fusing wine bottles with frit on inside

[jbpeanut]

I have been fusing wine bottles for about a year – no problems, I wanted to add color to inside of bottle, so I added some frit, but due to the shape of the bottle, I get the frit down the middle of the bottle.  I wanted color throughout… so last time I added frit, I squirted glue (elmer’s) with an oral suringe, put the frit in it, shook it up, and had nice color throughout.  I did not coat the entire inside – did some drips, spots.  Put it in the kiln, fired to 1440 (did my normal fusing schedule), opened the kiln, top 1/3 looks great, bottom 2/3s looks completly black.

Any ideas as to why, what I could do differently??  It almost looks like it is burnt.

Thanks!

[Stephen Richard]

Yes, burnt.  It is carbon from your glue.  Apparently it was unable to vent before the bottle closed. You need to do a long soak at a temperature below that at which the bottle begins to slump.  Is your frit compatible with the bottle glass?

Stephen Richard

blogs at: http://www.verrier-glass.blogspot.com/ and  http://www.glasstips.blogspot.com/

[jbpeanut]

I don’t know the coe of the bottles – I have been recycling bottles!  I have been using 90 frit.  I tried it again last night with a small bottle, used less glue, opend the kiln when i came home from work, bottle looks good,  with no black.

I will try longer soak time.

thanks!

[Stephen Richard]

I understand that you are using bottles of which you do not know the characteristics.  I was trying to gently point out that there may be compatibility problems.  In my experience float glass and bottles are more likely to be compatible than fusing compatible glass.  If you are selling these, you may need to do tests on how stable the results may be.

If you are going for colour, glass enamels may be a better, safer alternative.  If you can spray glue into the bottles, you can spray the glass enamels also.  The results will not have compatibility problems.

Stephen Richard

blogs at: http://www.verrier-glass.blogspot.com/ and  http://www.glasstips.blogspot.com/

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