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Yes you can! Make sure the glass is fully washed and dried, removing all labels and glue. You can flatten/slump all sorts of jars, bottles (wine/pop/etc), and glass containers in your kiln. Just place the jar/bottle on its side on a washed kiln shelf, or use fiber paper, to flatten or put the bottle directly into a kiln washed bottle slumping mold and turn up the heat. The catch is you will not know the COE (coefficient of expansion) for the multitude of different glass types used for these vessels; therefore I would NOT recommend mixing/fusing anything with/to these pieces. Items such as dichro slide, copper metal, and some of the enamels could be used to embellish/decorate this glass type because these items are not COE specific. A standard full fuse/slumping schedule will work fine for flattening and slumping jars/bottles into molds. Have fun!

I was just wondering if a person can use regular glass jars in the Kiln.

very helpful review after not doing for  awhile

Even if you did use kiln wash on the mold when slumping OVER ceramic molds you MUST MUST MUST use fiber paper as a release not just kiln wash. (2 pieces of thin fire, or 1 pc of thicker fiber paper.) Because of the expansion/contraction difference between ceramic and glass it is best to always slump INTO ceramic, not over…yet we have several molds that break this rule (nightlights, business card, floral slumpers). Using just kiln wash does not allow the extra wiggle room needed to remove glass off of ceramic, the glass has clamped down on to the ceramic during the cooling process.   You can break your glass, or break your mold (or both) to remove them from each other.   You might try putting the glass/mold back in kiln (flipped) with glass on bottom, (place on kiln washed surface or fiber paper) fire it to slump fuse again hoping that the glass will pull away from the mold if you wish to try to save them both. Good luck!  

I need help.  I've fused a piece of glass then slumped it over a night light mold.  It is STUCK!  I'm sure I used kiln wash on the mold before slumping, but it won't budge.  Any suggestions?

Hello CM, Needling or spiking is usually caused from firing the glass to high, the glass spreads out and then tries to pull in to become the 1/4" needed and leaves those behind but still attached to the project.  We have also found that opaque glass also likes to do this.  The solution to fixing this is after it has happened is to use file such as item 60111 to get those off and if needed you might have to fire polish the project.

We here have not tried using silicone for this purpose, not that it has never been used for sealing of panels before. It would hold the glass in place and protect it from water damage, however cement gives strength to the panel and silicone would not add the same support to your piece. You could use silicone, but I would only use it on small panels or suncatchers. Keep in mind that you may have difficulties cleaning up/off the extra silicone…but cementing is a messy process too. Experiment on something small and see how you like it.

What causes 'needling' on fused projects? CM

Thank You very much! That was a great help. How does silicone hold up for using instead of the cementing? Retha

In speaking with our resident expert on leaded glass she stated that there is no step to replace the cementing process. You can speed its drying process along slightly by either making a dryer mixture when putting the sebo polish and turpentine together with the putty, and/or have a ceramic heat source blowing across the panel(s) to heat/dry them quickly. Make sure that the heat used does not get too hot, (too localized or quickly intense) as to break the glass.