Advice on kiln for small projects involving glass fusing and enamelling.

Hi all, I have been making fused glass jewellery for the past 6 months
and have been hiring out a kiln and am now very keen to buy my own.

I want a kiln to experiment with fused glass jewellery and slightly
larger pieces in tile or slumping form. I am also going to take a few
introductory classes in enamelling in the near future to learn to make
jewellery and small tiles. Thing is as I have no experience yet with
enamelling I am not sure whether a top or side loading kiln is best for
both fused glass and enamelling. I prefer a top loading kiln for glass
fusing and don't really want a side loading kiln at all.

Please can anyone advise me on the following:

Can I make do with a top loading kiln for enamelling?
What is the highest temperature required for enamelling?

Look forward to your advice.
Robyn from Bristol

For enamelling I have always used a front loading kiln. I don't see why
you can't use a top loader, I think it would make it a bit more
difficult to quickly remove the piece though. Typically when enamelling
the piece will only be fired for the short time required to heat and
fuse the enamels after which it is removed. If you could get a
slumping/fusing kiln with a lifting top I think it would work fine as
you have quick access to the piece and can go in from the side rather
than the top.

I can't remember the temperature precisely but I got my enamels from
http://www.wgball.com/ in the UK. You may find the info there. I would
expect the max temperature to be around 900C.

Are you in Bristol UK.

Robyn wrote:

Hi all, I have been making fused glass jewellery for the past 6 months
and have been hiring out a kiln and am now very keen to buy my own.

I want a kiln to experiment with fused glass jewellery and slightly
larger pieces in tile or slumping form. I am also going to take a few
introductory classes in enamelling in the near future to learn to make
jewellery and small tiles. Thing is as I have no experience yet with
enamelling I am not sure whether a top or side loading kiln is best for
both fused glass and enamelling. I prefer a top loading kiln for glass
fusing and don't really want a side loading kiln at all.

Please can anyone advise me on the following:

Can I make do with a top loading kiln for enamelling?
What is the highest temperature required for enamelling?

Look forward to your advice.
Robyn from Bristol

Thanks for that, I am sure if it is a bit difficult to remove I could
modify a tool in some way to help me lift it out safely.
Yes, I am from Bristol in the UK.

Just wondering if Bristol UK as I am near Bath. When I wanted some
enamel colours I couldn't make up my mind which ones so just ordered one
of each from WG Ball as they do them in 15g packages as the smallest
IIRC. I think it was around £60 but that was a few years ago.

Robyn wrote:

Thanks for that, I am sure if it is a bit difficult to remove I could
modify a tool in some way to help me lift it out safely.
Yes, I am from Bristol in the UK.

Where did you learn how to enamel?

I think I am going to buy the Skutt HotStart Pro Kiln. It is specific
to glass fusing and I am so excited that I am going to have to go with
it I think. Will be ordering tomorrow so if anybody has any major
reasons why I should or should not go for this one your advice would be
appreciated.
Bye for now
Robyn

At home, I just bought the required stuff and did some reading then put
it into practice. I already had a small front loading heat treatment
kiln which was ideal for enamelling. I haven't done any recently having
been doing more glassblowing and other things but I still have all the
stuff for when I feel like doing some again. Where do you do the jewelry
and other glass work. I do most of my blowing currently at
www.liquidglasscentre.co.uk at Farleigh Hungerford south of Bath
although I know of another studio I can hire nearby as well. LGC do
courses for slumping, fusing, fused glass jewelry, glassblowing, but
as you are local maybe you know them already.

Where did you learn how to enamel?

"Robyn" wrote in message
oups.com...
I think I am going to buy the Skutt HotStart Pro Kiln. It is specific
to glass fusing and I am so excited that I am going to have to go with
it I think. Will be ordering tomorrow so if anybody has any major
reasons why I should or should not go for this one your advice would be
appreciated.
Bye for now
Robyn


As you said, this kiln is specific for glass fusing.

Having done a bit of enamelling, I can't imagine how one would ever use a
top-opening kiln to enamel with. The danger of burning ones' self and the
heat loss in repeatedly opening and closing a kiln top makes it a bit of an
impossibility from where I sit. Lifting the lid to inspect your progress in
firing is going to lose your heat. That's why enamelling kilns have
"peep-holes" in the side door...

The firing times for enamelling are short. I don't know how a top-opening
kiln could recover temp fast enough with any predictibility to ever give you
any repeatability in your firing times.

Hopefully you can get a version for UK mains voltage or you have access
to a suitable 115V, large site transformer?, source. The Skutt site only
listed the US 115V mains voltage and I couldn't see any UK sources for
Skutt products.

Robyn wrote:

I think I am going to buy the Skutt HotStart Pro Kiln. It is specific
to glass fusing and I am so excited that I am going to have to go with
it I think. Will be ordering tomorrow so if anybody has any major
reasons why I should or should not go for this one your advice would be
appreciated.
Bye for now
Robyn

What is your small front loading heat treatment kiln called? Was it new
or second hand and where did you get it?

No, I don't know about the LGC so that is very useful info for me. I
did a two day workshop with a glass artist in Bristol and that is it
basically, also self taught. I am keen to do more workshops and there
is 'Creative Glass' in Bristol that I could go to for courses but at
the moment funds are low, especially if I am looking to buy a kiln.

thanks again