Bowls

Posted on November 7, 2011 by whendidwestart

So I have been in this class a few weeks now.  I know that Orion likes to include projects that relate to bowls. I am feeling I would like to experiment before it becomes a request.

Hmmmmmm.  I rolled out some wax until it actually reached across our kiln casting table and then I began to wrap it in the shape of a bowl.  I added 2 handles of similar fashion.

This is the bowl before I cut the bottom reservoir off.

My first bowl formed from a twisted strand of wax--What a lot of work to make the wax maleable enough to work with. Clay is definitely scoring high with me about now!

I was hoping that I

could make a mold by which I could reproduce this particular bowl.  By the time I had had

the procedure explained to me by different people, I settled for making

1 such bowl of its type.

There were 2 other bowls that Orion showed to make by pouring melted wax into a bowl formed from plaster.  As the wax cooled, I could pour out the excess wax leaving a wax bowl the thickness of which was determined by how long it took me to pour off the excess as it was cooling.

Must have trapped an air bubble and the colour had the most interest pattern with clear surrounding the hole

The interesting thing about them was that maybe I hadn’t allowed for enough melting time in the firing.  By the time I began to smooth out the edges on the grinding belts the reservoir on the bottom was crumbling (I would have liked to preserve it).

Bowl from melted wax - no air bubbles but still just as fragile and not quite melted frit

I wondered about the possibility of refiring this same bowl with more glass.  Todate that has not happened.

Both of these 2 colourful bowls turned out

fragile.  Below I have included the program that was used for all 3 in the same firing.

I am still having thoughts about how I would like to use them–or if I should melt them back into flowing glass and make the colour diffuse with clear!

By the way, before I go to the program, I should mention that I used a flower pot to

This was the plaster mold for the clear stranded bowl

hold glass as a reservoir.  It slightly cracked from the last firing, but seemed to survive this one, also.  It has now been retired.

Kilns #1 & 4 – scheduled firing – October 3 at 3: but didn’t happen until Oct.11 @ 12:45 in Kiln #1.

I am using soft glass in this firing — as I have done so far.  The kilns are accumulative in how we program the hours (and minutes) and the temperature is quoted in Celsius

Steps

As they came out of the kiln with the plaster forms still in tact

  1. 3:  hrs            ^90 degrees
  2. 12:  hrs           ^110 degrees
  3. 24: hrs            ^120 degrees
  4. 30: hrs            ^600 degrees
  5. 32: hrs            @600 degrees
  6. 32:01 hrs         ^850 degrees
  7. 40:  hrs             @850 degrees
  8. 40:01 hrs              516 degrees
  9. 55:   hrs              @ 516 degrees
  10. 80: hrs                    390 degrees
  11. 100: hrs                     50 degrees

Ultimately, I think that both of the coloured bowls lacked sufficient glass.  So I am going to take Orion’s advice and include more glass in the reservoir for melting in my future melts to see if that helps.

I might also consider using higher and lower temps to explore the possible textures that could evolve.

About whendidwestart

I am what I consider to be starting my life over. I have been studying art for 2 years and have begun 3 years of glass Crafts & Design in Sheridan College. I am also discovering how much I like to write online--a good thing because applying for scholarships will have one writing a lot of essays. My summer 2010 was about finding the funding to cover my expenses. Whatever I thought my life would be about this past year of school, I never expected to be trying to help 2 daughters in 1st year college when their funding fell short. My summer 2011 became about sitting still long enough to consider the impact of my goals. I look for $$ for supplies and I look for $$ for equipment for when I complete my program. I have a commercial size compressor for running a sandblaster; but no sandblaster. I have a Skutt kiln; but cannot afford the hydro required to fire it up. I have some stained glass and supplies; my program has just had stained glass artist Joseph Cavalieri from New York to input ideas on how we could incorporate what he does to what we do. When I finish here at Sheridan, I expect that I will do mostly cold glass work--stained glass and sandblasting..... Perhaps some work with stone because many of the properties of stone are similar to working with glass! I am also about sharing information with others who want to break from traditional thinking about a lot of things. For example, I have been a Bell Canada since I left home at 15. My Mom used to be a Bell Telephone operator when Bell was the only game in town. My Stepmother and her sister and my sister all worked for MaBell. I once worked for Bell Northern Research and until recently, I thought I would be a Bell customer for life. I am not so certain of that any more. I want to know more about economical phone plans (land & mobile). Are there any out there? I have recently begun to realize that to stay ahead of the game, one would almost have had to study law to understand the significance of a phone plan--no matter what the ads say!
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