Technical Question, Compatibility & Bottles

This question was originally posed by Judy W.:

Hi Jodi,
Just saw your That's Clever segment which made me check out your website. I am very new (read 'clueless') to firing glass but have aspirations. I want to make tiles for my new kitchen with found bottle glass and have been saving bottles until the garage is well populated with blue, green and brown. I would like to vary the colors as you did in your blue and white bowl shown on your web site. I would appreciate knowing what you use for flux--is that what gives it some opacity?

Also I have a new barely used glass/ceramics kiln that I am trying to learn to fire correctly. Out here in rural MO there's not much help available so I am inquiring about an example firing schedule for crushed bottle glass -- if you are willing to share such info.

Any help your can provide will make my kitchen look the way I envision. I have purchased fiberboard and kiln wash to make molds for the tiles and a glass crusher from a guy in British Columbia but have yet to smash any until I figure a way to contain it sufficiently that my dogs won't have teeny shards in their toes.

Judy W.
cactusgrandma from AZ now in MO


Hi Judy;

It sounds like you are well on your way! My carport is jam-packed with bottles, so I can relate to the collecting frenzy. The dish that you liked on my website is both complicated and surprisingly simple at the same time.

I used a hand pasta maker (the chrome looking ones that are also used for polymer clay), adjusted it until the rollers were just narrower than the glass, shoved the glass in and cranked away. It made an awful mess, bits everywhere. I did have a nice pile of nearly powdered glass left over though. I sifted the glass through a wire strainer and then used a magnet to pull the metal bits out (pieces of pasta maker).

I mixed the blue bottle glass and the clear (now white) window glass with a flux made of borax and water. I used the laundry soap type of borax, I think the mix is a couple of tablespoons of borax to 2 cups water. It wet the glass powder so it kind of stuck together, a lot like wet sand. Then I spooned it into a mold and packed it down as well as I could. The small glass particle size is what gives the glass its opacity, it is also what allows the two different types of glass to work together. I have also done a green and white one.

I fired it using a typical firing schedule, you will probably need to experiment. It was something like this:

500degrees/hr to 1100 h 20 min
500 degrees/hr to 1550 h 8 min
9999 degrees/hr to 1100 h 30 min

then cool to room temperature.

For more really good info about recycled glass, you could check out this website: www.cwc.org
That is where I started years ago, they have good info.

I would love to see pictures of how your tiles turn out, do keep me posted! I started just like you, I bought a kiln, put in a bottle and pushed go. Then again and again. Take careful notes, you'll soon get to know your kiln and the nature of the bottle glass.

Jodi

**UPDATE**

I've switched from a pasta maker to a glass smasher to process bottles. I had my friend Kyle (http://www.alteredelements.com) weld a block of steel on the end of a pipe for me and then put a circle of steel in the bottom of a bucket and smash away.