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[ToTheSummit]

Wasn't sure where to start this topic so I put it in the tools section.

So my uncle has been (among other things) a potter all his life.  He had an old kiln he wasn't using so he gave it to me to play with.  Its an older Paragon E-series kiln.  So now I have this kiln sitting here and I'm trying to come up with cool ideas.

He gave it to me because I was talking to him about "cooking" some rocks just for fun to see what effects I could get.  I have a bunch of boring white agate here that I picked up locally, nice banding but no color at all.  But personally I think a kiln is way overkill for cooking rocks.  However, I thought it might be fun to play with some glass or metals in this thing.  Of course I could fire pottery, but I'm trying to think outside the box and come up with fun projects.

Any ideas?

[iceopals]

Well, as for out of the box, I do that!!!   
When we were building our house, we got a bunch of those 4x4 white tiles to use as a backsplash in our kitchen.   I used tile paints, made paintings, fired them in the kiln, and now they are permanent!!   So up they went, in amongst the unpainted ones, and I really like them. 
I have also used my ceramics kiln to slump glass over clay forms that were fired in it, to make replacement slumped glass panels for antique lamps.   That's the best I can come up with for now.........

[wampidy]

Remove your fingerprints.
Jim

[hummingbirdstones]

  at Jim!

[lithicbeads]

The kiln is absolutely not overkill for cooking rocks. I do not know where this info should go but I have a lot of info on firing agate , jade and soapstone and would be happy to make a series of short posts about the subject.

[Helene Fielder]

Clay and kiln can be outside the box.



I like the idea of a wall piece.

Another good thing about clay is making slump molds for other medias like glass to heat in the kiln. 

[MrsWTownsend]

Metal clay is a kiln option, glass slumping has been covered- you can even make preforms with slag glass or goldstone wnd fire them to finish, just watch out for that pesky devitrification and use kiln paper or something like that to keep it from sticking.  (It's really hard to get off when that happens.)

What about stained glass?  You could do that too.  I have a book called Gemstones of the World that tells all about a bunch of different types of stone and at what temperatures they can be altered (like amethyst to citrine and stuff like that). 

Frank I would LOVE to read whatever knowledge you have to share on the subject!

Rockin' Tapatalk

[drnihili]

Frank I would LOVE to read whatever knowledge you have to share on the subject!

Ditto.  We've got a couple of small kilns for Teresa's lampwork.  I'm sure one of them could be pressed in to service for the occasional rock.

[ToTheSummit]

I'd love to hear any info you have on cooking rocks Frank.

I have a local resource for all the slag glass I could want in just about every color imaginable so lots of glass projects are a possibility.

[lithicbeads]

I can't sit at the computer long so I will do it in stages. I will look later at a possible category to put them under. Any ideas?

[PhilNM]

I'd love to hear any info you have on cooking rocks Frank.

I have a local resource for all the slag glass I could want in just about every color imaginable so lots of glass projects are a possibility.

Can you get striped stuff? Like a base with swirls?  2 or 3 colors per lump max?

[PhilNM]

You could always turn the kiln into one great slow cooker! A great way to do a whole beef clod!

[ToTheSummit]

Frank, maybe we can start a thread on the topic somewhere.  Your guess on where to put it is as good as mine.

Phil, I had to pull out some old photos from the place to remember if they had any with multiple colors and this is what I found.


But they've got piles of it lying around, I don't know how many tons in all.

[PhilNM]

Judging by the saguaro lamp lights, it's somewhere in Arizona?  Do you get there often?  I'm looking for some opaque that has bright red as the base with yellow and orange swirls.

[hummingbirdstones]

I suggest you put it under tutorials because that's what it will be.  Tutorials on how to cook rocks.