A friend and I have been creating small dichroic glass cabs that we inlay into gourds. These are mostly jewelry sized cabs, in fact, I've used several of them for that purpose as well. We have been using her ceramic kiln to fire the pieces. She uses a cone as the kiln doesn't have a pyrometer. We've had decent success, although some pieces aren't fusing to the same degree as others; occasionally some will be fully fused and some will not. Also, we tried throwing in a few pieces of the millifori rods which have a slightly different COE just to see what would happen, and stress cracks developed. Our local stained glass store owner says he has no problem mixing a few of these in - is he all wet or is it our firing?
OK, now my real question - I'm assuming I'd have better results with a kiln that is designed for glass, and/or had better controls. If I only planned on doing small pieces, what kiln(s) would you recommend and why? I'd rather not spend a fortune, but it would be nice to have something that is a little less inaccurate as cone firing in a ceramic kiln.
AZGourds wrote: ... we tried throwing in a few pieces of the millifori rods which have a slightly different COE just to see what would happen, and stress cracks developed. Our local stained glass store owner says he has no problem mixing a few of these in - is he all wet or is it our firing?
Most millifiori rods are made by Moretti (Effetre). They have a COE of 104, which is not compatible with either Spectrum (96) or Bullseye (90). Using glass with 104 COE with glass with either 96 or 90 is bound to cause problems sooner or later. That's true regardless of the kiln you use, the firing schedule you use, or the store you buy the glass from.
Your ceramic kiln is probably firing a bit unevenly. That's common with many kilns of that type. A small kiln made for glass will probably fire a bit more evenly and may be easier to control. Any of the small kilns by reputable manufacturers -- Evenheat, Jen-Ken, Paragon, Skutt, etc. -- will work. Click on the links to suppliers at the top of this page to see the various options.
A friend and I have been creating small dichroic glass cabs that we inlay into gourds. These are mostly jewelry sized cabs, in fact, I've used several of them for that purpose as well. We have been using her ceramic kiln to fire the pieces. She uses a cone as the kiln doesn't have a pyrometer. We've had decent success, although some pieces aren't fusing to the same degree as others; occasionally some will be fully fused and some will not. Also, we tried throwing in a few pieces of the millifori rods which have a slightly different COE just to see what would happen, and stress cracks developed. Our local stained glass store owner says he has no problem mixing a few of these in - is he all wet or is it our firing?