I saw a post a while back on these forms from I Make Stuff. The actual post was about making bells and I thought that was a really interesting idea. I saved it, but did nothing about it. A few weeks ago I was thinking about it again and discovered that they had similar forms for making a couple of different types of Christmas ornaments and other shapes. I decided to taket he plunge and try them.

I made a couple as a test run before we went up to the cabin. I wanted to know what tools I might need to bring with me. The first one I made I had to scrap, but these are number 2 and 3. The learning curve wasn't all that steep once I realized how key corn starch is.




This is what the forms look like when empty.




Corn starch! Corn starch! Corn Starch! I found that for these I needed to add it every time.




Start by forming a ball of clay roughly to the shape of the form that you're using. The star one was the hardest to do this with, but doing this makes sure that you'll have enough clay in all the crevices.




Smoosh down the clay so it hits the bottom.




Use a knife or a wire to do an initial cut off of the clay. I found that a fettling tool was especially good for this.




Corn starch either the press part of the form or the clay. Doesn't matter which, but if you don't you'll be sorry! Push down the presser and wiggle it side to side. You want to make sure that it's pushing the clay into the form and also thining it out a bit.




Use your knife to cut back the sides to the edge of the form. Be careful when you're doing this because it can move out. I found that having the edges between 1/4 and 1/2 of a centimeter was enough to score and join.




If you do have a spot where the edge gets a little too thin (top right) you might still be able to save it if your second side doesn't have the same problem. I neglected to take a picture of it, but slip and score the clay while it's still in the form. If you forget, pop it back in. You're much less likely to mishapen it if you do this in the form than in your hand.




The form pops out of the frame and then you can take away each of the side pieces individually. Take off the side pieces slowly so you don't distort the clay. If you forgot to corn starch, now is when you'll know.




Make two of these and then put the two sides together. It may look ugly when you first do it, but that's ok.




Smooth, smooth, smooth your seems. This is as far as I took it while it was super wet. I left these on a ware board to dry and went over them a second time to smooth them more.




I was trying to re-use the corn starch that was on my work surface then I started cracking myself up because I was making what looked like cocaine lines. This is the closest I will ever come to actually doing cocaine, lol.




Twelve little ornaments all smoothed out.




I made more of the teardrop ones. Once again my imagination was going as I was looking at what I was doing. That's all I'm going to say about that.




Once they were all smoothed out and had firmed up a bit I put them into my wet box. I packed them in close because they have to make the 6 hour drive home. Here's hoping I don't lose any.




I tried to add texture to one and it didn't really work all that well. I felt like I couldn't push hard enough without distorting the texture. I think carving or slip trailing would be better for these adding texture, but I didn't bring any of those tools with me so experimenting with that will have to wait.




The star wasn't all that much harder to do, but it was way more joins to smooth out so it took longer.




All in all I'm really impressed with these tools and will be thinking about more things to make with them. I think the teardrop one is totally going to end up as a fishy at some point.

I have a huge backlog of bottles to melt, but I was asked if I had any pictures. Melting bottles is fairly simple if you have a kiln. The most difficult thing is getting off labels - some come off easy and some require a whole lot of hot water and scrubbing. After that it's just about arranging them in the kiln.

Some glasses do not like to fuse together well. I find that if I can see a great difference in the quality of the glass that it's likely they will have an issue.

Coke bottles really like to fuse together. Very little chance of cracks. This is an example of what happens with any bottle that has enamel on it. Some of it comes off, but you will be able to see it. I have drunk some bad wine to get to a cool bottle.




These are tiny little vinegar jars that fused together nicely.




Sometimes you get bubbles depending on how the glass cools. I love how they look.




If a bottle has raised glass areas they will come through.




Blue bottles are my favorite, but harder to find.




For a normal size bottle 4 across is the most I can do in my kiln.