How I create things in my kiln, and what eventually happens to what I create...

Glass goes in the kiln, and glass comes out, quite altered! Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. That's what happens in life.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Saint Andrews bowl (with fault)

Well, the best laid plaid sometimes goes awry.  The plaid bowl I made cracked down the middle and fell into two pieces during the cooling cycle.  Argh!  Not to be daunted, I put it back in the kiln, inside the mold instead of over the upside down mold, and re-fired it to see what would happen.  I hoped to have it slump to the center of the mold and that gravity would force the cracked sides to meet and melt together.  I got my wish, partially.  It looks like an earthquake fault runs through it.  The heat fused the two ends of the crack, and left the middle open.  Not very useful as a bowl, but still, intriguing looking.  The sides of the bowl, which were actually quite symmetric, decided to flop over the edges of the mold, giving the piece a very "hanky" look.  Plaid glass hanky?  Wow.  I can't really name this "San Andreas Fault" because it's plaid--rather Scottish looking, so I'll just call it The Saint Andrews Bowl.  After all, Edinburgh, Scotland is situated on an extinct volcano, and San Andreas is Spanish for St. Andrew (I think...).  And there you have it.  Ta-DAH!!!

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