All of a sudden I was thrown into a kaleidoscope of materials and equipment and the first term we spent experimenting.
I learned :
The importance of the compatibility (or the lack thereof) of various brands of glass and how a different COE (coefficient of expansion) can ruin your work, if you don’t pay attention. We had the opportunity to work with Bullseye glass, which is specifically developed for the warm glass industry, but most of our experiments were conducted with the cheaper float (window) glass and cathedral glass.
How a glass kiln works and how different it works for glass compared to ceramics. (right a kiln traditionally used for ceramic firing, left a kiln more specifically designed for glass with top heating elements.)
What is ramping and annealing and how important it is to know how it works and how to implement it.
Different techniques like: tack fusing (clear 3d definition retained of 2 or more layers of glass), fusing (various layers of glass completely integrated (melted) into one smooth surface definition), fusing with inclusions and what is suitable for inclusions (e.g copper , foils, etc) slumping (glass will adopt the form of a mould or may drop through a drop mould), kiln casting (firing the glass to a temperature to a consistency of honey so that it can fill a plaster mould - although there wasn’t enough time for me to get serious about the casting process.
(pics left to right: tack fuse, cast, drop mould - the cast and drop mould done by fellow students)
How to work with acid and the serious precautions needed to work in a safe environment.
About oxides and stains and how it can transform a uniform coloured piece of glass in something that can have depth and illustrative imagery.
Amanda let us play for a while, but at the start of the second term we were instructed to start thinking about a project that would combine all the methods we had tested so far.
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