Tuesday, December 4, 2012

First Stamp Test!

I was extremely excited for this test and it went absolutely wonderfully. The concept was brought on by a difficult wax that a fellow student made. It was a very shallow bowl that had texture on both sides, which means there is no easy area for the glass to melt in. Because of this he had to add on a very inventive reservoir and do a lot of cold working after the fact.

When I was trying to devise an easy way to cast his piece, one of the things I thought of was a two part mold that you put together in the kiln when it's at temperature - like a stamp.

This test piece was sculpted haphazardly but turned out quite nice. There was some odd wrinkling around the edges, and there was some ill texture in the indents that were created by the stamp mold. I assume this is because there was too much glass, so it began eating away at the lowermost part of the plaster stamp.

November 6, 2012
Kiln A1
1) 06 hr ↑ 120º  * wet mold
2) 08 hr @ 120º  *
3) 18 hr ↑ 600º  *
4) 19 hr @ 600º
5) 19:01 ↑ 850º (melt, stamp, re-melt)
6) 26 hr @ 850º
7) 26:01 ↓ 516º
8) 33 hr @ 516º
9) 38 hr ↓ 390º  ~ test for slow kiln
10) 40 hr ↓ 50º  ~



Above is the part of the glass that was hit by the mold. Below is what might be the traditional 'bottom'. Technically though, due to how amazing stamp molds are, either side could be up (and personally I like the bottom view better).


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