Aperture Pour

While I was visiting Toni in Campbell River, I tried an aperture pour.

I put 500g of Spectrum System 96 sheet glass cut-offs in a flower pot and suspended it above a kiln washed shelf in the center of the kiln.

Additionally, there were two other molds in the kiln. One that was system 96 cut-offs arranged in a porcelain slumping mold, and one that was 300g of mixed system 96 cut-offs suspended over a porcelain slumping mold on burned out furnace elements.

It was fired on the following schedule (her kiln uses rate/hold, and all temperatures are in Fahrenheit):
1. 600F/hour to 1700F, hold 90 minutes (melt)
2. AFAP to 1540F, hold 30 minutes (smooth)
3. AFAP to 960F, hold 60 minutes (soak)
4. 50F/hour to 800, hold 1 minute (slow anneal)
5. 100F/hour to 700, hold 1 minute (anneal)
6. 200F/hour to 100, hold 1 minute (cool to room temperature)

Estimated total time: 16 hours

The kiln was fired at 10:05 am on June 25th 2009, and came down June 26th in the afternoon.

The pot drop worked beautifully, all the transparent reds and greens burned out, becoming opaque and more muted. The furnace elements slumped, so they were fused to the glass, causing stress fractures in the piece, though the colour patterns on the bottom were interesting.

The pictures I took of this firing can be found here:

Summer Aperture Pour