If you have a bit of experience with dropouts, especially larger diameter (over 3") dropouts, we’re willing to bet that every once in a while, at some point, for some reason the outside edge of your glass blank began sliding inwards, coming precariously close to the edge of the opening in the mold. And if you were really unlucky, the glass even fell through the mold resulting in something awful.

At OnGrade Studio we’ve tried many different things over the years to understand and ultimately prevent this and are proud to offer our best answer: A small bag of Dropout Paste.

1 bag = at least 12oz (I usually give a few extra spoon fulls)

Applied properly (thinner than thick) you should be able to get 2, 3, 4, even 5 firings out of one application. Opalescent glass styles are inherently stickier than transparents and occasionally grab the paste and cause it to flake off earlier than it would if it was in contact with transparent glasses.

Notes:

Is your Flatop Ring white? (Squares, tiny 2”, -275, OG Heart, -50, -55, etc.) This material sucks up the moisture from dōp very quickly which can make coating the mold cumbersome. Spritzing the dry, virgin mold with water 5 times JUST before applying the dōp will slow down the absorption and/or drying of the paste as you apply it. You can also soak the mold in a bucket of water for 5 sec. Just let the mold suck up any standing water before applying the dōp. I hope I’m making sense here!

If applied thinly, the coating should stay put for multiple firings.

We’ve consistently gotten four firings from a thin coating of dōp.

Should any little spots chip off you can always scrape/sand the mold clean, mix a bit of Dropout Paste and cover the bare mold again, or even coat that exposed spot with Shelf Primer.

Protect the textured layer between firings.

Applying dōp to old/previously used molds:

At OnGrade we have used dōp on all our custom molds (available at nathansandberg.com/giftshop) since we started making them. At some point we also sanded all of our commercial (Bullseye) molds clean of old shelf primer and recoated with dōp.

If you have a favourite drop out ring that has previously been coated with slippery Shelf Primer, simply sand off the primer with a dry, green scrubby/Scotch Brite pad. When the bare clay is exposed, mix DŌP and apply according to the instructions above.

We do not recommend applying primer on top of dōp.

See it in action HERE