Remember yesterday when I mentioned that I was “experimenting” with fusing a beach agate with some clear glass? And that I wasn’t holding out a whole lotta hope for it to be anything stellar?
Huh.
Boy, what an understatement that was!
OK, this is how it all began. You can see (a little blurrily) that the agate was a fine, typical amber-colored little nugget like most beach agates are (they do range from white-ish to deep rootbeer) and it was quite pure, as far as being able to see light through it nicely.
(I’d stuck it in the kiln with some other projects). The reason for those skewed clear pieces is that skewing them results in a round shape once they’re fused. I know, weird, huh? My *hope* was that the agate would sink down into the glass and become enveloped, but that didn’t happen. But what did happen totally confused me. And it was the very last thing I expected!
The agate turned WHITE. WTF?
The bottom of it did fuse to the glass, but I tried scrubbing it and picking at it, and that white gunk is on there good! Whatever the hell it is.
I am no geologist or chemist (duh, otherwise I’d probably have a job), but I’m thinking the reason might be one or both of two things:
- Salt. I didn’t wash the agate before fusing it (my bad) and I’m sure it had a fair amount of residue from saltwater all over it.
- Agates have high mineral content and the heat (that reached about 1450 deg.) may have caused some kind of chemical reaction with those minerals. It’s possible.
A third theory is devitrification. And now that I think of it, that’s probably the case. Agate is a form of “glass” after all, and it would not be compatible with fusible glass. The crystallization from all those molecules bouncing around could definitely cause this.
Hmm. There are ways and means to prevent that, so it might be worth another try! {{eyebrows wiggling}}
The good news is that I hauled out some successes from my kiln last night and again this morning! I fixed the problem with that mold that was causing me such grief (re-primered it and then set it on little blocks when I used it in the kiln to slump so air would flow freely all around it).
I’d made a similar dish before, and it sold!
Here (below) is a set of coasters. (I’m waiting on the bumpers to arrive to affix to the bottoms):
And with the same glass as these coasters, this just now came out of the kiln (still rather warm!):
Fun!
(Currently fusing some “experimental designs” to make some more candle holders).
I’ll leave you with a short video of Peanut and Bailey begging me for a treat. John is the “treat guy” but they were working Mom! It’s good to see Peanut dancing again. And I’d say (wouldn’t you?) that Bailey has some hound dog blood running through her veins!
~~~~~
