Over the past year, many of my new pieces were made with a technique known as "pot melt". Starting with a clay flower pot, I drilled extra holes in the bottom. Then I filled the pot with stips of various coloured glass sitting on end. On the kiln shelf I created a mold for the pot melt using fibre paper, and then suspended the flower pot of glass a few inches above that spot. While the kiln was held at 1400F for 6 hours of more, the glass melted and dripped through onto the kiln shelf with the colours mixing in interesting patterns. Once the pot melt had cooled I was able to shape it using coldworking tools and then slump it into the desired final shape. Of course many of the initial trys were not successful until I found out which colours could be mixed safely together and which reacted together to form a black blob! Here's one of the finished pieces that won 2nd place at the Blue Mountain Foundation for the Arts Juried Art Show this year and a few of my other favourites.
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