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Pot Melts are a great, sustainable way to use up your leftover glass pieces. This technique is perfect for people that love surprises; you’ll never quite know what you’ll get until it’s done. This post will go over the basics of a great pot melt technique, so you can confidently work your scraps into beautiful fused disks, plates, and more.
Arranging Your Scraps
Pot melts are unpredictable, but you can sway the outcome in your favor with some careful arranging.
Be wary of your placement of darker shades, they can really overwhelm other colors in your pot melts if you aren’t careful. To avoid too much color-blending, you can try arranging your glass scraps vertically– this tends to keep colors more separated than stacking them flat on top of each other.
To avoid color clashes, we suggest sorting your scraps by color as you go. Stacking the right color combinations at just the right angles in your pot melt mold can yield truly beautiful pot melt results. We always sort and store our scrap glass for use in a Pot Melt, typically coupling darker shades together.
Setting Up Your Kiln Shelf
As with any fusing project, you’ll want to make sure that your glass is arranged with the curve of the pot and the hole(s) at the bottom in mind. For a 12″ round disk pot melt, you should use about 3.5 lbs of glass scraps. A smaller hole causes the glass to flow slower, and a larger hole will make it flow faster.
Make sure you’re taking the shape of your kiln shelf into account, as any dips or curves in your shelf will probably blend and alter the outcome further.
We recommend a steel casting form or ceramic mold. You can browse our selection of stainless steel molds.
If you want your pot melt to drip directly on a fusing tile or mold, use plenty of primers (3 coats should be good). Need to restock on primer before your next pot melt project? Shop our fusing chemicals.
Tips to Keep in Mind
Don’t use kiln wash or glass separator on the pot melt bowl! Don’t worry about leftover glass in your bowl, it can be reused next time. We suggest using separate pots for different color schemes, especially when you’re using overpowering, dark shades of glass.
Multiple holes in your pot melt mold make things particularly interesting if you’re trying to avoid too much blending. You can browse our pot melt mold options.
Stainless Steal casting rings are the best option for preparing your kiln shelf.
Don’t use thin fiber paper on the bottom of your kiln shelf. This is a fast-moving art form, and things could get messy if your molten glass picks up bits of paper. Try a fiber paper board instead. You can find the fiber board we carry online.
