pastoralli secrets needed

[Victor Chiarizia]

so can anyone help with sticking murrini on a ceramic pastorali please. i'm using a corundum plate and the murrini are sticking to the wash thats on the plate. i'm trying to get a full fuse/tack to roll up the glass onto a collar. i have kiln wash and bentonite available. i think there's too much wash on the plate first off. we heat and rotate the plate several times before the rollup. thoughts? vic

[Eben Horton]

15 years ago I bought some cast iron plates. Not once have I ever had a problem with sticking, spalling or anything. Ceramic plates get hot quick, are pourus and are brittle. The only upside I can see is that they are light.

That said. Have you tried ceramic paper? I think that is bomb proof, but dusty.

[Marty Kremer]

Have you tried Bullseye's kilnwash?

[Art Freas]

Most of the time sticking is because the wash was put on too thick. The wash should be really thin when put on, really thin, like watered down milk. And lots of coats.

[David Patchen]

Of course, there's lots of ways to skin this cat, but once you get it dialed, you'll rarely run into this problem again--until the plate needs re-washing. Here's blog post I did on this (since I get asked it a lot).

http://davidpatchen.com/content/how-...ne-and-murrine

Hope this helps. And keep your heats short!

[Pete VanderLaan]

Well written David. I have put a link to your site in Antiques and Classics on the subject unless you object. If so send Louis the Leg breaker to my winter quarters.

I will print it out if you don't mind, attribution of course.