This hotpot allows you to melt glass in a standard microwave oven to create jewellery, or glass components for jewellery and other creative purposes. This technique of 'glass fusing' is now available for everyone. With the Hotpot there is no need to buy a special, expensive fusing kiln.
Important - Please note the Hotpot will work in most (but not all) microwaves. Generally the cheaper and more basic ones, knob controlled rather than digital, particularly stores 'own brands' will work best. Due to the amount of different brands on the market it is not possible to supply a list of what will or won't work but generally the following brands don't work that well - Samsung, Deawoo and Sharp. It is recommended that you use a different microwave to the one you cook food in. Also the lining on the inside of the Hotpot is applied by hand so the thicknesses may vary. Therefore some may take more time than others to heat up and fuse the glass. Generally it will take between 15 and 20 minutes for the glass to fuse.
The HotPot has an inner diameter of 11cm and an outside diameter of 17cm. It is made of Bio Soluble fibre, which is ultra light and non-hazardous. The lid has a special grey/black coating on the inside that makes it possible to obtain extremely high temperatures inside the pot, causing the glass to melt. Over time due to the constant heating and cooling of the kiln the inside lining will develop cracks, this is perfectly normal and won't affect the working of the kiln.
Silver Art Clay - The hotpot can also be used for silver art clay with or without glass. It is recommended that you have some basic knowledge of working with silver clay before starting. The commonly used temperature for 'baking' silver clay is - 650C / 1200F, however microwaves do not have the option to set the temperature, you can only set the wattage. Therefore the most important thing to do is determine the best wattage and time to use for your microwave and not exceed these figures since silver clay will melt if fired too high or too long. Each microwave acts differently so it is important to determine your own personal figures.
