shrinking frit !!

[LindaT]

Hi folks, I am looking for some advice. I make dichroic jewellery and have just bought myself a few pendant moulds. I tried one of them yesterday and was disappointed to find that the frit had shrunk to about half of the original size. I am using ordinary frit (fine) a paragon 2 kiln, I ramped up slowly to 800c, held for 10 mins, brought it down to 550c, turned of the kiln an left it to cool, checked it this morning, and it was a case of find the pendant . Can anyone give me advice on what I'm doing wrong. By the way, I filled the mold with 15g of frit as per manufactures instructions 

[garishglobes]

I'm no fusing expert (in fact, I've never fused!  ) but if this was me, I think I'd be tempted just to fill the mould with more frit and have another go 

Any kind of glass work is trial and error, and manufacturers instructions will always only take you so far with a medium like this.

[Redhotsal]

Presumably the air gaps between the individual frit pieces will artificially bulk out the apparent volume, so when it fuses together you will undoubtedly have less volume of glass. I would agree with Emma - get half way though and top it up.

[elburnzo]

as always Sal is 100% right, if you want a larger pendant u need to add more frit! The manufacturers instructions are a guide for the size of pendant they like, my advice- bin tht! add more frit, i normally do it initially, but its trial and error really to see how much makes the size of pendant u want, if u stack it up make sure u do it so tht its like a little pyramid with any above the top of the mould stacked on the frit below so it will melt into the mould and not onto the shelf etc. hope tht makes sense, it did in my head

[Dawnch]

Do you have to cover the mould with kiln wash?

I've got a mould but haven't tried it yet.

[♥♥Tan♥♥]

Yep

[micpru]

I pile mine up above the mould into a little mound which helps with the shrinking.  Some of the moulds are fairly deep so shrinking to 1/2 the size can also be perfect.