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Bottle Slumping
Slumping bottles in a kiln is not difficult. It does, however,
require a knowledge of basic kiln-forming principles and an
understanding of both thermal shock, annealing, and devitrification.
If you are not familiar with these terms, then spending a few
moments with the tutorial on the Warm Glass website will help
familiarize you with the process of heating glass in a kiln.
Click
here to go to the tutorial. The basic process for slumping a bottle in a kiln is as follows:
1. Clean the bottle thoroughly and allow it to dry. Some people
also apply a devit spray to the bottle to help prevent
devitrification. This is recommended for most blue and amber
bottles and is also helpful for other colors as well. The
tutorial mentioned above has more on these sprays.
2. Cover your kiln shelf with either fiber paper or kiln wash.
3. Lay the bottle in the kiln on it side. It's not essential,
but some people place a piece of wire in the neck to form a wire
loop which can be used to hang the bottle after slumping. (20 gauge
twisted copper works well.) Although molds are available, it
is not necessary to use one; you can slump bottles directly on the
kiln shelf.
4. Fire the kiln to 1100F and soak for 10 minutes. The rate of
temperature increase should be from around 500 degrees per hour.
Some people fire as fast as 800 degrees per hour, but be aware that
the faster you fire the more likely the bottle is to crack from
thermal shock. The purpose of the 10 minute soak is to allow the
temperature of the glass to equalize and to all reach 1100F.
5. Continue firing the kiln at 250 degrees per hour to 1300F, then fire as
fast as your kiln will go to 1475F. Hold the temperature constant
at 1475F until the bottle has slumped to the degree you want.
Usually this takes around 10 minutes.
6. Cool the kiln to 1100F as fast as possible. You may need to
flash vent the kiln to speed cooling and to help prevent
devitrification, but some people slump bottles with flash venting.
7. Anneal. Some people accomplish this by simply letting the
closed kiln cool naturally. This approach will work if your kiln
cools slowly enough through the annealing range (for bottles,
roughly 1050F to 850F). You would want to cool at a rate of 150
degrees per hour or slower. If your kiln has a controller, a proper
anneal soak is highly recommended: soak at 1030F for 20-30 minutes
then 100 degrees per hour down to around 850.
8. Cool to room temperature. Most kilns will cool at a slow
enough rate to avoid thermal shocking the bottles by cooling too
fast.
This suggested firing schedule can be modified for your
specific situation and your kiln. Some
possible modifications are:
1. Slump at a lower temperature (or soak for less time) if the
bottles are slumped flatter than you like. Increase the soak time
to flatten the bottle further.
2. Slow down the heating or cooling rate if the bottles crack
while in the kiln. If they crack soon after emerging, then the
problem is most like improper annealing.
3. If kiln wash sticks to your bottle, then try slumping to a
lower temperature and soaking longer. In general, the lower the
temperature the less likely you are to have problems.
4. Larger and thicker than normal bottles will require slower
firing rates and longer annealing soaks.
Click here to see a tip
on removing labels from wine bottles.
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Copyright © 2005 Brad Walker.
All rights reserved.
Thanks to Judy Schnaebel and others for passing on these formulas and
suggestions. |
