jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,171
|
Post by jamesp on Jan 2, 2024 7:18:14 GMT -5
Its just so....nice to look at. kudos and thank you! And a very very merry christmas Thanks for the well wishes wargrafix. I hope your Christmas was merry as well. Not too much to the glass. Most of it just stacked into a mold and melted ot stacked in a bowl and melted thru a hole in the bowl down into a mold. This is a tray of glass blower's scraps. Blowers use very little colored glass(costly), just enough to get job done. After molded into a 6x6" brick. sawn slab
|
|
jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,171
|
Post by jamesp on Jan 2, 2024 7:28:29 GMT -5
Sorta botched this one. The flesh color was supposed to be blood red for red(blood)tipped spearheads. The light tan glass looks just like the "striker red" before heating. Striker red changes from clear tan to blood red go figure, easy to confuse.
|
|
jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,171
|
Post by jamesp on Jan 2, 2024 7:46:23 GMT -5
This has "clear striker red" - the fucsia stripes(on left). To right, the thick red band is "opal red". Well the opal red did not like the higher heat of the small kiln, it has heating coils just 1 inch from the stainless steel brick mold. This made the red opal get too hot and suffer cracks after cooling which makes the brick trash grrr. Note how striker red flows at ends of stacked plates. It is a "high flow" glass which can be good or bad depending on intent. Test for cracks is done by wetting. As drying the residual moisture reveals the deadly cracks and fractures. Glass is funny, cracks anywhere in brick often propagate into rest of brick. Useless for arrowheads, makes for cab killers, OK for tumble fodder.
|
|
|
Post by HankRocks on Jan 2, 2024 9:15:27 GMT -5
jamesp Good looking glass bricks, even the ones that did not quite come out. Also good to see you active and posting again, your posts with pictures are always a favorite of mine. Stay busy my friend. Henry
|
|
pebblesky
fully equipped rock polisher
Purchased another UV mini bowl for tumbling
Member since September 2022
Posts: 1,503
|
Post by pebblesky on Jan 2, 2024 12:46:09 GMT -5
Its just so....nice to look at. kudos and thank you! And a very very merry christmas Thanks for the well wishes wargrafix . I hope your Christmas was merry as well. Not too much to the glass. Most of it just stacked into a mold and melted ot stacked in a bowl and melted thru a hole in the bowl down into a mold. This is a tray of glass blower's scraps. Blowers use very little colored glass(costly), just enough to get job done. After molded into a 6x6" brick. sawn slab Literally eye candies!
|
|
jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,171
|
Post by jamesp on Jan 4, 2024 6:30:14 GMT -5
Thanks pebblesky. with a bunch of colors it doesn't take too much effort.
|
|
jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,171
|
Post by jamesp on Jan 4, 2024 7:16:53 GMT -5
jamesp Good looking glass bricks, even the ones that did not quite come out. Also good to see you active and posting again, your posts with pictures are always a favorite of mine. Stay busy my friend. Henry I call this one the atom bomb pattern Henry. It took several attempts to duplicate from back in 2018. Couldn't remember the recipe. Instead of having a 5 inch stack using 1/8" of each color it took a 5 inch stack using 1/4" of each color to get the defined color banding to not mix with each other. These stacks would be laid into an 11" Ikea stainless salad bowl with a 1.5" pour hole in the bottom of the bowl. Bowl hole about 1.5" above the brick mold. Changing the hole size or the pour bowl height makes for a different outcome. Pouring from higher causes more mixing. Smaller pour hole makes for more mixing. These mechanical dimensions were established back in 2018, it was the stacking of the glass that was forgotten. Anyway, this was yesterday's pour. Sawed 10x6x1.75 inch brick into 3 sections and they were sold on FB arrowhead maker's site(Art of Flint Knapping) within 10 minutes. These guys are making arrowheads out of a wider variety of agates and cherts these days, worth a visit. The materials they use have to be tough and fracture free, good rugged stuff for tumbling and cabbing. 3 colors of green, light clear green, opal tennis ball green and darker clear green. Note jagged accordion effect. No idea why this happens. Back lit so the clear greens can be seen
|
|
|
Post by HankRocks on Jan 4, 2024 7:51:06 GMT -5
jamesp They would be a real hit in the the old "head shops" of the late 60's. I wonder how many folks here owned one of the black light posters from that era?
|
|
|
Post by rockjunquie on Jan 4, 2024 9:12:47 GMT -5
jamesp They would be a real hit in the the old "head shops" of the late 60's. I wonder how many folks here owned one of the black light posters from that era? Wish I still had some of mine from the 70s. They were actually quite pretty.
|
|
jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,171
|
Post by jamesp on Jan 9, 2024 16:29:49 GMT -5
Think Fordite or "damascus glass". Perhaps a tightly banded agate slab. Stack began with 16 colors 1/8" thick = 2". Stack was 4"x 9" before melt. After, the melt puddle is reduced to 5/8" thick and about 16" diameter but still has 16 color bands. Poor man's Fordite ? So technique is similar to a Fordite cab to reveal layers on dome slope, but in this case layers would be revealed as arrowhead is knapped from it. However arrowhead would be schitzo because one side would have different colors than the other. Or it could be fused 8 colors on top half and same 8 colors on bottom half. Glass laminated like this is extremely strong. Rings like a stiff bell when two halves are tapped together. Perfect for long skinny spearheads. Need to get some of you cabbers playing with this stuff.
|
|
jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,171
|
Post by jamesp on Jan 10, 2024 15:23:15 GMT -5
Poured from a bowl into a brick mold. Poured a whole 14 pounds of glass(normally they are 10 pounds, brick about 11x6x1.6 inches). Black glass is actually dark brown, other is tan, both probably loaded with iron and strong tough glass. Tribal pattern, almost dendritic flow. Lower photo is cut thru where glass poured in. The glass was stacked in the bowl in alternating colors. It flowed thru the hole like brown and black balloons inside of each other(more obvious in upper photo) which is mysterious. More glass was added in the bottom of the bowl per color and less as filling bowl thinking that the first balloon to fill the mold is larger, but the smaller balloons are thicker. Could have been a theory of vanity...an upside down volcanic obsidian flow into a brick mold comes to mind. Two 1/4's of the whole brick
|
|
|
Post by RickB on Jan 10, 2024 20:49:16 GMT -5
Poured from a bowl into a brick mold. Poured a whole 14 pounds of glass(normally they are 10 pounds, brick about 11x6x1.6 inches). Black glass is actually dark brown, other is tan, both probably loaded with iron and strong tough glass. Tribal pattern, almost dendritic flow. Lower photo is cut thru where glass poured in. The glass was stacked in the bowl in alternating colors. It flowed thru the hole like brown and black balloons inside of each other(more obvious in upper photo) which is mysterious. More glass was added in the bottom of the bowl per color and less as filling bowl thinking that the first balloon to fill the mold is larger, but the smaller balloons are thicker. Could have been a theory of vanity...an upside down volcanic obsidian flow into a brick mold comes to mind. Two 1/4's of the whole brick Bumble Bee Glass
|
|
jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,171
|
Post by jamesp on Jan 12, 2024 11:13:34 GMT -5
Had lemon yellow glass been used with the black the patterns would likely be different RickB.
|
|
jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,171
|
Post by jamesp on Jan 13, 2024 9:24:56 GMT -5
To save energy two bowl/brick melts were performed simultaneously. Peak temp(1475F) dwell time was raised from 3 hours to 4 hours to assure kiln would not struggle to melt 25 pounds total glass. The above brick being brown and black glass could handle the extra heat. However the red glass in the other brick suffered from too much heat and fractured trashing 11 pounds of glass grrr. At raw glass cost of about $15/pound it is good that I acquired this glass very cheap. Has cracks throughout(trash):
|
|
jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,171
|
Post by jamesp on Jan 13, 2024 9:53:10 GMT -5
Hmmm, opaque glass rods from China. Getting an Alibaba quote. Let's see how placing a China order fares. American glass rod is probably $200/kilogram. China selling for $6.99 TO $9.99/kilogram. Certainly cheaper. Pricing makes sense, 6.99 for cheaper blue and green colors, 8.99/9.99 for costlier yellow/orange/red colors. Did a sample quote for 180 kilograms(see order in photo below). So 400 pounds of rods cost $1518.20. Shipping via sea is $820(China to Atlanta USA freight terminal for me to pick up). Total cost would be like $2340. Ship time slow, March 8 - March 20. 400 pounds makes about 40 bricks selling at $200/brick totalling $8000. Enough to support a hobby, no get rich quick scheme. Melting rods would present some unique patterns.
|
|
rockbrain
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2022
Posts: 2,570
|
Post by rockbrain on Jan 13, 2024 11:25:20 GMT -5
I'll be interested to see what you make with this. I hope this works out well for you.
|
|
jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,171
|
Post by jamesp on Jan 14, 2024 8:25:30 GMT -5
I'll be interested to see what you make with this. I hope this works out well for you. Thank you much rockbrain. This was about the only affordable choice. Shoulda added lavender and purple to complete the natural spectrum. This comes in 7mm-10mm rods, could get cheaper if bought in plates or bricks. Consider the rods offer a whole different dimension in patterns. Certain I will be tooting my horn by posting photos .
|
|
jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,171
|
Post by jamesp on Jan 14, 2024 8:32:18 GMT -5
Deep Purple pour brick in kiln today.
|
|
|
Post by rockjunquie on Jan 14, 2024 12:43:57 GMT -5
Deep Purple pour brick in kiln today. I'm a sucker for that purple! LOL!
|
|
jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,171
|
Post by jamesp on Jan 14, 2024 14:20:28 GMT -5
Deep Purple pour brick in kiln today. I'm a sucker for that purple! LOL! You and me both Tela. Such royal purple tickles eyes. Dark purple glass is often used as black glass(you probably know having worked glass). If memory serves a form of cheap iron or perhaps manganese turns glass purple. The sand in NE Florida(manganese rich) makes clear glass that often turns purple when exposed to the elements. The China load came with lots of this near black purple glass. The arrowhead guys should like making some thin points that reveal the purple color depth. I'd prefer to find a giant vein of large amethyst crystals with such color !
|
|