a full fusing run

So...

I have learned how to add feet! Just dropring into a kiln-washed terracotta bowl of sand with the feet planted in the sand and sticking up about a quarter of an inch. Of course the piece has to drop far enough to attach.... not all of mine did in this experiment. Thickness matters as does the size of the piece. What should have been obvious to me is that a big thin piece is going to drop quickly and a small thick disk will be a lot slower. More experimenting is in order but I'm getting closer! Very exciting and it's a technique that has motivated me to get a lot more into drop-rings. Dennis, here I come...... with my credit card in hand.

But I have also learned that it really is true -- you must have pretty nice and smooth-edged full-fused pieces going in to the drop ring, otherwise you get places where there are holes, etc. You can't fix this with bits of stringer!

Also, probably 1250 is the correct temperature for system 96 drop rings. Going hotter in hopes that you can fuse a bit as well if you're really careful -- well it's just dumb. The big platter dropped right through the ring on the sides. It still looked kind of cool in a way but I've flipped it over in the kiln and will full fuse it today to try again (maybe in a wok with sand and feet on the bottom??)












6-segment schedule for today's full fusing...
............rate /hour .......degrees.............hold
1.............747.............1000 .............15
2. .............490 .............1425...........14
3 as fast as possible....1000 ............. 12
4..............200 .............960............50 (annealing)
5..............100 .............800 ............. 04
6. .............300 ............. 280 ............. probably about 9 hours total