Wednesday, August 27, 2008

60 days: The Serenbe Project


















After the Bullseye glass cullet is washed and dryed, I store it like this next to the kiln and the scale so that when I get ready to weigh the glass, I can load the scales, weigh the glass and load the mould from the same place. Also, I don't have to move the moulds as they are very heavy.



















This is Bullseye casting cullet on the left and Bullseye casting billets on the right. Bullseye is some of the best glass made. The billets have been cut on the wet saw, then washed, then stored


















Ok, if the cullet is too large, it has to be made smaller and I do this with a sledge hammer and a garbage compactor bag (because they are thick bags). Safety glasses are a must.


















I'm crushing the glass a bit here to make it smaller. The very small frit I use to help secure the wire.

What I thought would be a good idea was to blog about the remainder of the time from now until installation at Serenbe. There is somewhere around 60 days left until installation and today is DAY 60.
Tonight I applied kiln wash to the new 21" diameter mould and the wash will cure at 500 deg. I left the lid of the kiln propped open until it reaches around 120 and then I will completely close it. Another oven is just about ready to be unloaded (leaves). I added some amber color to these leaves. I left the lid open a bit on this oven also so that it would cool about 10 more degrees. Then I will remove the leaves from the mould, reload the mould and fire again.

1 comment:

Debra Riffe said...

Girrrrrrrrrrl, you are too smart and too talented to continue to work 9 to 5 in a stuffy old building. Your passion for glass is so evident. Love the step-by-step pics.