Been off my game

I haven't done any crafting lately because we have been letting a friend stay in my craft room. I started a pot melt project tonight I hope I don't cook her out of her room. It does get kinda warm when I melt glass. 

I'm doing a pot melt. I've got some glass that is just being wasted because it didn't do what I wanted it to when I first slumped it. Now I'm melting it in a terracotta pot and on to some thin fire paper. It should turn out to be sort of a rectangle of melted glass. People do pot melts to mix beautiful colors and create lovely effects. I would like to do that, but I'm still just trying things out so I'm not going to waste good glass on the project.

I didn't take any pictures. I didn't think anything I did was picture worthy. First thing I did was cut my glass into smaller pieces. Next I loaded them up in my terracotta pot and put the pot on three kiln posts to lift it above my kiln shelf. I set the kiln at the levels that were recommended and hit start. 

About forty minutes into the project I realized that my set up wouldn't work for a pot melt and I went in to change it. I put on my heat resistant glove and laid the kiln posts on their sides and put the pot back on. I next realized that there was a chance that the glass would stick to the kiln post so I put some thin fire paper on top of them. Now I think the thin fire paper is too close to the pot, but I also learned that my kiln is at a level where my heat resistant gloves don't work so well. They work, I would hate to feel the heat from the pot without the glove, but it was warm enough that I'm going to leave well enough alone.

We'll see what happens, this guy is going to learn to fly or hit the ground. 

My Ramune Project

I think I talked about how the blue glass project didn't work out. I had it on a soft fuse program and it didn't slump down like I had hoped. I'm not going to post the the firing schedule, because it wasn't right. But when I do find the right schedule, I will post it.
Here is what they turned out to look like:

See, not what I had hoped for at all. The only thing that I can take away from this is that on the lighter blue one it did close up the broken hole and the glass kept it's color so it isn't just going to burn off.

I'm slumping a bottle tonight.
It is a Ramune bottle. For those of you not in the know, it is an Asian (I know how racist of me) drink with a marble sealing the soda. You use a plunger lid to pop the marble into the bottle's neck. It has a thick blue plastic top to hold the marble in.

It's a tasty soda and a unique bottle. I was eager to slump it.
First I pulled off the label, it was surprisingly easy and I was happy.
Next I moved onto the the plastic top. OMG, was that a bitch. I took at it with scissors, a screwdriver, and a knife. To no avail. Next I turned to the most potent tool of all, the internet.
I found a video that instructed me to thin out with a lighter and a knife. When it was thin enough, and that was left open, I was to go at it with needle nose pliers and just twist it off. Sounded easy enough. Except I didn't have a knife that was small enough and up to the task. The knife I was using before was a huge stabby knife you use to kill people with when you are wearing a hockey mask. I can't remember what it is called right now. So instead I used the scissors.
Several attempts I didn't get it thin enough, twice I got hot, melted plastic on my skin (yes, it blistered), and finally I was able to get it off. *insert triumphant music*
Here is what it looks like ready to fire:

You can't really see the marble in that pic, but you can see the unusual shape of the bottle.
I put it on a full fuse schedule. It is a hotter, longer one than I'm used to, so I guess I'll see how that turns out. It will take 17 hours, instead of the usual 8 hours.