soft Glass which has a COE (coefficient of expansion) around 2.44 which is well below that of clay which typically ranges between 4.6 to 8.0 which is why the glass is shivering.  To help the glass better fit the clay, place it with a high expansion frit like Ferro 3110 (coe 10.1)or Ferro 5301 (coe 11.4).

 

Hard glass has an even lower COE so would create more fit problems.

 

Wanted to stop in and give a quick update about an experiment I did fusing glass to some ceramics in my last firing. It turned out pretty well! I used some of the flat glass "beads" from the craft store that are usually used for decoration on their own. Fired all the way to cone 6 and placed them on a bottom shelf with a pretty close shelf above it in case there was any splashing or anything. I placed the glass over the glaze that was already in the pot. Has anyone else done any experiments like this? Any pics?

 

You can see that it creates some crazing in the glass and its definitely not food safe or anything like that but looks really neat -

 

http://last-light.com/p1008585941/h40A755E#h40a755e

 

I had one issue with a hairline crack on one pot I think that as the glass cools it creates an inward pull and it was just too much for the clay.

 

http://last-light.com/p1008585941/hc75e948#hc75e948

 

There are some more pics from that firing as well in that gallery.

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Typically when I've bought colored COE 96 soft glass to use on ceramics it has come in the form of a ground frit, so mixing this with another frit is not a big problem.  If you're using marbles or some other glass shapes in the bottom of a bowl I'd weight out an equal amount of Ferro 3110 to sprinkle around where I placed the marbles.

 

This plate with Duck a l'Orange has COE 96 glass inside a porcelain orange slice, which has shivered creating the illusion of orange cells, with the same COE 96 glass mixed with Ferro 3110 frit as an orange sauce, which fits the previously fired Cone 6 Majolica glaze.

sml_gallery_18533_680_82619.jpg

 

hi Norm,

 

 what did you mean by "place it with a high expansion Frit...?  Do you make a damp suspension of the frit and use it like glue?  Sounds interesting.

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I found a small bit of blue glass in my backyard and put it in the bottom of a little dish - it crackled like crazy (pun intended) so it has limited use, but it sure is pretty.

 

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/rubian77/media/Pottery/blueglass.jpg.html

 

Norm, I will have to give that extra frit a try next time I do this! Thanks for the tip -- and I LOVE that orange! :)

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What happened to Norm's reply to this topic? I was interested in the technique.  My china painting teacher taught us a technique to apply pieces of glass to the exterior surface.  She supplied us with a powder which one mixed with non fat milk and dabbed a little on a glass bead which could then be placed on a glazed surface and it stuck, even when it was a vertical surface.  The piece was then fired and the glass bead was permanently affixed - either as a rounded bead or as a runny piece of glass, depending on the temp.  My teacher had absolutely no idea what the powder was and her powder supply is very very limited.  Norm's earlier reply was the first clue I've had to what the powder may contain.

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OK Gismo Guy, how did you make the glass stick to the vertical side of the piece until fired?  Norm mentioned using a frit but he may have been referring to firing glass in the interior bottom of a piece.  I'm not being snide (tho I just realized it sounds a little like that) I really want to know.

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What happened to Norm's reply to this topic? I was interested in the technique.  My china painting teacher taught us a technique to apply pieces of glass to the exterior surface.  She supplied us with a powder which one mixed with non fat milk and dabbed a little on a glass bead which could then be placed on a glazed surface and it stuck, even when it was a vertical surface.  The piece was then fired and the glass bead was permanently affixed - either as a rounded bead or as a runny piece of glass, depending on the temp.  My teacher had absolutely no idea what the powder was and her powder supply is very very limited.  Norm's earlier reply was the first clue I've had to what the powder may contain.

 

Hm. I don't know what happened to his repy, but it seems that all of his comments have disappeared. Which is a damn shame in this case...I remember it was a Ferro Frit with four numbers, and it was apparently one with a high coefficient of expansion (COE) rate, but that doesn't help much at all. Hopefully someone else remembers or can offer the answer again.

 

 

(edit: Norm's response is back, but in case it gets deleted again...

 

"The beads you're working with are most likely Soft Glass which has a COE (coefficient of expansion) around 2.44 which is well below that of clay which typically ranges between 4.6 to 8.0 which is why the glass is shivering.  To help the glass better fit the clay, place it with a high expansion frit like Ferro 3110 (coe 10.1)or Ferro 5301 (coe 11.4).

 

Hard glass has an even lower COE so would create more fit problems."

 

And he weighed out an equal amount of frit to the glass.)

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Ferro 3110 was one. There was another I didn't write down.

I've mixed large amounts of fine glass grit into a clear glaze for the sides of a pit then fired with a drip catch sacraficial piece on the bottom. Created a nice drip with the crackle. It was a mess though and I still had to grind the bottom so I never tried that again.

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I've used stain glass scraps, but only to cone 6.  The results depends on the glass color.  The blues and greens end up pretty nice, but the yellows and reds get very cloudy and opaque and eventually the color burns out.   I actually like it with the reds it looks like blood swirled with broken clear glass.  But if you go higher than the cone 5/6 more of the color would probably burn out and you would just have clear.  I mostly use old wine bottles and the light blue glass from gin/vodka bottles.  

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has anyone used old stained glass?

on high fire stoneware cone 8-9? 

 

My friend Carrie Althouse uses stained glass scraps in the bottom of small dishes. I'm pretty sure she just fires to ^6, though.

 

http://www.carriealthouse.com - look in the gallery, at the bottom, third row up, first column. I tried to link the picture but the forum wouldn't let me.

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