Disaster!

Hard to believe, but not everything we make turns out usable. Glass is a very unforgiving medium and some things are hard to fix and some problems are hard to predict.

Here are some of our unrecoverable disasters. Some problems are obvious the moment the kiln is opened, as with this bowl that was supposed to be white with a holly border. It turned out the glass is a type called 'striker' that is one color on the workbench, but when it is fired, it changes color. We failed to mark this sheet of glass, so got a very unappealing product.

Next is a holiday soapdish -- again white with a holly border. This time, when the kiln was opened, all looked good. Then when we turned the bowl over, we saw these fractures (marked with arrows) which meant the bowl could break at any time. This was caused by combining two incompatible glasses.

The final disaster is due to using the wrong temperatures in the firing. The lighthouse on the left is the original size and should have been the final size when it was added to a background for a windchime. However, the heat was too high, so the glass spread out and turned into more of a blob. *Sigh*

Glass is creative -- and challenging. We learn a lot from each disaster and sometimes can even make the disaster work. More on that later.