The trials of float glass because to be honest - it has been!! You might recall float glass is made by floating molten glass onto molten tin and it is flat and uniform as a result.
It is possible to fuse float glass but it behaves if a very different way. It melts at a higher temperature and it doesn’t behave like art glass, you cannot, for example use copper oxide to the same affect.
3. The first issue was how to detect the tin side because apparently this is important - except it’s not. As you can see here the glass with the three leaves is has a bloom to it. This was my old greenhouse glass. The other single leaved one is new float glass from the legendary builders merchants in cheddar - Legendary because they basically said - help yourself and didn’t charge me. The most important fact that I found during my research is that it is not necessary to determine the tin side. It would appear that if the glass is new, then the glass is not affected by bloom when fired. The reason for this is probably two-fold: Firstly new glass has not UV damage and therefore no tin oxide and secondly, the new glass was not cleaned using acetone, The glass was only washed using warm water and washing up liquid, and dried carfully.
4. It even cuts well, here is a circle I cut to fuse -warming it first over that weird cylinder heater that you see on the left hand image, warm glass cuts more accurately.
5. There was an unpredictability about Jesmonite. See this crack in a bowl made from Jesmonite, this make it slightly unpredictable, and although it is lovely its very expensive.
6 & 7 So back to the Cement idea for the base, using an a childs ball. Using a piece of card with a hole cut in it pushed halfway over the ball, I built up layers of cement - up to a square piece of wood which is plugging the space where the glass will be attached. This is allow for the glass to expand and contract in different temperature settings.
8. This is a rough bowl I made several weeks ago but it illustrates the idea.
9. Ferns and Bracken seem to fire better than other leaves, and there is a likelihood that the compounds that make up these plants act like a flux which helps to melt the glass better on those points of contact.
The inspiration for this work is that evidence suggests that mental health is improved by spending time in the natual world. This fact plus the effect of light which positively affects mental health.
One further thing regarding my bowls;- It is important the light is able to come down through the glass at the base and out of the bottom - to do this I have fused small feet on the base of each corner of the glass. Note to self - always glue the corners before firing and they will wander and vibrate during firing thus sticking themselves where they want and not where you want!
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