sandblasting

Wish we had our own setup for sandblasting!

It is a lot of fun to experiment and having to travel and pay to do a tiny piece doesn't open up the possibilities as much as we'd like.

Re-firing a sandblasted piece to get the nice satin finish is the next objective. 1420 is too hot (what's interesting is that the sandblasted hearts went shiny clear and were surrounded by a bit of devitrification on the non-sandblasted area. That's for a pale green bottle.

Some of the sandblasted stained glass (weird pieces that came to me from I-don't-know-where) did go satiny at 1420.

The next trial was a mere 1400. This time a clear bottle with a sandblasted design (sandblasted while the bottle was still round) retained the design. Still need to fine-tune this a bit as the 18 minute soak left some of the bottles just slightly not-flat-enough for my taste and the bubble squeeze (at this point a 65 degree per hour ramp from 1050 to 1250 and then a half hour soak) still doesn't quite get the bubbles out.

And now that I'm on vacation I can experiment with more system 96 projects like pendants, masks etc. Pictures coming soon.