Glow in the Dark Powder

[traceynsv]

Hi Everyone,

I have been using glow powder and having problems with holes in the glass where the powder is. I know to top with clear, but sometimes I still have holes, thou not all the way through the glass.
Any suggestions?

Thank You,
Tracey

[jolly]

What are holes that don't go all the way through the glass? Sounds like the glow powder is trapping air or gassing off. Try little shards of compatible glass on the edges to give more time for the air to get out before the edges seal.

[Jeff Wright]

I don't know which GITD powder you are using, but I've done a lot of work in blown glass with this type of powder. Note that the powder doesn't ever "melt" into the glass. In fact, I can cut through a blown vessel and see lots of pockets and just pour the powder out. This is after being in direct contact with furnace glass at 2150 degrees F. So I am sure you will always have "bubbles" around the powder. That is what I'm assuming you are describing.

[traceynsv]

I guess I was trying to say, How do you seal it between the two glasses, I use clear powder on top, I have also tried just 2 pieces of clear and still got little holes. In other words the top piece of glass was not smooth....
Hope this makes sense.

Thank You so much

[Jeff Wright]

I did some fusing tests with the powder a while ago. They are out in a box somewhere, and I have any pictures of them glowing, just in normal light. I used a dark transparent base layer, drew a pattern with the glow powder on top of that base layer, and capped it with a clear layer. I cut one apart and the power just poured out. I would think that glass powder will not seal well enough. Without pictures, I'm still not sure I understand.

Here is an example of using them in a blown form - this is a marble that is about 3.0" in diameter. The top image is the marble glowing in the dark, the bottom is what it looks like in daylight. If I "charge" it outside in the sunlight for about 10 minutes or so, it will glow like this brightly for a few hours, and then slowing lose the glow after about 5-6 hours.

[Barry Kaiser]

I mixed the powder with Ferro Flux and A-14 to get a screen printable paint.


In Regular light

In UV to charge the glow powder