The small Ultralite kiln Noel mentions in her recent post is also
available from Allcraft In NYC. (800) 645-7124, for about $100. I
bought it from them. (I have been very pleased with all items
purchased from Allcraft). I bought it for fine silver granulation,
where torch heat has to be “assisted” from below. Can Noel tell us
how she uses this for reticulation? What is the procedure she
follows? I have done some reticulation, but have not gotten the
process down to what I find to be a predictable outcome. I would
like, for example, to be able to control the size and alignment of
the wrinkles, or to create “swirls” or such patterns. (Not to take
all the spontaneity out of it!) I still have large areas of the
finished sheet that are “dead”, or not sufficiently wrinkled as to
look interesting. It would be interesting to know how others are
doing it.
Lin (et al)-- I use the ultralite kiln for reticulation by putting the
prepared silver on the kiln for the actual reticulation step. The
heat from beneath keeps the whole piece close to melting temp, so
when the torch is brought in, the metal responds right away, and it
is easier to avoid overheating (for me, anyway. “Overheating”:read
"melting".) I also find that the back of the piece stays a bit
flatter and nicer than when I heat torch-only. All this said, let me
make it clear that reticulation is not a technique that I claim to
have mastered, by any means. I would love to learn the same things
that you would.
By the way, a while ago I bought some of Reactive Metals’ "crinkle"
metal that textures when you heat it, without preparation. I got some
interesting results, but nothing as nice as real reticulation, and if
you overheat it, you lose your good texture. Possibly with enough
practice it might be great stuff, but to me it is too expensive to
risk the learning curve without seeing pictures of some really great
results, and/or better instructions. Anybody else out there used this
stuff? What’d you think? --Noel
Noel, I would like to get an Ultralite kiln, but do not see it
listed in any of my catalogs. Can you tell me where i can get one
and about how much they cost. In what way are they different from
small enameling kilns?- thanks for your help. Alma
I bought mine from Frie and Borel at the SNAG conference, but I don’t
have their catalog. I did not find one in the Allcraft catalog, but
did in the 2000 Rio Grande tools catalog. Page 104. $125.
Hi there,Dave… Just got my 2001 Rio catalogue and the Ultralite
Kiln moved down 10 pages to p.94 and the price moved up 5 dollars to
$130. Ah, inflation…!