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Drop mold for a spoon rest (open end)

Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2018 1:47 pm
by FusedLightStudio
I'd like to use 1/4" fiber felt to make a custom drop mold, which would create a spoon rest. Looking at the ceramic spoon rest that I currently own, it looks like I should make an oval and then a long slot that goes all the way to the edge.
Here's the ceramic spoon rest
IMG_2349-2.jpg
IMG_2351-2.jpg
And here's my crude sketch on fiber felt of the cut I would make (it's a circle rather than oval to match the glass design)
IMG_2348-2.jpg
All the drop molds I've seen are symmetrical and have no cuts through any edge. So will this work or will the glass just run out the open end?! I realize I could just retain the closed edge and it would probably still work as a spoon rest but I am interested in the question of an open end anyhow.
Sorry if this is extraordinarily dumb.

Re: Drop mold for a spoon rest (open end)

Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2018 10:18 am
by Judd
I'm not sure why you're wanting to do a drop mold. That would be a lot of heat, and bottle glass doesn't flow like art glass. Why not just make a plaster mold of the top of the spoon rest, then do a clay slip to create the positive?
Or better yet, just let the bottle melt naturally flat on the kiln. You're just melting a bottle, right? Why go through the headache of creating a mold for something so simplistic - unless you plan to mass produce these.

Re: Drop mold for a spoon rest (open end)

Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2018 10:55 am
by FusedLightStudio
Hi Judd,
Sorry I wasn't clear. I'm not slumping a bottle. I'm slumping art glass.
I fused two layers of art glass and now I want to make a spoon rest with it by slumping it through a custom mold made of 1/4" fiber felt, on 1/2" posts.

I can make the drop mold with a round spoon shape and a long slot for the spoon handle, and I can just end the slot before the edge of the mold. But I was just wondering what would happen if the slot for the spoon handle continued all the way through the edge of the mold.

It's really a general question about molds with an opening on one edge - whether that's possible or if the glass would slump not only through the mold opening but out further than the edge of the mold.

Re: Drop mold for a spoon rest (open end)

Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2018 11:43 am
by Peter McCarthy
There's a simple solution to that potential problem: Make the mold longer on the open end than the glass you'll be slumping.

Re: Drop mold for a spoon rest (open end)

Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2018 11:50 am
by Ed Cantarella
OP - if you have only fused 2 layers of 3mm glass, there is no problem to the handle "groove" extend out past the glass. The glass is not going to travel down it, due to the 1/4" rule. 2 layers are 1/4" thick. Glass travels outward if thicker than 1/4", inward if thinner. I'm curious if you are planning on using ridgidizer on the cloth followed by kiln wash. Gonna be rough without and only one time use. :-k

Re: Drop mold for a spoon rest (open end)

Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2018 9:21 pm
by FusedLightStudio
Thanks, Edpal! Yes, I am using rigidizer and kiln wash on the mold.

Re: Drop mold for a spoon rest (open end)

Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2018 10:00 am
by Ed Cantarella
adds-on. There is no rule against using a piece of thin-fire(I prefer Papyros but anyway :lol: ) under your glass to obliterate the cloth texture a bit more. I like that spoon rest idea: using a drop for the "drip catcher" area :-k That way you can leave a nice big edge like your original item. 8) Will be interested in seeing the final result.

Re: Drop mold for a spoon rest (open end)

Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2018 10:39 am
by FusedLightStudio
Oh, good reminder about using PAPYRUS (same here, love Papyrus :) to line the mold.

This may all be moot, as this morning I fired the molds with rigidizer (from Delphi), and not only did it stink to high heaven but it turned everything with kilnwash - shelf, posts, floor - BLACK. I got the worst of it off the floor with a drywall sander, but I am more than a little annoyed. Especially because the molds are now SOFTER than before I fired them and two of them immediately ripped right through. WTH!

On the one that is still intact - Do I add hardener again, dry in the oven again, and fire again? Or just throw them all out and make molds from something else? (That's a rhetorical question BTW... )

Re: Drop mold for a spoon rest (open end)

Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2018 3:36 pm
by Ed Cantarella
FusedLightStudio wrote:Oh, good reminder about using PAPYRUS (same here, love Papyrus :) to line the mold.

This may all be moot, as this morning I fired the molds with rigidizer (from Delphi), and not only did it stink to high heaven but it turned everything with kilnwash - shelf, posts, floor - BLACK. I got the worst of it off the floor with a drywall sander, but I am more than a little annoyed. Especially because the molds are now SOFTER than before I fired them and two of them immediately ripped right through. WTH!

On the one that is still intact - Do I add hardener again, dry in the oven again, and fire again? Or just throw them all out and make molds from something else? (That's a rhetorical question BTW... )
Well, it's not an exact science. My technique has been to apply ridigizer, let dry, candle on a hot kiln, repeat maybe 4 times. Then fire once. Then kiln wash 3+times.
Smell - got a propane barbeque grill ? That will burn off a large portion of the smelly, organic components although many aren't released until a bit higher... Good luck - prepare a fan, just in case. :shock:

Low fire clay.