Melting Marbles In Clay

Some potters put marbles directly onto bisque ware before firing.

Melting marbles in clay. Somehow one of us came up with the idea of sticking stained glass scraps into clay and melting it in the kiln. To melt marbles in pottery make a small shallow dish out of clay. In this electric arc furnace experiment grant takes marble. Clay marbles are usually found in their natural tan color but they may also be dyed.

The dyed marbles are usually found in red blue brown green or yellow. Lakeside pottery writes that standard soda lime silica the most common kind of natural glass melts at 1500 c around 2700 f while pure silica needs fluxes to melt at a lower temperature it s best to fire the work slowly to start with. Turn on the power or the fuel supply to the kiln and allow the temperature to reach between 1 500 and 1 700 degrees f preferably 1 700 degrees which will be adequate for melting down the entire thickness of the marbles. 1 if too much glass is used the glass crackled surface might not settle level and some cracks can be higher than others with sharp edges exposed and leading to potential injury.

Colored clay marbles were referred to as polished. They visit a kiln and load it themselves. Let s put it to the test to see what happens. We made some very colorful coasters and i remembered loving to see how the colors looked after being fired.

The most beloved clay project of all. Retired potter and backyard physicist graeme experiments with melting glass bottles in an electric pottery kiln producing amazing results. Second graders use clay glaze and marbles to make glittering animal pinch pots. Can the mini arc furnace melt a handful of marbles.

Then bisque fire the dish. I think everyone has tried this but if you haven t then give this a look. Others decorate the bisque first with slip underglaze or glaze. To melt glass marbles temperatures in the kiln must be allowed to reach the melting point for glass and then the liquid glass must be poured immediately before it cools.

Note that in some cases depending on the clay you use the clay will shrink more than the glass and therefore can create stress on the glass and the pot with the following two potential problems.