Wow - I first created this blog on July 20th of last year. I didn't know if anyone would visit or come back a second time. I started with Google Analytics from day one to track the reading of this blog. For the last week or so, I've noticed the number of users creeping up.
This morning marked a milestone for me. As of today, 1000 different people have visited the site. Of course, some of these may be the same user coming from different computers. But this is still a large number and I've very pleased that so many people have cared to see what I have to say. And that people come back for more - that is even more satisfying.
I guess I need to post more often.
The first results are in. The first casting/fusing of the nice, cheap Guardian float glass is complete and I'm at a loss to explain what happened. The first part of the story is here. This first picture is a bucket of cullet. It was approximately $4 for 40-50 pounds. Great price.
Even in the bucket, this stuff looks great. Even though it is a "float" glass, the type of glass used in windows, it doesn't show the usual greenish tint. The picture below shows some pieces laid out on a paper towel, to give you an idea of how crystal clear it is.
So I piled up a bunch of this stuff in a 9" casting ring in the kiln. It probably was a little over two inches high in most spots. I knew it would melt down and I was going for about an inch and a half in thickness. I understood that there would be lines and ghostly images where the various chunks where, but overall I thought I'd get a fairly transparent disc of glass. Instead this is what I got.
This was melted at 1500 degrees (F) for 120 minutes. The surface is quite bumpy still, and you can clearly see the outlines of every chunk of glass. The texture is fairly smooth, and doesn't feel like devitrification, which in my experience is quite rough and "crackly". The bottom is fairly smooth as shown below.
The bottom is a little closer to what I expected, but still it is very cloudy - not clear at all. Anybody have any thoughts? I haven't worked with float glass and am a little puzzled.
