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Hi!

I've read Fenton and Kervin's book on kiln casting, but I'm confused about the drying and curing process. The mold needs to be dried and cured before you use it, but you're supposed to wet the mold in order for the glass paste to adhere better. I think the book says this:

1. Cast your mold
2. Pack it with glass paste (while it's still wet)
3. Put mold with glass paste in kiln to dry and cure
4. Fire the casting.

Is this correct?

Cheers,
Suzan

Traditional kiln casting used to require the mold to air dry, then be pre-fired to drive out all water. The new method is to cast, pack with glass, and fire, with a long, 6 hours plus, hold at 200F to dry the mold.

PdV requires a binder, but it should not be an excessive amount.
You're making a paste, not a slurry.

Brock

Suzan,
two weeks ago I took a pate de verre class from Päivi Kekäläinen, the PdV queen of Finlans.

She worked exaxtly in the order you described.
The pate was made of glass and pure water.
After lay up the surface was coverec with very diluted
CMC glue to keet it in place during the drying phase.

A tip. She used some food color in the glue to see that
all the surface was properly covered. The food colors burn off without residue.

-lauri