How To Make A Ceramic Mold For Glass Slumping

Glass slumping sometimes called warm glass or glass art is a form of artistic expression that uses the heat of a gas or electric kiln to melt 2 or more different pieces of glass together and fuse them into 1 piece.

How to make a ceramic mold for glass slumping.

You ll fire the mold without any glass on it. This tutorial will explain how i make custom ceramic texture molds to create fused glass art items used in this tutorial 1 firing the clay and glass kiln. Now you can fire your mold to cure the rigidizer according to the instructions that come with your rigidizer. Both are placed inside the kiln and the kiln is fired up.

Slumping means heating glass in a kiln over a mold until it takes the shape of that mold. Plates are essential for glass studios. I often use smaller triangle shelf posts wrapped in thin fire paper to create an elevated neck on beer bottles for spoon rests. I use a paragon janus 23 multi purpose kiln capable of firing glass or ceramics with the fl.

We offer a variety of mold shapes for slumping glass bottles. This newly formed glass is then placed over a ceramic mold. Prop it up on shelf posts and lay a small piece of shelf paper between the posts and the mold if they haven t been coated in kiln wash. Slumping glass constitutes bending or slumping fused glass over or into a mold.

You can also make your own shapes using your own bisque. A little more pondering brought me back to my first idea of carving a slumping mold in fiberboard but it would have to be much thicker than before. The key is to make the mold out of the right material which will withstand the 1 200 degree temperature in the kiln. Glassworkers usually slump their medium over metal molds and into ceramic molds.

The slumping glass process is used for making bowls platters or decorative 3 d objects. Carving 1 thick fiberboard i got my hands on some 1 inch thick fiberboard and decided i would just have to carve the mold as i did in my first attempt but not go all the way through the bottom. This example explains how molds are made from clay. If using a mold it should be covered with a thick coat of kiln wash or glass separator.

Molds for glass slumping are surprisingly easy to make. Hump molds are used to form the interior of the slumped glass. To complete the slumping process take your glass through heating and cooling processes. Mold making for glass art by dan jenkins 3 glass and mirror pieces hot glue gun and glue plastic tubs with cut bottoms for dams kitchen timer the journey begins let s begin to make a mold beginner mold makers often pick objects which have undercuts are overly complicated and can be beyond the scope of their ability at that moment.

Slumpy s has a great selection of plate molds dish molds server molds and more. There are two basic types of molds in glass slumping.